> Piotr wrote:
> One could extend this list greatly with examples from non-IE
>languages. We certainly need no Iranian influence to explain the change
>in Romanian.
Piotr, sorry to say but your argumentation is necesary but not
sufficient...:)
We have the following facts:
a) The Romanian Rhotacism appears 'after or in the same time' with more
than 1000 years of Iranian (Scythian and Sarmatian)<->Dacian contacts
(from sec VII BCE to sec V CE) in Dacia and around it.
b) We also know that the Indo-Iranian l>r happpened before 1000 BCE...
c) The Proto-Romanians trigerred this transformation (that finished
later in sec V-VI CE) that is not present in Albanian or in Dalmatian
Romance
d) The Romanian-Substratum (so implicitly the people that where
Romanized and next became Romanians) is very probable a Daco-Moesian
one.
So this possible Iranian influence on Proto-Romanian rhotacism is 'at
least as well as possible' as your 'internal evolution' trigerred by an
unknown cause'
Marius