Re: [tied] Going about in circles [was: Romanian Frunza ...]

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 29087
Date: 2004-01-04

04-01-04 22:49, alex wrote:

> I love the cyclic changes. We have an older /u/ which became /o/ which
> became /u/ but
> the change /-onC/> /unC/ is a regular one and there is nothing to
> comment about.

That's because the winds of linguistic change blow whithersoever they
list, and not in a constant direction. A changing pronunciation is not a
point moving along a straight line in the abstract space of phonetic
dimensions. You can imagine it as a fuzzy area containing synchronically
possible variants, which changes its size and shape and creeps about
like a drunken amoeba (excuse the mixed metaphor). As it zigzags to and
fro, it may well return to a point where it's already been. There's
nothing uncommon about that.

For example, the *-t- of PIE *p&2te:r changed into early Proto-Germanic
*þ by Grimm's Law, then it underwent voicing into *ð by Verner's Law,
then the fricative was hardened into *d, which has yielded High German
/t/ in <Vater>. Note that there is excellent support for all these
stages, so you really have to accept the circular evolution of *t >
...(other things)... > t, and can't speculate that maybe High German
preserves the PIE pronunciation. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même
chose -- it's a fact of life.

Piotr