Updates regarding UPenn tree

[Sean Crist]

On Thu, 30 Sep 1999, Dr. John E. McLaughlin wrote:

> Are there any actual examples of *hw >*f in PGmc post-Grimm (other Dr
> Crist's guess at *penkwe > *finhw- > *finf)?  It would seem that the
> alveolar /n/ might preclude any assimilation of /hw/ to /f/.  Just thinking
> off the top of my head.

Well, I'm not Dr. Crist yet; give me another year or so.  It might help if
I stopped writing on this list and wrote my dissertation instead. :-/

What we know is that PIE *penkwe somehow comes out in PGmc as *finf.  I
don't know right off of any other cases where PIE *p..kw comes out in PGmc
as *f..f.  Actually, I don't know right off of any other cases where a
word with PIE *p..kw survives into attested Germanic.  We might have to
say that this is a sporadic change if it just happens in this one word.

All I was saying was that I don't think this change necessarily has to be
pre-Grimm; I think it could be post-Grimm just as easily.  I'd be glad if
someone can correct me on this; it would mean we can tell more about the
relative chronology if we can say that it can't have happened that late.

  \/ __ __    _\_     --Sean Crist  (kurisuto at unagi.cis.upenn.edu)
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