From: dgkilday57
Message: 59144
Date: 2008-06-09
>the "four,
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@> wrote:
> >
> > On 2008-06-08 22:25, tgpedersen wrote:
> >
> > > Actually I thought of casting the net wider and get all
> > > square" words on board too. No one has explained the /a/ ofLatin
> > > quattuor...Lat.
> >
> > It's a "schwa secundum", i.e. a prop vowel inserted to break up a
> > hard-to-pronounce cluster. Its characteristic reflexes include
> /a/,since in
> > Gk. /i/, OCS /I/. The pattern was m. pl. *kWetwores, n. (coll.)
> *kWtwo:r
> > --> *kW&two:r, compositional *kW(&)twr.- ~ *kW(&)tru-.
> >
> > Piotr
>
> I'm more partial to an explanation including:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, mkapovic@ wrote:
>
> > Lat. far and faba are not very conviencing in proving an IE *a
> > Latin a/o difference is not very stabile after labials, that is*o tends
> > to change to /a/ (mare, ca:seus, canis, parie:s, margo: etc.), cf.Latin <mare> and <lacus> go together in having /a/ where Celtic has
> > Schrijver 1991.
> >
> > Mate
> That is, first e>o opt. by KW. Much later o>a as above. InSlavic
> and Greek there are words that can be securely regarded as havinge>i
> for some reason (in cases in which, even if 0 instead of e somehowin
> existed, could not be explained by breaking a difficult cluster with
> schwa). Without a complete understanding of the reasons for e>i it
> can't be stated that it couldn't occur in 'four'.
>
> In any event, I think the *kWe in '4, 5' are the result of 'and'
> counting 1-10 being analyzed as part of the numbers. If so, noOscan <trutum> 'quartum', for *ptrutum, shows that the zero-grade
> *kWtru+, etc., existed.