"centum"/"satem" "exceptions" [was Re: Northwest IE attributes]

Miguel Carrasquer Vidal mcv at wxs.nl
Fri Jan 28 00:10:34 UTC 2000


"Eduard Selleslagh" <edsel at glo.be> wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Miguel Carrasquer Vidal" <mcv at wxs.nl>
>Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 7:25 PM

>> Albanian is satem, or rather "thatem" (*k^ > th).

[ moderator snip ]

>Forgive me my ignorance, but could you elaborate on the relationship (or not)
>of this phenomenon with a similar one in Greek, at least in some positions or
>cases: thermos, -te, etc.?

Albanian <th> is an inderdental fricative, presumably from /c/
(/ts/) from *k^.  Cf. (Northern) Spanish.  Palatalized consonants
tend to develop into affricates /c/ or /c^/, which in turn tend
to the fricatives /T/ (< /c/), /s^/ (< /c^/) or /s/ ( < either).

Greek t/th/d < *kw, *gwh, *gw (before e/i) is an entirely
different phenomenon (and a rare one, as far as I know).

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl



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