`zebra'

[Nik Taylor]

Steve Gustafson wrote:
> I am not that familiar with Ibero-Romance philology to know exactly
> what the circumstances are that changed proto-Romance -inV to -brV,
> but the examples of

> homine(m) > hombre
> femina(m) > hembre

What happened here, as I understand it, is that _homine_ became _homne_
(> French _homme_), then dissimilation occured, creating _homre_, and an
epinthetic /b/ was added to make _hombre_

> might go further in explaining how

> -asinu(m)- ?> -ezebra-.

However, it wasn't in --> br, it was min --> mn --> mr --> mbr.  in -->
br has no phonological motivation.  It's a very unlikely change.

--
"It's bad manners to talk about ropes in the house of a man whose father
was hanged." - Irish proverb
http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files
http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-name: NikTailor