Re: [tied] Brittonic duck [was: Risoe fo the Feminine]

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

> On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 00:44:10 +0200, Piotr Gasiorowski
> <piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>
> >29-04-2004 15:55, Miguel Carrasquer wrote:
> >
> >> So perhaps Greek had *s- in aietos too: *sh2wyet-os,
> >> syllabified as *sawyetos > aietos (no h- because of
> >> dissimilation with inner -/h/- from *y and/or *w?). Come to
> >> think of it, Brythonic "duck" has h- (We. hwyad, OCorn. hoet,
> >> Bret. houad), left unexplained in IEW, but likely from *s-.
> >
> >But how does one get <hwyad> from anything like *s(h2)w(i)jeto-?

While I

> >agree that an *s- should be recontructed, initial *sw- would have
> >yielded Welsh chw-; whereas *sawjeto- won't work vowel-wise. The
> >Brittonic vocalism points to *sei- rather than atnything else, and

the

> >full Celtic pre-form might be something like *seiPato-, for

example.

>
> My knowledge of Brythonic is limited, although it's true that
> the normal development is wy < *üï < *e: < *ei.
>

W. hwyad (f), Bret. houad (m) 'duck' may derive regularly from PCelt.
*swijeto-/-a:.

We have -je- > -ja- as in *gijemo- > *gijamo- 'winter' (W. gaeaf,
Vann. gouiañ): *swijeto- > *swijato-.

-ijá- > -&já- > -ujá-, as always in SWBrit. and regularly
after a
labial in W: *swijáto- > *xwujádo- (+ lenition).

*xwu- > *xu- (no radical initial xV- permitted) > hu-: W hwyad, Bret.
houad.

Thus hwyad, houad may reflect PCelt. *swijeto-, but this is of course
not the only possibility.

Anders