Re: [tied] Greek labiovelars

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From: Jens Elmeg�rd Rasmussen <elme@...>
Reply-To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [tied] Greek labiovelars
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:08:44 -0000

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...> wrote:
>
> Does it mean that in Celtic the shift *gWH >gH>g occurred before the
labialization of the labio-velars?
>
> Time 1: k g gH kW gW gWH
> Time 2 : k g gH kW gW
> Time 3: k g kW gW
> Time 4: k g kW b


No, it can only mean:

1: k g gH kW gW gWH
2 : k g gH kW b gWH
3: k g kW b gW

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But why is *gW so special?  That's what I don't understand.  Is it because it was a glottalic stop, as some theorize?  I see no reason why *kW and *gWH should remain as /kW/ and /gW/ but *gW must become /b/.  Why not also *kW > /p/ and *gWH > /b/? Or conversely *gW remain /gW/ like the other two?  And in Greek (Attic, Ionic) *gW is special also since although like *kW > /t/ before /e/, *gW > /d/ before /e/, nevertheless unlike *kW > /t/ before /i/, *gW > /b/ before /i/.  I can see absolutely no phonological basis for this, except dialect mixing, as Sean Whalen suggested.  But these developments in Irish, Greek, and the tentative ones in Albanian suggest that the labiovelars were very special in a number of Indo-European languages, undergoing phonological changes that seem to defy natural expectations (or normal phonological tendencies). It seems much more natural to me for *kis or *k'is to become /tis/ than it does for *kWis to become /tis/, yet a sequence *kis or *k'is would remain /kis/ in Greek, while *kWis becomes /tis/.  I find this truly remarkable and would never believe it were it not documented fact.

Andrew Jarrette

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