Re: COMMENT PLEASE (WAS:Conlang Journal and being a fish)

Elliott Lash sikyal:

> The word _ja_ derives regularly from ancient Atlantaic _eda_
>
> The sequence of sound changes was:
>
> /Eda/ > /ED/ > /jED/ > /jE:/ > /je:/ > /jeI/ > /joI/ > /jo@/
> > /jo:/ > /jA:/ > /ja:/ > /ja/
>
> Do you guys think that these are plausible changes to occur over a time span of
> around 3000 years?
Sure. I assume, though, that all of these changes are universal in their
language, and not specific to their word.

What I mean is that you didn't do what I did when I was 14 and first
starting doing language history. I would have etymologies like:

bota > bot > boT
gota > goda > gora

Which is wrong, for obvious reasons.

Only /jeI/ > /joI/ seems at all odd, but not so odd that it's never
happened in real life.



Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/

"What are you, a dentist? Or a hippie?
Or some kind of hippie dentist?"
--Strong Bad (of Homestar Runner)

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