Re: [tied] "u" versus "a"

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "petegray" <petegray@...> wrote:

> >>>> Compare _salsus_ "salty; witty" vs. _insulsus_ "unsalted;

boring".

> >>>>It's the outcome of a series
> > > >> of regular sound changes
> > > Other examples of exactly the same series of changes are:
> > > resultum (resilio, cf. salio)
> > And insultum (insilio, cf. salio)
> > > adultus (adolesco, cf. alo)
> > And sepultum (cf. sepelio)
>
> There are two different phonological processes here. One is the

change of

> described above:
> -VlC > -ulC in medial syllables
> the other is what happens to original syllabic l:
> *-l.C > -ulC
> (Both, of course, involve the same reduction.)
>
> If they are worth distinguishing, then adultus and sepultum are, I

think,

> the second, not the first. They would never have had an -a- vowel,

whereas

> salsum/insulsum clearly did. There are others as well, though I

can't think

> of any more with -a- vocalism in the present tense.
>

Doesn't the fact that the starting point is the vowel /a/, thus the
words may all be 'mots populaires', thus possibly loans, upset that
neat picture?

Torsten