Re: [tied] Re: PIE's closest relatives/SIBUN

----- Original Message -----
From: Joao
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: PIE's closest relatives/SIBUN

> Germanic *sibun is an anomaly that remains unexplained. Why a very usual
cluster like -pt- didnt develop into expected *siftun. Is this reflect an
archaism of Germanic or an inovation?

I think it's a trivial phonetic simplification that happened at a time when
the word was still *septm'. (with final stress) > *sepm'. > *sep�m > *sibun-
(after Grimm and Verner). English often > of'n and captain --> (aye, aye)
cap'n are good parallels. Even if the reduction was a bit irregular, it
might well have been generalised from serial counting. Hardly a great
mystery.

Piotr