On 05-03-17 17:41, elmeras2000 wrote:
> As far as I can see the original quantity of the vowel is not
> determinable. It could have been long from the outset. I am not
> saying it was, but using it in evidence presupposes knowledge of its
> being originally short, knowledge I cannot see we have.
Well, nothing outside Slavic suggests a long vowel, and the environment
in question doesn't seem to favour one (*h2aHgWno-? or some kind of
vr.ddhi applied ad hoc?). I wonder if you understand the peculiarities
of Celtic *ogno- (I don't think I do, if the usual reconstruction is
correct), but the *o, aberrant as it is, at any rate doesn't point to
originally long vocalism.
BTW, OE e:anian- < *auno:jan- 'bear young (of sheep and goats)',
implying PGmc. *auna-, is often quoted (also by Pokorny) to justify the
reconstruction of *gWH rather than *gW (the latter clearly supported by
Greek). My private theory, however, is that *-kWn-, *-gWn- and *-gWHn-
would have produced the same Germanic outcome, first merging as *-gWn-
during the initial stage of Kluge's Law, then losing the velar closure
and becoming *-wn- before the operation of nasal assimilation, thus
escaping the further development to *-ggW- and (finally) *-kkW-. Cf.
Goth. siuns 'sight' *seuni- < *sekW-n-i- (but not via _Vernerian_
*segWni-: Kluge's Law bleeds VL of its input!).
Piotr