On 2008-03-07 23:17, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal wrote:
> Thank you Brian. That was my first reaction as well, when I
> first heard it. This is so beautiful, it deserves to be
> true.
I've thought so since I saw the evidence collected by Lühr (1988) and
Schaffner (2001). I'm now inclined to believe, like Kroonen, that the
regular development of *-Cn-' after long nuclei was degemination, not
the failure of nasal assimilation, so that e.g. OE tæ:can 'show, teach'
is regular while Goth. taiknjan is analogical (after <taikns>). I find
the analysis of the 'hare' word intriguing. If the *a in Gmc. forms
altaernates with *e, it surely reflects a schwa secundum, and so does
Lat. /a/ in ca:nus < *k^&s-no-, so the root must be *k^es-, not *k^as-.
Piotr