[tied] Re: Balto-Slavic -RHj-?

From: Sergejus Tarasovas
Message: 35808
Date: 2005-01-05

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

> What I meant was simply that if we take the suffix *-yé- as
> having had the structure -CV-, blind application of the
> syllabification rules would yield *gWr.H-yé- = gWr.:-yé-
> (where /r.:/ is a traditional "long syllabic resonant"),
> which presumably would have given Slavic *z^ir"joN (a.p. a)
> and Lith. *gìr-ju (syllabified like dìr-bu).

I wouldn't like to look like a hair-splitter, but I'm afraid you
still don't get my point. +gìr-ju is impossible in (Modern)
Lithuanian -- it's prohibited by its phonotactics (as well as *gí:r-
jó: was impossible at the time Saussure's law operated). It would be
impossible as a reflex of *gWr.H-yé- (with consonantal yod) even if
the laryngeal were not deleted. You can't reject *gWr.H-yé- simply on
the ground that it hasn't given a phonotactically impossible reflex.
Of course it hasn't. So before we go any further, what (Modern
Standard) Lithuanian outcome (different from <giriù>) would you
expect from *gWr.H-yé-?

Sergei