Re: [SPAM]Re: [SPAM][tied] comohota

From: P&G
Message: 50705
Date: 2007-12-05

Why should we consider it a real phoneme?  Any more than the written h in English "she" or "chair"?  Or the b in "debt"?  Why can't it just be a spelling marker either of length or of hiatus?
 
Peter
 
----- Original Message -----
From: fournet.arnaud
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 6:48 PM
Subject: [SPAM]Re: [SPAM][tied] comohota

If this -h- were to be considered as a "real" phoneme,
what would it be ? *gh, *g, *gw ?
 
 Arnaud
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: P&G
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:02 AM
Subject: Re: [SPAM][tied] comohota

>I have a question about
>Umbrian comohota = Latin offerta
>This word is supposed to be from root *meu
>Latin mov-ere and Lituanian mauti.
>What does this -h- in como-h-ota stand for ?

The process in Umbrian should be:
*move-to > *mov-to > *mouto > mo:to
with regular syncope, then regular change of -ou- to -o:-.

Umbrian spelling is, as one writer puts it, "as diverse as possible.
Various spellings of the same sound are used, sometimes wholly
promiscuously. " The sound /h/ was very weak, if not absent, in Umbrian, and
is commonly used as a sign of hiatus. This is in line with Rick
McCallister' s suggestion. The trouble is, this word should have no hiatus,
merely a single long vowel.

Perhaps we can guess it is merely an aberrant spelling.

Peter