Re: Person distinctions in languages?

On 4 Feb 2005, at 10.28 pm, J. 'Mach' Wust wrote:

> The alternation of s and r is called rhotacism. The original consonant
> was
I thought it was called 'rhotacirm' :)

> s. German _war, warst_ is indeed a case of generalization. I don't
> know why
> the s is preserved in _(ge)wesen_, but I guess there must be an
> explanation.
Yeah---it didn't get generalised. I doubt the Germans are any sneakier
than that. (Perhaps the different vowel was sufficient to stop
generalising, which'd depend on what the rest of the series looked
like.)

--
Tristan.