🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <robrtsnj-311292101210@peirce.byu.edu>, robrtsnj@yvax (John S. Robertson) writes:
>The passing of labio-velar to labials is a well established fact (e.g. I.E.
>*kw to Greek p before back vowels, or I.E. *gw to Greek b/Latin v), but has
>anyone ever heard of a p or b becoming a kw or gw? Just curious. Any
>examples of either direction of change would be appreciated.

The environment for the Attic/Ionic Greek change is more complex than "before
back vowels":  In the environment of a *u, the labial element was lost and a
plain velar resulted.  (In some Aeolic dialects, *k<w> > p even before front
vowels.)

And there were other things going on in Attic and Ionic, as well:  The word for
"horse," *ekwos (*k + *w), develops to /hippos/ in Attic (and some other
dialects), but the form /hikkos/ is usual (constant?) in Herodotos.

The changes from labial to labiovelar with which I am familiar are analogical:

	Latin	quinque		< PIE *penk<w>e "5"
	Old Ir.	coic

Germanic shows a small number of labiovelar > labial items, for example

	Gothic fidwor		< PIE *k<w>etwor "4"
	Gothic fimf		< PIE *penk<w>e

And of course Romanian shows labials for Proto-Romance labiovelars and
velar+*w clusters, cf. Latin lingua, Rom. limba.

Let's see.  In Oscan and Umbrian, *k<w> > p, as it does in British Celtic
(Welsh, Cornish, Breton).

I don't have the book handy, so I can't say exactly which correspondence set it
is, but in Haas's _Prehistory of Language_ (Mouton), she reconstructs a
labiovelar fricative for a set which contrasts with velars and labials.  The
reconstructed etymon is *ix<w>aNi/u- "squirrel" which for some reason has stuck
with me for 20 years (since I first read the book).

I don't know whether any of this is of interest or use to you.
-- 
Rich Alderson   'I wish life was not so short,' he thought.  'Languages take
                such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'
                                                        --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@leland.stanford.edu                              _The Lost Road_