Re: "As"

> >
> > Knowing nothing about Georgian, I put myself out on
> > the thinnest of limbs --Armenian, I believe, has /ow/
> > > /ov/. Is it possible that this was shared with
> > Georgian as an areal feature?
> > If so, then /an/ > /o:/ > /ow/ > /ov/ --admitedly a
> > giant IF

> It has to be /an/, nothing else gives Russian /ya/.

Sorry, wrong, it's Church Slavic /e~/ (nasal e) > /ya/. I'd have to
assume that /e~/ > /a~/ > Russian /ya/, and that a putative etnonym
*A~s was adopted in Russian after the putative /~e/ > /~a/ (note
Czech > a) had taken place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya_(Cyrillic)


What about : yeH2 ?
(just kidding)

But that wouldn't get you what you get from
*ans- > *a~s- > *a:s-
and
*ans- > *a~s- > (cf. Polish) *o~s- > *o~ws- > *ows-

BTW
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansuz_rune


Torsten