04-12-03 21:37, Brian M. Scott wrote:
> At 2:41:19 PM on Thursday, December 4, 2003, alex wrote:
>> It seems the *abhros would fit as well the both Germanic
>> forms; more, it will fit the Rom. form too.
>
> It wouldn't fit the Gmc. forms at all. If I'm not mistaken
> it would yield Gmc. */aBraz/ and OE *afr-, *afor, not
> <a:for>.
Or rather OE *<æfer> [æv&r], since Anglo-Frisian brightening normally
applies in such words (e.g. æcer 'acre' < PGmc. *akraz < PIE *h2ag^ros).
The rest is for Alex:
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OE had two completely different A's:
(1) short /a/ ~ /æ/, corresponding to German <a> and yielding Mod.E /æ/
(or /eI/ when affected by lengthening in Middle English);
(2) long /a:/, corresponding to German <ei>, and yielding Modern English
/oU/.
As for their origin (1) comes from PGmc. *a < PIE *a/*o; (2) comes from
PGmc. *ai < PIE *ai/*oi.
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Piotr