--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andy Howey <andyandmae_howey@...> wrote:
> When I was learning Russian, the instructors told us that the "o"
after single consonantal prepositions and before consonant clusters
was simply added to break up a difficult-to-pronounce cluster. I
doubt that any of my instructors were linguists, most being refugees
who got the language instructor jobs by virtue of being native
speakers, so I don't know if there is any historical significance to
the "o".
It's the form the hard jer takes when it can't be dropped. The
difficulties lie in formulating when it can't be dropped, or in these
particular cases, what the 'difficult-to-pronounce' clusters are.
Richard.