> > > ***Rick sez:
> > > Do these Sabinized <j-> words exist outside of the religious and
> > > astronical/astrological domain? If not, they could be taboo
> > > forms based on the rustic forms, which may have been perceived
> > > by Latin speakers as something akin to Gosh, Crikey, Criminy,
> > > Laword (Southern pronunciation), etc.
Dayum!
> >
> > That is possible, but like Torsten's theory of sociolects I think
> > it complicates matters unnecessarily.
>
> The obvious Latin y- > Romance dy- development seems
> counterintuitive to me, like water running uphill, Standard Swedish
> pronunciation of written dj- as y-, vs the conservative Finnish
> Swedish pronunciation dy- fits my intuition. A low sociolect d3- and
> high sociolect y- of written i- for Latin would take water uphill.
The problem is, we already know there were two groups, Patricians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrician_(ancient_Rome)
and Plebeians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plebs
the continued existence of which was guaranteed by political institutions, and that au/o was a shibboleth alloform between the two sociolects, as it was between Proper Latin and Sabine Latin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_(gens)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clodius
It permeated political life of the Roman Republic like race and the Civil War do that of America, and knowledge of either is indispensable for understanding intentional linguistic cross-over references in both those cultures.
Note that Clausus and his retainers' acceptance into Rome and the earliest known appearance of Plebeians do not mismatch temporally. Another speculation: could the Sabine Latin spoken by Plebeians be the source of the 'mots populaires' in -a-, as hinted by the -a- of their name? And are the -a-/-a- matches between Latin and Germanic
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/30032
actually matches between Sabine/Plebeian and some substrate in Germanic?
BTW, and on the side, no one really knows where this -au/o- is from. If from *-aN-, Claudius, Clausus and Clodius may share a stem with Bastarnian Clondicus
http://tinyurl.com/37wefec
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/64761
Torsten