Re: [tied] Re: Syncope

Jens:

> Well, why assume that? Why not keep it as close to the facts we can
> observe as possible? And won't it only make it worse? It is as if you
> introduce an ablaut pattern of an English strong verb into a numeral. Will
> you have "five" forming "fove", "fiven", and what will you use the new
> forms for?

It doesn't matter anyway because quantitative ablaut was a
process that went on for centuries before and after Syncope,
as far as I'm concerned. So both *-men and *-mn, like all
other suffixes, could be seen in the various derivatives
and paradigms throughout that period. There's nothing to
explain.


= gLeN