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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU]On
> Behalf Of BP Jonsson
> Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2000 4:26 PM
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: 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.
That only happened word-finally? What about Zarathustra > Zoroaster? Was
that two words?

Eric Christopherson
raccoon@elknet.net