Re: Scientist's etymology vs. scientific etymology

> > > Gaelic acquired /p/ from Latin,
> > > French and English --although Torsten is trying to
> > > throw a monkey wrench into this by claiming a
> > > substrate /p/ or whatnot.
> >
> > Could [p] have existed in a limited distribution in Gaelic, e.g.
> > as an allophone of /b/, and subsequently [p] become phonemicized
> > by the influence of foreign words? (Similar to the English story
> > for /z/ and /v/) I don't know anything about Gaelic I'm afraid.
>
> There are a handful of words that do have an
> unexplained <p>. Scots Gaelic, of course does have /p/
> but as its realization on <b>.

Oh. So there are no words in /b/ in Scots Gaelic?

> Scots Gaelic has aspirated and pre-aspirated stops, which it
> acquired from Old Norse.

Old Norse had that? Please explain.


Torsten