*gwh in Gmc.

[CONNOLLY at LATTE.MEMPHIS.EDU]

Miguel Carrasquer Vidal wrote:

>In Collinge's "The Laws of Indo-European", under "Siever's Law II"
>(i.e. the development of PIE *gwh), reference is made to a work by
>Seebold 1967 ("Die Vertretung idg. *gwh- in Germanischen", KZ
>81.104-133).  In Collinge's summary table, it is stated that "*/gwh/"
>gives /b/ in initial position (except before /u/).

The idea is not original with Seebold, but was already proposed in the 19th
century, though I do not remember by whom.  I thought I could spare you by
referring you to Seebolds _Vergleichendes etymologisches Woerterbuch der
germanischen starken Verben_, but a quick survey of the entries does look as if
_bitten_ is the only strong very showing this development.  So I guess there's
no substitute for checking the original article.  Of course, it's no surprise
that Pokorny doesn't accept it, since he doeasn't accept much of anything after
1900.

Regards

Leo A. Connolly                         Foreign Languages & Literatures
connolly at memphis.edu                    University of Memphis