Re: long o: Nominative

From: dgkilday57
Message: 63847
Date: 2009-04-18

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Jarrette" <anjarrette@...> wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Doric does have <po:s>. Attic <pous> has probably been remodeled after the participle <didous>.
>
> But why? <didous> would have inflected forms <didont-> while <pous> has inflected forms <pod->. Where does the analogy come in? Also, if other dialects have <odo:n> for Attic <odous>, do the other dialects have <dido:n> where Attic has <didous>? Shouldn't they?

The problem was likely that few C-stem nouns ended in -o:s. Perhaps the substitution in Attic-Ionic began with compounds like *tripo:s, and to their ears <tripous> sounded better, more like the common <didous>. I haven't heard <sherbet> pronounced with one /r/ for 40 years; speakers have remodeled it after <Herbert> and similar proper names. The auslaut just didn't sound normal, apparently.

Offhand I don't know the history of <didous>, so I can't answer the second question without some digging around.

DGK