Re: potto

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "stlatos" wrote:

>
> Other alt. includes qW > k / p :
>
> ttipi \ ttiki \ txipi \ txiki = small
>
> > I'm afraid you forgot Spanish chico and related Romance forms.
>
> I forgot nothing.
>

Coromines think it's derived from Latin ciccu- 'chickpea', although this
is plainly ridiculous.

> I can't separate txiki = small from c^íki = small Bur;
>

Long-range comparisons like this one are often defective, due to
*semantic drift*. I'd rather link this to a root 'goat, kid' found in IE
*dik'-, Kartvelian *dqa-, NEC *ddZikV ~ *kiddZV.

> > This appears to be a labialization process similar to the one of

paradisu (B,

> > S, R), parabisu (HN, L, LN), so there's no need to posit a

labiovelar here.

>
> How would the apparent unconditioned "labialization" of d > b match

or compare to k > p, especially after you've seen p > l (probably via
bilab. r (B)) and l > t in borrowed words?

>

I don't think l > t ever happened in Basque, but I know of several cases
of alternation /di/ <-> /gi/, so it would be possible di > gi > bi.