Peter:
> Don't we have an example of a sort of overlength in the long
> diphthongs? Osthoff's law shortens most of them, but they survive
> in I-I (and maybe in some Germanic words, depending how you analyse
> - e.g. OE cu, OHG chuo < *gWo:ws).
But I thought *gWo:us is in reality *gWohWus (*gWohW- being "graze").
Any "overlength" would be from a laryngeal. As is most often the case,
no double-long vowels need be employed. That industry has been
downsizing for the longest time, so those double-long vowels are being
shuffled laterally into more shorter, parttime, low-wage vowel
positions. Yes, this new world vowel economy may cause some stress for
those who still think that they need double-long vowels for their
latest theories but we have to keep our chin up in this new paradigm
and accept the global needs of cost-effective strategies. In this way
we can all benefit from a win-win solution ;)
Blech, well, that's enough of the Linguistic NewSpeak for today.
= gLeN