Re: Latin -bs : just written or phonetic?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:

>
> Evidently, Latin was like German and Russian and pronounced all final syllables unvoiced.

Wasn't final <d> v. final <t> the reflection of a phonetic distinction? At some stage we seem to have final V:d > V: (attested in writing, notably for the ablative singular) but final V:t > Vt (3s of verbs).

The word-internal assimilations -bs- > -ps- and -bt- > -pt- aren't always shown in writing.

Another curiosity is the non-assimilation in the prefix abs-. Perhaps the Romans were happy with the rule <bs> = /ps/.

Richard.