Re: Etymology of the Italian surname 'Brighenti'

At 4:57:06 PM on Saturday, September 20, 2008, tgpedersen
wrote:

[...]

> This is how I imagined the -en- > -in- rule of Germanic
> happened.
> Once it inflected:

> *sprenga *sprengm.
> *sprengis *sprengiþ
> *sprengiþ *sprengn.þ

> with umlaut
> *sprenga *sprengm.
> *springis *springiþ
> *springiþ *sprengn.þ

> generalized
> *springa *springm.
> *springis *springiþ
> *springiþ *springn.þ

> vel sim., Brian!

Pre-nasal raising (*e > *i / _NC) is distinct from i-umlaut
of *e and occurs in all classes of words. (E.g., *kinnuz
'cheek' by way of *genwu- from *g^é:nu-s ~ *g^énw- 'jaw'.)
It must also be a relatively late change in pre-PGmc., in
view of Finn. <rengas> 'ring' from a pre-stage of PGmc.
*hringaz.

It also occurs in some widespread U.S. varieties of English,
in which <pin> and <pen> are homophones and the latter is
differentiated as <inkpen>.

Brian