Re: PIE meaning of the Germanic dental preterit

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 54260
Date: 2008-02-28

On 2008-02-28 09:26, tgpedersen wrote:

> If my ears don't deceive me, there was no degemination. No one says
> *probly, at least yet; it's still two-and-a-half syllable prob'bly.

Oh, come on. "Prob'ly" is so common that it gets recorded by pronouncing
dictionaries. So is "particu'ly". Of course it's hard to distinguish
"abrupt haplology" (bVbV --> bV) from "syncope cum degemination" (bVbV
--> bbV --> bV) especially if the first vowel is unstressed, but it's
the effect that counts. I've heard "parall'ism" more than once, and here
vowel loss with degemination is unlikely, since the haplologically (or
should I say "haplogically") lost vowel is full in the original form.

Piotr