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Re: a-umlaut (was Re: Epicene words)

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Monday, February 28, 2005, 21:10
Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:

>> > > _halera_ (< *hal-ir-a) `healer' > > > > Is this a-umlaut? I mean the *-ir-a > -era part of that? > > It is.
I spotted that too, and suspected as much......
> > Does it occur in natlangs? > > I think it occurs in some North Germanic languages, though I am > not sure about that. >
Something similar happens sporadically in Oceanic/Polynesian languages, where any of the following are possible: *CaCi > CaCe, or CeCi; similarly for *CiCa *CaCu > CaCo, or CoCu; likewise for *CuCa More often these vowel sequences survive unchanged. But it's simply an unexpected assimilation, and is never called "umlaut"