--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "stlatos" <stlatos@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "stlatos" <stlatos@...> wrote:
>
> > every aspect makes it appear to be a late loan
>
> Also, early loans from Proto-Germanic have x not h. This word was
> more likely from after the time when x>h in Germanic.
In this case there's probably no need to hypothesize about the timing.
As you know Gothic initial hl- gets reflected in Old Slavic as xl-:
xle^bU < Go. hlaifs, xle^vU < hlaiw. Assuming that the development of
hr- paralleled hl- we could expect Go. hr- > Old Slavic xr- initially.
No examples are attested though. But as far as I know there's no
medial xr- in Slavic, and the Slavs didn't divide usereNgU into
constituent morphemes. Hence the hr- appeared in the medial position
in the Slavic word and was substituted with simple r- as the closest
approximation possible.