I've been looking at Aikio's list of pre-Saami
words.
An odd phonetic phenomenon is that
-l- seems to alternate with -iw-
as though this -l- were a velarized -l-
(-L-).
Ex 1 :
Germanic *ma-iw-a "sea-gull"
North saami bup-mae-l-as "puffin" = a small *pu:
seagull.
Norse ful-mar
-iw- = -l-
root *moL-
Ex 2 :
Germanic *sa-iw-a "sea"
North saami sae-ll-as "an island in the
sea"
PIE sa(:)l- "salt"
-iw- = -l-
root *sa(:)L
Ex 3 :
Germanic laiwaz-ka "lark"
Reduplicated laLa- ?
root *la-L-
So ?
Any idea, guys ?
Arnaud