Re: [tied] Re: Grimm ’s Law fact or myth: Gessman (1990)

At 5:06:45 PM on Wednesday, May 7, 2008, Richard Wordingham
wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "mkelkar2003"
> <swatimkelkar@...> wrote:

>> See Grimm's law fact or myth.pdf in the files section.

>> "Whichever the development may have been, we can see one
>> thing clearly. Grimm's Law, the `Germanic Consonant
>> Shift," has evaporated. The Proto-Aryan basis on which it
>> had been predicated has vanished (Gessman 1990, p.12)."

> His 'demolition' argument seems to be that *t > /þ/ cannot
> have induced *d > /t/ because after the first stage [t]
> survived in clusters such as /st/, /ft/ and /xt/. So, pray
> tell me, how did the High German consonant shift happen?
> (Pretty much the same clusters survive from Proto-Germanic
> in Old High German, except that /st/ has generally become
> /St/.)

It isn't entirely clear *what* his argument is, because
Kelkar didn't copy the whole article. That's why I bounced
his post the last time he tried, and he still hasn't fixed
it.

Brian