From: Torsten
Message: 65101
Date: 2009-09-23
> > > I have argued for years that <lacus> and <mare> are geomorphicI'll agree with 'schwa secundum' in phonetically difficult contexts, as Jens proposed.
> > > loanwords into Latin from a language of the Illyrian type.
> > >
> > > Meillet's theory of /a/ as a marker for 'mots populaires' is
> > > rather outdated.
> >
> > It was more like an observation, I think.
>
> Colored by the difficulty of fitting many of these words, e.g. Lat.
> <cardo:> 'hinge', into the e/o/zero ablaut paradigm. But further
> developments in 20th-century IE studies have removed much of the
> apparent trouble with the /a/.
> To me it creates much more trouble to assume that Indo-EuropeansWhy not? Most societies today have similar shibboleths. All mobile steppe societies divide people into those who matter (us) and the others (sedentary) who shouldn't get ideas. Besides, most likely the PIE thematic vowel /e|o|zero/ was PPIE /a/ (that way -i, -u and thematic stems were originally -i, -u and -a stems). If late, PIE invasions overran early, PPIE invasions, you'd get exactly such a vowel-marked Hochsprache/Niedersprache mix. Kuhn's 'Ablaut, /a/ und Altertumskunde'
> had a clearly defined "Hochsprache" and "Niedersprache", with the
> low-brow rabble clumsily uttering /a/ rather than the refined /e/
> and /o/ of the upper class.
>I'll see what my library says. Möller uses him a lot (relating 'Noreen alternations' to similar phenomena in Semitic).
> > 9) why *slaxan- : *slaGan- "Schläger, Mörder" (more like "drench,
> > douse, snuff"), participating in a class VI verb
> > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/61680
> > is on the list
>
> If you have time, see A. Noreen, "Weiteres zum Vernerschen Gesetze"
> (PBB 7:431-441). Much of my forthcoming posting on Verner's Law
> and nouns will be based on this material. He uses many examples
> from eastern North Gmc. so you should be right at home.