From: dgkilday57
Message: 70903
Date: 2013-02-08
>These forms demand further explanation, since prevocalic WGmc *-lb- generally remains as OHG *-lb(-) as in _kalb_ 'calf'. When the PWGmc transfer of */f/ to 'she-wolf' occurred, the suffix must have retained its original ablaut, leading to Early WGmc cases with *wulbi- and *wulbja-. As in NGmc, the full-grade form was generalized, and it underwent WGmc /j/-gemination to *wulbbja-, with analogical nom. sg. *wulbbi. This regularly became *wulppi in Proto-OHG and finally *wulpi, normalized to _wulpa_ in OHG.
> [...]
>
> 1. 'Wolf'. Inventing archaic root-noun inflection to get an occluded labiovelar in the nom. sg. is a poor way to explain the labialization. It is better to suppose that labialization occurred in the nom. sg. following syncope of the stem-vowel, and then spread to the other cases. This assumption has several ramifications for Germanic soundlaw chronology.
>
> Indo-European *kWo- regularly becomes Gmc. *xa- unless the labiovelar is restored by analogy (as in the interrogatives). Early Gmc. loanwords to Finnic (e.g. Finnish _kuningas_ 'king') have -as for IE *-os, showing that the stem-vowel shift *-o- > *-a- preceded syncope in the ultima. Had the delabialization *xWa- > *xa- also preceded this syncope, the nom. sg. 'wolf' would have developed as *wl.´kWos > *wúlxWos > *wúlxWaz > *wúlxaz > *wúlxs. Therefore, the delabialization *xWa- > *xa- must have followed the syncope which preceded the postulated labialization of occluded *xW. The nom. sg. thus developed as *wl.´kWos > *wúlxWos > *wúlxWaz > *wúlxWs > *wúlfs.
>
> Old Norse _ulfr_ represents Runic Norse *wulfaR (cf. _stainaR_ 'stone', _þewaR_ 'servant', etc.). This cannot directly continue *wúlxWaz, or there would be no basis for the labialization in Norse. The syncope of *-a- in the nom. sg. of masc. /a/-stems, labialization of occluded *xW to *f, and generalization of *f to the other cases must have taken place in Common Gmc. The RN nom. sg. -aR of masc. /a/-stems must be an analogical restoration after -iR of /i/-stems and -uR of /u/-stems (e.g. _-gastiR_ '-guest', _sunuR_ 'son'). Whether this took place before rhotacism, i.e. *-az restored after *-iz and *-uz, is immaterial to our topic.
>
> The inherited Gmc. feminine was apparently formed with the ablauting _deví:_-suffix *-jáh2-/*-íh2-, like Gothic _mawi_ 'girl', acc. _mauja_, to _magus_ 'boy'. Here _mawi_ regularly continues Gmc. *maGWí:, but _mauja_ has been levelled from expected *magja (Gmc. *maGWjó:N) by the influence of _mawi_. ON _ylgr_ 'she-wolf' represents RN *wulgiR, which has been normalized to /i/-stem inflection, following paradigmatic levelling in the opposite direction. The nom. sg. would have regularly developed as *wl.kWíh2 > *wulxWí: > *wulGWí: > RN *wulwi(R), the acc. sg. as *wl.kWjáh2m > *wulxWjá:n > *wulGWjó:N > RN *wulgjo. The RN nom. sg. *wulgi(R) evidently replaced internal *-w- with *-g- from the cases which had full grade of the _deví:_-suffix.
>
> Proto-West Germanic replaced *wulxWí: with *wulfí: after the masc. *wúlfs while Verner's Law was still operating, immediately yielding *wulBí: 'she-wolf'. This is not to say that /a/-syncope and occluded /xW/-labialization preceded the onset of Verner's Law, which might create serious chronological difficulties. It means that grammatical change was a living feature of Proto-Germanic for some period of time, perhaps several centuries, before the original accent was superseded by the familiar root-based accent. During this period, the phoneme /f/ was realized as [f] word-initially, in the cluster [ft], and when immediately preceded by the accent; otherwise [B]. When PWGmc speakers transferred /f/ from the masc. 'he-wolf' to the fem. 'she-wolf', it preceded the accent in 'she-wolf' and automatically was realized as [B]. The resulting WGmc *wulbi developed into Old English _wylf_ and Old High German _wulpa_.
>