Re: Translation Project! (was Re: Let the hammer fall!)

On Sun, Jan 21, 2001 at 10:00:52PM -0800, Barry Garcia wrote:
> CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
> >Inshallah or insha'allah (both occur in Indonesian) seem to be closer to
> >the
> >original Arabic, for "if God wills".   I've never seen "wa sha allah"
> >('and
> >_sha_ God') as explanation for Span. ojalá, but it would certainly explain
> >that odd initial /o/.
>
> Which is why it had me wondering ;). How do you get /o/ evolved from "in"
My theory was that the form used in Spain might have been [unSala] >
[onSala] > [oSala], since sometimes vowels like [i] and [u] alternate in
dialects, but it's only a theory of mine.

--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo