Re: /s/ -> /h/ [was: Re: Betreft: Re: k(w)->p]

At 22:14 +0100 27.1.2000, Raymond Brown wrote:
>
>Prevocalic and intervocalic /s/ became /h/ in early Greek (with
>intervocalic /h/ then generally disappearing.  Prevocalic /s/ became /h/ in
>Persian at some stage.  And there are many more examples.
It even happened *twice* in Persian: first in Old Iranian, where every
non-preconsonantal *s that hadn't already been changed into /S/ became /h/
-- compare Greek _holos_ and Avestan _haurva_ to Sanskrit _sarva_ and Latin
_salus_, all from an indo-european root meaning "whole" --, and then in the
transition from Old Persian to Middle Persian, where /s/ derived from
earlier /T/ or /Tr/ became /h/ if it happened to have become final (by loss
of final vowels mostly.)  Thus Old Iranian *ga:Ta "hymn" > Middle Persian
_ga:h_.  IIRC that word is not attested in OP, but is the usual example of
the younger change.



/BP

 B.Philip Jonsson  <mailto: bpj@...> <mailto: melroch@...>
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