--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Abdullah Konushevci"
<akonushevci@...> wrote:
> I think that diphtong au derives, as P. Skok noticed it, in Slavic
ov or av (cf. lovor, javorika < Lat. laurus). So niether
Latin 'caupo', nor German 'kaupo' couldn't gives Slavic kupiti.
In loans from early Germanic into Common Slavic the diphthongs behave
exactly like the inherited ones: *au, *ai, *eu --> *u, *e^, *ju. How
else could *kaupo:jan- have developed? Into **kovUpiti?? It doesn't
even look like a plausible Slavic word. Anyway, the contrast between
Slavic *u and *o~ is preserved in Polish, and we have <kupic'> 'buy'
vs. <ka,pac'> 'bathe'.
Piotr