Re: [tied] *pYerkW+

--- Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

> On 2007-05-23 03:26, Sean Whalen wrote:
>
> > For this I did give a possible mot. (that rsn is
> a
> > long uncommon chain of dentals). A dissimilation
> of
> > rsn > rsm would seem fine to me; since it's
> followed
> > by u there is a switch instead of straight
> > dissimilation.
>
> *-rsn- is not particularly uncommon in PIE:
> *kWr.sno- 'black' and
> *persnah2 (~ *pe:rsni-) 'heel' are well-known
> examples of wide-ranging
> words in which the clusters occurs (not to mention
> *tr.snah2 itself or
> more complex structures like *-rh2sn-).

This is followed by u; it only happens in two
languages, it doesn't need to be a very common change.

> > Abstract changes based on mental classification
> are
> > at least as important as those based on perceptual
> > phonology.
>
> Fine on paper, as I said, but where are all those tu
> > pi changes that
> should have happened?

It's a possible change, not a very likely one. As I
said, this particular environment would allow
dissimilation of n>m, but met. occurred because it was
directly followed by u. Instead of incorrect timing
in speech, think of it as incorrect linking of a row
of features.

Pure dissim. occurs in Khowar for the second person
plural ending +tana: > *+tna: > *+tma > +mi (with
analogy with +masi > *+nsi > +si causing *a>i).

> If you insist on the
> importance of the dental
> environment, let's imagine something comparable,
> like rstu > rspi. My
> gut feeling as a phonologist is that there is
> something fundamentally
> wrong with any model that predicts this as a
> plausible sound change.

Dissim. and met. are more likely to change nasals in
this way than stops. It's likely that only the
feature +nasal is the underlying form of *n in my
derivation; for any language likely to have rst t
might be specified with C, or C linked to both + and
-cont. (if st clusters were common), or C + whatever
features are needed to distinguish t depending on the
language. Phonemes with the fewest specified features
are most likely to link to other touching features.



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