[tied] Re: Various loose thoughts

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Mate Kapovic" <mkapovic@...> wrote:

> Hm, but the fact is that only -u- does *not* disappear from the

last

> syllable in Latvian. Cf. in o-stems Lith. -as : Latv. -s and in u-

stems

> Lith. -us : Latv. -us. Also, *-u is preserved in Auslaut as well in

Latvian.

> Thus, it couldn't have been *-mus in pre-Latvian.

By that logic, modern Standard Lith. -ms can continue anything but *-
mus, since -u- otherwise does *not* disappear from the last syllable
in Lithuanian. One should not forget we are speaking of a
*disyllabic* desinence, which well may have developed by slightly
different (morpho)phonological rules.

I'm not an expert in Latvian historical phonology, but I think
Endzeli:ns had his reasons to not exclude *-mus.

Sergei