Re: Bear (Was: HORSA vs. EXWA)

From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 70752
Date: 2013-01-21

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Tavi" wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" wrote:

>> And the first six groups all show reflexes of *h2r.tkos! That's why I
>> said it looked pretty 'Kurganic'.

> I think you put the cart (the IE protoform) before the horse (the IE
> words), so to speak.

>>> Celtic and Hittite have /t/.

>> Does -rkt- survive well in Celtic[?] If not, -rtk- > -rkt- > -rt-
>> looks a pretty reasonable progression.

> I don't see any reason why it should not. AFAIK, -kt- > Celtic -xt-.

The first /k/ in English _Arctic_ isn't particularly stable. More to the point, Pokorny has -rkt- > -rt- for Old Irish phonology. At http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/4406 , it's claimed that -rkt- > -rt- is Common Celtic.

>>> Not only that, but /s/ is also *unexpected* here (assuming it's the
>>> reflex of *k'), because Latin is a "centum" language. Hence the
>>> hypothesis of borrowing from another IE language is plausible.

>> For Latin, there's strong evidence for t > ts before stops - nor is
>> this restricted to Latin. The extreme example is -tt- > -ss-, though
>> -st- is also an outcome.

> I don't quite follow you.

See http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/19106 . Latin /s/ would be the conditioned reflex of PIE *t.

Richard.