Re: Horses' Asses and the Indo-European Homeland

At 10:59:05 PM on Friday, September 26, 2008, Andrew
Jarrette wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> <BMScott@...> wrote:

>> At 7:53:02 PM on Friday, September 26, 2008, Rick
>> McCallister wrote:

>> [...]

>>> You also hear "God" as /gaa@.../, /gaaw@.../, etc.

>> That reminds me of another example: Icelandic <guð> 'god'
>> and words derived from it, including names like <Guðmundur>,
>> are pronounced as if the element were spelled <gvuð>,
>> roughly [kvYð] (where [k] is unaspirated). The older ON
>> form of the word is <goð>.

> What I've read is that it is actually [gvœð] (or [kvœð]
> with unaspirated [k]), as though spelt <gvöð>.

That disagrees with every description that I've seen and
with what I've heard, which is <gvuð>, not <gvöð>. I have,
however, seen the pronunciation of <u> described as [Y],
[ø], [œ], and 'a sound between the vowels in French _pu_ and
_peu_'. The sources that are prima facie likely to be best
generally [Y], but I think that it's rather centralized, and
I can imagine someone describing it as [œ].

Brian