Re: IE *p and *b

An ignorant question -- could Celtic "doublets" such
as Gaelic sron vs. Continental Celtic *fron- (source
of Sp. fruncir, etc.) have come via *spr-
Also, how about English straw(berry) vs. Latin fraga
-could there have been an intermediate *spr- form?
Could Latin have borrowed fraga from Celtic?

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

]snip]

>
> > Regarding *sp-: there are no native words with
> *sp- in Irish, all of
> > them are either Latin or English borrowings.
>
> What about the 'heel' word, OIr. seir (acc.du. di
> pherid, showing the
> outcome of lenition), Wel. ffêr 'ankle'? The root is
> usually given as
> *sperh(1?)- 'tread, kick away' (Hitt. ispa(:)ri,
> Skt. spHuráti, Lith.
> spìrti, and even if one insists on a PIE
> reconstruction with aspirated
> *pH (see LIV, p. 585), I would not expect different
> reflexes of *sp and
> *spH in Celtic.
>
> Piotr
>
>

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