Re: PIE voiced aspirates (?)

From: david_russell_watson
Message: 58939
Date: 2008-05-30

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...>
wrote:
>
> I agree that Etruscan was on its last legs by 200 BCE
> or so. But it probably influenced local nonstandard
> forms of Latin, at least in Tuscany (don't worry, I'm
> not blaming /xoxa xola/ on the Etruscans). In any
> case, the changes started in the spoken language
> before mass colonization. Etruscan is probably a good
> a source as any but I agree it would be hard to prove
> given that /B. v/ don't show up in the written
> language until quite a bit later. If you think some
> Italic language was responsible, tell us and show us
> what you have.

The change from [w] to [v] is a fairly natural and common
sort of change, and doesn't especially demand an outside
explanation. A labio-dental fricative or approximant was
the outcome of PIE *w in more than one branch, including
most branches of Indo-Aryan and Iranian where it must have
taken place independently, as Proto-Indo-Aryan and Proto-
Iranian both had [w] as the reflex of *w.

See
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/7623 ,
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/8818 ,
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/8843 , &
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/23362 .

David