r and s

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
"H. M. Hubey" <hubeyh at Montclair.edu> wrote:
 
>Unless I am wrong the word for 5 in Chuvash is pilek (which to me sounds
>a lot like 'bilek' (wrist, hand) and which sounds to me as if it is
>older than Common Turkic 5 (besh). Secondly the weakness of the liquids
>in Turkic and Altaic (and Dravidian) is well known. It makes more common
>sense to believe that l~r Turkic (Chuvash) is more archaic and these
>sounds changed to sh~z because the eastern languages did not have the
>liquids, than to assume that it is a rhotacism.
 
But the "eastern" languages do have liquids.  The question is whether
Proto-Turkic (cq. Proto-Altaic) had two of each (*r > r/r; *r1 > r/z;
*l > l/l; *l1 > s^/l) or only one.
 
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam