[gothic-l] Re: PIE short {o} to Common Germanic {a}, etc: timing?

[Brian Beck]

I have always assumed (perhaps wrongly) that the Romans followed the
model of the foreign language they knew best, Greek, in this.
The linking vowel in Latin was usually "i" and in Greek "o". Although
Germanic may have had a linking "a", it may have sounded to the
Romans closer to the Greek "o" than the Latin "i".  Also, you will
note that it is Ariovistus and Marcomanni, not Oriovistus or
Morcomonni, which it would have been if the {o%} had not yet changed
to {a%}.
Cheers,
Brian

--- In gothic-l at egroups.com, "Anthony Appleyard" <MCLSSAA2 at f...>
wrote:
> Hereinafter, `%' after a vowel means "short".
>
> The books say that PIE {o%} > Common Germanic {a%} (e.g. PIE
{somos} > Greekl
> {homos}, Germanic {sama-}, English {same)); PIE long {a} > CG long
{o) (e.g.
> PIE *{bha:g-} > Greek {phe:gos}, CG {bo:k-}, English "book" and
"beech". But
> each of the various changes that distinguish CG from PIE, could
have happened
> at any time between 2000 BC and half a century before the first
written
> records of Germanic. But the first written records of Germanic,
i.e. proper-
> names recorded in Roman sources, seem to habitually have {o%}
instead of {a%}
> as a link-vowel in compounds: AriOvistus, Saltus TeutOburgensis,
MarcOmanni.
> (Sometimes {i} turns up as the link vowel, e.g. Asciburgius Mons.)
Also, the
> change {a:} to {o:} may have not happened yet, if I can trust one
book's guess
> that the forest name Bacenis means "of beech".
>
> Re the connection between "book" and "beech", yesterday evening I
saw a TV
> program that showed Romans in lands too far from anywhere where
papyrus grows,
> writing in ink on very thin sheets of wood that looked like like
veneer-
> sheeting.


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