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

--- tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard
> Wordingham" <richard@...> wrote:
> >
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> <BMScott@> wrote:
> >
> > > At 5:06:45 PM on Wednesday, May 7, 2008, Richard
> Wordingham
> > > wrote:
> >
> > > > His [Gesman's] '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.
> >
> > Gessman proposes an alternative set of changes to
> account for the
> > observed facts. That does not disprove the
> traditional
> > interpretation, so I think Mayuresh originally
> copied enough for us
> > to get the drift. So, my original challenge to
> Mayuresh stands -
> > why is the traditional interpretation as a changes
> in the
> > development of PIE to Proto-Germanic fundamentally
> impossible
> > whereas the High German consonant shift isn't?
> >
>
> This is the relevant paragraph in Gessmann's
> article:
> 'IMPLAUSIBLE PATTERN
> The Germanic Consonant Shift, excluding Verner's Law
> which operated at
> a somewhat later point, does not fit into any
> pattern of ch{'g. It is
> impossible to blame an alien stratum for it - not
> because no suitable
> one was around (about this we know nothing) but
> because the pattern of
> the Shift itself is intrinsically incompatible with
> the principles of
> heterostratic modification. Let us have a closer
> look what the
> arsump{ion

ARSE-SUMPTION --did you invent this word on purpose?

>of heterostratic induction of the Shift
> would imply.

blablabla . . .


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