Re: [tied] Assimilation -gm- > -mm-

Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:

> On 04-11-07 09:22, petegray wrote:
>
>>> I've heard that Old Greek -gm-
>>> has become -m- in Modern Greek,
>>
>>
>> Classical Greek pronunciation of written <gm> was <Nm>, that is to
>> say, the velar nasal + m. We can get to assimilation /mm/ very
>> easily from there, and don't need a fricative pronunciation.
>>
>> Peter
>
> Same in Latin: *flagma: > flamma (presumably older than the voicing in
> *sek-men > segmen). The original manner of articulation of the
> assimilated voiced velar obstruent ([Gm] or [gm]) doesn't seem to be
> important.
>
> Piotr

the cognates for Latin flamma are given Letonian "blazma", Greek "flegma",
"flogmos", thus the supposed IE construction is intended to have been
*bhleg^-ma.

apparently there is no extension in "k" there thus I wonder about
"flac�r�"(flame) in Rom. can be explained from the same root.The accepted
etymon for Rom. "flac�r�" is latin *flaccula (=facula)

Alex