Hi!
Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> writes:
>...
> lacruma ~ lacrima
> maxumus ~ maximus
> lubet ~ libet
Is it a coincidence that this i/u is always in front of labials?
Labials could've changed [i] to [y], then.
Just a wild association seeing just three words. :-)
(Greenlandic /i/ tends to be [y] or [Y] in the presence of certain
labials, I think. At least I thought so when listening to some
Greenlandic and heard a word that had [...f:Ym:I...] in it. There is
no /y/, so I assumed it was /i/.)
> (the spellings with |i| eventually won out by the 2nd cent CE and are the
> forms given in text books).
> It's assumed by some that the sound was [y], but this is not certain.
**Henrik