Indo-Iranian *s generally survived in
Indo-Aryan (except in some rather special contexts). Here is (roughly) what
happened in Iranian: *s _regularly_ changed into *h except when followed by *n
or when followed or preceded by a stop (in combinations like *ps it was the stop
that was weakened: *ps > *fs). The combination *sw (Skt. sv) developed into
*xW (pronounced like <wh> in Scottish English).
PIE *k^ developed into a palatal affricate
(like English "ch") in Indo-Iranian. This sound, preserved as an affricate in
Nuristani, developed into Indo-Aryan fricative /s'/. The Iranian languages show
/s/ for the most part, but Old Persian had a distinct reflex (/รพ/ =
"th"). Old Persian also has /s/ for old *k^w (Skt. s'v), while
the rest of Iranian has /sp/. These developments were much later than the common
Iranian weakening of *s, so that any *s derived from *k^ is preserved in Iranian
(being too late to become *h).
There is no Iranian process producing an
extra *s before stops, though in PIE itself some roots had variants with and
without an initial *s- (so called "mobile *s"). Thus, we have *ker-/*sker- 'cut,
flay' and *teg-/*steg- 'cover'. This alternation, whatever its origin, was
not productive in post-PIE times, and Iranian did not utilise it for its own
grammatical purposes. If, for example, <pal-> derives from *par(i)-,
and if <s-pal-> is related to it, then <s-> must be some kind
of prefix (not that I can recognise it) rather than a phonological excrescence,
since PIE *per(i)- does not occur with the mobile *s.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Accepted cognates of Arya?
May I ask a question on something to do
with Indic and Iranian linguistics? I understand that Iranic sometimes (always?)
drops Indic "s" or substitutes an "h" at the beginning or middle of words. Does
Iranic also occasionally add an "s" before certain consonants, like "p" or "k"?
Thus "S"kolot (not all agree that the "s" is an affix to a name built on
the
personal name Kol (aksai)); or "s"pal- for pal- et
sim.?