Re[2]: [tied] -kt- (was: Alb. katër)

At 12:40:14 AM on Tuesday, November 18, 2003, alex wrote:

> Richard Wordingham wrote:

>> For Germanic, the best present-day examples may be in the
>> spelling of the grossly irregular weak pasts in English,
>> such as _teach_, _taught_ (cf. "token"); _think_,
>> _thought_; _seek_, _sought_; _work_, _wrought_ (archaic).
>> Modern English "ght" descends from Old English "ht",
>> where as the velar or affricate in the English words goes
>> back to Germanic *k, whose various descendant in Old
>> English were written "c". The Germanic *k in these words
>> (or parallel formations) has often become "ch" in German,
>> so the change is not always so visible - _Zeichen_ (noun,
>> not verb); _denken_, dachte; _suchen_ (regular!);
>> _wirken_ (OHG _wirchen_ - the modern from may be Low
>> German) (regular!).

> I see just "k" > "h" and nothing else; I see just "k" > in
> this "h" I recognise the german "ch". In all the examples
> here I can see just the well known Germanic soundchange,
> (k>h) and nothing more.

No, you don't: as Richard said, these are examples of
GERMANIC *k, from PIE *g or *g^. OE <tæ:can> 'to teach' has
/k/ intervocalically in the infinitive but /x/ before /t/ in
the 1,3sg.pret.ind. <tæhte>. Similarly, <þencan> 'to think'
has /k/ (that's Germanic *k) in the infinitive but /x/
before /t/ in the 1,3sg.pret.ind. <þo:hte>. The point is
that Gmc. *kt becomes /xt/, but in most environments *k
remains /k/.

Brian