--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel J. Milton" <dmilt1896@...>
wrote:
> It's that 'gul' ---> 'varda'. I'm willing to believe it's a
> series of regular sound changes, but from my very limited resources
> on Persian, I have no no idea what they are, and was hoping someone
> could enlighten me. You can't say it's self-evident!
I don't know the exact stages in its evolution, but I
imagine it went something like this. 'V' is a labio-
dental approximant (a form of 'rounding') with velar
coarticulation. 'V' loses its rounding to the following
vowel, eventually yielding an 'o'. The velar approximant
by stages closes to become a velar stop, thus yielding 'g'.
'R' assimilates the dental position of the following 'd'
which is thereafter lost, or else the cluster 'rd' simply
becomes 'l' in one step, preserving the lingual character
of the 'r' and the dental character of the 'l' in one
step, I don't know. Loss of the final vowel of course is
typical.
David