Re: [tied] Sounds Rough (was: -kt-)

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 27424
Date: 2003-11-19

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 1:19 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Sounds Rough (was: -kt-)


> There is no doubt about the change of syllable-final Old English "h"
> to Modern English "ugh" after a back vowel. Sometimes it is
> realised as /f/, sometime as mere vowel length or a diphthong. Your
> challenge was to find a case of k > f. The only doubt lies in the
> descent from PIE, though OE _ru:h_ 'rough', Lithuanian
> _rauka_ 'wrinkle', Sanskrit _ru:kSas_ 'rough' seems to be a good
> correspondence. I'm not sure that their PIE root (*reuHk ?) belongs
> in Pokorny's reu-2, but that's another issue.

One important fact not mentioned so far is that Albanian dialects show <-f>
as a variant of final <-h>, as in <njoh> ~ <njof> 'I know', <shoh> ~ <shof>
'I see'.

Piotr