> Some bilabial dissimilations occurred in Latin, I dont know if they're related: formica "ant" < *mormica <*morwi-ka cf. myrmex, vamra; formido: "fear" < *mormido:n- cf. night/mare
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> JS Lopes
Is it a coincidence that these both have an -or- nucleus?
Additionally, it's surprizing that the dissimilation result is specifically f-, with simultaneous nasal > oral, stop > fricativ and voiced > voiceless changes!
Might be more understandable as ancient *m-m > *bH-m, or as recent-with-devoicing *m-m > *v-m. The latter likely requires either that Italic spirants descend via the route of *bH > *v > f, or if we want to hold on to the voiceless aspirate route *bH > *pH > f, that this dissimilation happened during the stage when medial *-f- had voiced to *-v- in Latin but not yet fortited to -b- (so that there would be a reason for initial *v- to be then interpreted as f- rather than b-). BTW do we have Sabellic forms of this word? If yes, we can potentially verify or falsify the last option.
John vertical