Re: Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Languag..

From: ceiserith@...
Message: 70030
Date: 2012-09-05

In a message dated 9/3/2012 2:58:29 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, richard.wordingham@... writes:
>Sanskrit itself has far too many changes to actually be the ancestor of Germanic. The satem shift has gone too far to have been reversed, and, gh before front vowels and g^h have simplified to /h/, whereas they yield *g in Germanic. The denasalisation of syllabic nasals is also irreversible, e.g. English _hundred_ v. Sanskrit s^ata-. Assimilations such as *nizdos > Skt ni:d.a- (Pali nid.d.ha-) are also irreversible.
 
   Thank you for these specific examples of one-way sound changes.  They make a nice reply to those who still think that Sanskrit was the origin of the IE languages.
 
David Fickett-Wilbar