Re: "As"

True dat --or else my gonse would have tonth :>
But it was the Iranian I was referring to -- Does
Iranian have a similar rule?

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

> On 2007-10-17 22:58, Rick McCallister wrote:
>
> > If so, how do we explain the -n-?
>
> It was there from the beginning in Gmc. *ansu- (or
> *ansa-? -- see the
> link given by Brian). In North Germanic and in the
> ancestor of Old
> English, Old Frisian and Old Saxon a postvocalic
> nasal was lost before
> /s/ (in OE/OFris./OSax. also before any other
> voiceless fricative),
> leaving a lengthened nasalised vowel. Nasalised
> *[a:~] changed into ON
> [a:] and Anglo-Frisian (occasionally also OSax.)
> [o:], This is why
> English has <goose> (OE go:s) and Danish has <gås>
> (ON gás), while
> German has <Gans>.
>
> Piotr
>
>

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