From: fournet.arnaud
Message: 55698
Date: 2008-03-22
----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen
> >
> > =============
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> Perhaps the words for tuft of hair, pompon and tutf of
> tree --if they are related-- are from the word for
> hoopoe, which definitely has a tuft in the picture.
>
You noticed it too? Perhaps the *dz could explain the s-mobile, st-/t-
alternation in stuppa/top etc:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/54315
Torsten
=============
One conspicuous feature of s-mobile,
is that it's about the only phoneme that
never assimilates :
s +k > s-k
but
s + g > s-k as well
My own explanation is this :
LAte PIE fused *z and *dz
(after Salish split off)
or maybe *z and *dz disappeared
altogether.
But *ts did not fuse with *s
immediately.
They remained in contrast.
*ts could not assimilate into *dz
because there was no *dz
*ts was *locked-in* as unvoiced.
Hence ts-g forced inverted assimilation
because *dz-g was impossible
(no dz in the system !)
Hence ts-k which surfaces as *s-k
But this is maybe too early to discuss
because you haven't admitted *z and *dz yet.
Arnaud
==========