Re: [tied] Olsen's Law [was: PIE Ploughs]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 16:22:16 +0000, Richard Wordingham
> <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
>
> >--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...>

wrote:

> Partridge's index to Pokorny lists an <awd> for page 75, where it

is

> written as <aud> "shoe".

I did find that word, but it didn't seem to be the word under
discussion.

> Olsen only mentions <o:d> "soft wind", a
> different word.

> The transcriptions <au>, <aw> and <o:> are all equivalent, more or

less.

>
> The Armenian alphabet is based on Greek. This means that the

letter <w>,

> based on Greek upsilon, was used to write the diphtongs <aw>,

<ew>, <iw>.

> However, <ow> was used, Greek-style, to write the vowel /u/. So

another

> letter, transcribed as <v>, was needed to write the diphthong /ow/

(<ov>).

> The same letter <v> was also used to write word-initial /w-/.

This /w/

> later became /v/. The diphthong /aw/, written <aw>, later changed

to /O:/,

> and a new letter <o:> was invented to write this sound.

> This means that we
> can find the following possible transcriptions:
>
> /u/ : ow, u
> /ow/ : ov, ou, ow
> /aw/ : aw, o:, au, av
>
> I prefer <u>, <ow> and <aw> (and etymological <ey> for <e:>).

Olsen uses a

> strict [post 12th-century] transliteration, and therefore has

<ow>, <ov>

> and <o:>. Pokorny uses Hübschmann's older transcription, which

sometimes

> uses <au>, <av>, <iu>, <iv>, etc.

Thank you for the explanation.

Richard.