indo-european bears
- From: "Widsith" <wwidsith@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 28 Jul 2006 02:09:20 -0700
If the PIE word *h₂r̥tk̑os ‘bear’ (Greek άρκτος, Latin
ursus) had survived into Germanic and down to modern English, what
would it have looked like?
On the face of it, you might guess a Germanic form *urþkaz --> English
‘orthk’. That looks very wrong, but I can't work out which
phonological rule would prevent it.
If the -tk- metathesized to -kt- (which it did in Greek – but why
would it in Germanic exactly?), then you'd get a more plausible
Germanic *urxtaz, which might have given English *orght, or perhaps
*rought.
Any comments? I am not an expert so any comments on the sound changes
I might have misunderstood or forgotten about would be helpful.
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: indo-european bears
- From: Trond Engen
- Re: indo-european bears
- From: elagabalus
- Re: indo-european bears
- Prev by Date: Re: Plausibility Check
- Next by Date: Re: Superb response to crackpottery
- Previous by thread: mantra- phonetic representation with chinese characters
- Next by thread: Re: indo-european bears
- Index(es):