--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud" <fournet.arnaud@...>
wrote:
> Greek should be ek-uos or ek-Fos
> if that two-segment story was exact.
Can you establish the outcome of a sound change by decree and tell a
language whwt it _should_ do? *kW and *k^w partly fell together in
Greek. Compare *g^Hw-, which just like *gWH-, gives Gk. tH-
word-initially. But other branches keep them apart, cf. Slavic *zve^rI
'beast, animal' (= Gk. tHe:r) < *g^Hwe:r (two segments in the onset)
vs. *z^enoN < *gWHen- 'strike' (one segment). The difference between
*k^w and *kW in Greek is preserved only between vowels, but
assimilation has turned *k^w into a geminate: *-k.w- > *-kW.kW- >
-kk-/-pp-.
> I consider that two-segment story to be a graphic gimmick
> that makes no linguistic sense.
Is that any stranger than the fact that some languages distinguish
affricates from stop-plus-fricative clusters (even word-initially!) or
palatalised consonants from /Cj/ sequences?
> "letter-game" not phonology.
Just because you don't happen to like it? :-)