Principles of reconstruction.

[llama_nom]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "ualarauans" <ualarauans at ...> wrote:
>
> Now, the "dwarf". You should know that the short [e] (like in PG
*dwergaz) is written as aí (or ai) in the Wulfilan script. So, our
root is *dwaírg-. What's with the ending? Is it also dropped? No,
not all of it. The –a- disappears, that's right, but the final Proto-
Germ. –z does not. It just gets voiceless [s]. So, the correct
reconstruction is *dwaírgs.

One more detail worth mentioning here:

The Proto-Germanic short vowels *e and *i fell together in Gothic.
That's to say, the old distinction between these sounds was lost.
Normally the resulting sound appears in Gothic as 'i'.

PG e > Old English 'wesan' : Gothic 'wisan'
PG i > Old English 'fisc' : Gothic 'fisks'

But before 'r' or 'h' or 'hv' (the letter written in the Gothic
alphabet as a dot in a circle), PG 'i' and 'e' each appear in Gothic
as 'aí'--probably representing a short open 'e' sound.

PG e > Old English 'beran' : Gothic 'baíran'
PG i > Old English 'birþ' : Gothic 'baíriþ'

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