[tied] Celtic n (was: Greek labiovelars)

--- "Anders R. Joergensen" <ollga_loudec@...>
wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Sean Whalen
> <stlatos@...> wrote:

> > I'm not sure of the exact rules but Irish e
> varies
> > with P-Celtic a in many words; I still believe
> > *gWeneti with e>o here.
> >
> > "tooth" de:t OIr; dant W; dans Co; dant Br
> > "hundred" ce:t OIr; cant W; cans Co; kant Br
> > "step" ceimm OIr; cam W; cam Co; kam Br
> > "tongue" tenge OIr; tafod W; tavot Co; teod Br
> > "being first" > "perceptive" ce:tbaid "sense" OIr;
> > canfod "perceive" W
> >
> > for "tongue" Ngw > Nw > M > v in W/Co
>
> It is now commonly assumed that PIE syllabic nasals
> gave PCelt. *aN:
> *Hdn.t- 'tooth' > *dant- etc.
>
> In Irish we then have a further development of *a in
> front of
> nasals:
>
> - raising/fronting + lengthening in front of nasal +
> unvoiced stop
> or *s. The outcome is <é>: *dant- > dét /d'æ:d/,
> *anku- 'death' >
> éc /æ:g/, *gans- 'goose' > géis /g'æ:s'/.
>
> - raising/fronting in front of nasal + palatalized
> voiced stop:
> The outcome is <i> (or <e> by analogical lowering?):
> PIE *Hn.gWn. >
> PCelt. *amban 'butter' > *æmbæn > imb /imb'/

Why would *b become palatalized here if n.>an not
n.>en?

> - unconditioned raising in front of *n+g: *tangWa:t-
> 'tongue' >
> *tængWa:t- > *tingWa:th- > tengae (subsequent
> lowering i > e).

That doesn't explain *ksum-h2ango-s > *com-ango-s >
cumang OIr; cyfyng W; "narrow"

possibly also:

*h1lengWH- "light, leap" 3rd sng. perf. *h1eh1longWHe

>

*eh1longWHe > *leh1longWHe > *legWHlongWHe >
*h1eblong^e > leblaing OIr

> OIr. céimm (VN of cingid), W cam 'step' is not
> really a problem:
> *kn.g(H)-s-mn- > PCelt. *kan(x)sman > Ir. céimm
> (*-ansm- > *-æ:ssm-
> > -émm-), > Brit. *kamm (*-ansm- > *-assm- > *-amm-,
> regularly
> without length).
>
> In British Celtic you _can_ tell the difference
> between PCelt. *aNC
> and *eNC

But that could be because en- > e~n- then n. > en or
the opposite.



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