From: Miguel Carrasquer
Message: 36855
Date: 2005-03-25
>Sihler p. 156 says that *gW > k in Germanic "before rounded
>I have collected some examples of *kW, *gW and *gWH losing their
>labiality when adjacent to an *o in the ancestor of Germanic (a similar
>loss next to an *u is well-known and less interesting). They include
>such items as *gWolbHo- > *kalBa-, *dHogWHo- > *DaGa-, *kWól(h1)so- >
>*xalsa-. It has struck me that the *o in all these cases seems to be
>"Rasmussenian", i.e. an element of infixal origin. There is no
>delabialisation in pronouns such as *kWod > *xWat- or generally before
>thematic *-o-, cf. snoigWHo- > *snaiGWa-, or in the o-preterite (Gmc.
>*kwaþ- < *-gWot-). The only clear counterexample I can think of is
>*warma- if from *gWHormo-, but in the light of Gk. tHermó-, Arm. jerm,
>Alb. zjarr one would expect *gWHermó- > PGmc. *GWerma-, which casts
>doubt on the significance of this exception.
>
>Greek doesn't seem to display such a rule. To be sure, we have boukolos
>from *kWolh1o-, but *gWHon-ah2 > pHone: 'carnage', *kWolh1-o-> polos. I
>wonder whether anything of the kind has been observed in Celtic or
>Italic.