--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alexandru_mg3" <alexandru_mg3@...>
wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
> <richard.wordingham@> wrote:
>> '*h2ap reflects sporadic *kW > *p'
> 'Sporadic'? what kind of rule is this?
It's akin to the various assimilation rules seen in Romanian - it may
happen, it may not happen. It's also rather like the [CwO] > [CO]
change that has happened in English at various times, so that it is
now littered with silent 'w', eg. 'sword', 'two', 'who', along with
currently variable losses such as /k-/ v. /kw-/ in 'quart(er)'.
Another example in English is sporadic shortening - 'head' (but Scots
has regular /hi:d/), 'bread', 'good', 'flood'.
Richard.