Re: Laryngeal theory as an unnatural

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex" <alxmoeller@...> wrote:

> tolgs001 wrote:
> > alex wrote:
> >
> >> I gave these examples just for showing that you cannot derive
> >> in a regular way the "fãrtat" from "fratris" and "suratã"

from

> >> "sororis"
> >
> > fârtat (also spelled fîrtat; fãrtat, i.e. with [&]

instead

> > of [I] is a mere variant) and surata aren't directly derived
> > from the Latin counterparts (BTW accusative fratrem).
> > These are derived from the Romanian frate (1 frate,
> > 2 fratzi) and sorã (1 sorã, 2 surori) by suffixation
> > with "-at". It is this suffixation that imposes the slight
> > modifications (frat- > fVrt; as for sora- > sura-, you see
> > that even in the plural [o] of sora gets [u]: surori).
>
> nope. I guess the suffix has played no role here.
> For "frate": frãTie, infrãTire, frãTesc
> For "sorã"= no derivative; the diminutival form seems to derive

from

> *sura- not from sora-
> For "nora"= no derivative;

Did you ever try out the Sound Change Applier? You might like to
try out the page
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/richard.wordingham/sounds/prep5d_rom.htm
. Input and output, I'm afraid, is still by cut and paste - work
in progress, both for Javascript programming and linguistic inputs.
You can add words and play around with the text. For example, I
haven't got the dropping of final 'r' that Miguel just cited. What
I've got will only get you as far as soror > sorur . And I don;t
think any honest set of sound changes will give you the last step,
soru > sor&, for Romanian. ( soru/sor&/#_# is dishonest.)

On the programming front, if I can't sove the input problems, I want
to make it easier to embed the words and sound changes, ideally by
using <SCRIPT> tags to pull in up-to-date code.

Richard.