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On 22/05/2006 17:18, peter21691 wrote:
Which brings me to how an ethnic speaker of Proto-Germanic might pronounce a latin /k_w/ (<QV>). Since PGmc and WGmc had the glide /w/, the most likely realisation of /k_w/, I think, would be (arrgh this keyboard has no square brackets!) 'kw'. However, If I go with /kw/ I will eventually end up with a horribly esperantine /kv/ (or perhaps even /kxv/ or /kCv/, if that's pronounceable). Yuck. So, as if by magic, that doesn't happen.
Aw, shucks! North Germanic is chock full o' /kv/ from PGmc /kw/, so it looks perfectly normal to me :) West Germanic had plenty of /kw/, too ( Old English <cw>) and doesn't it end up as orthogrphic <qu> or <chu> in various forms of OHG? Isn't English "quick" like Gothic qius, OE cwicu, OSax. quik, OHG quec? Likewise English "queen", Goth. qino, OSax. quan, OHG quena ... but ON kona.
That leaves me perhaps /ku/, /ku:/, /ku@/ or even just /k/ (or maybe just /k/ under certain conditions, e.g. /ka/, with one of the others for different conditions, perhaps like /kui/) Any thoughts? How did this sound develop in your langs, and actual romance?
Spanish keeps /kw/ before tonic /a/, at least: <quando> > <cuando>. But <qu> > /k/ in most other cases, I think: <quid> > /ke/ (<que>). I suppose you could just force /kw/ to /k/ in all cases if you really wanted to kill it off!
(Didn't Romanian turn /kw/ into /p/ in some cases?)
Last question today. Did word-final /t/ in latin get dropped unconditionally, like <_M>, or in specific circumstances only? Any idea when this generally happened? I have conflicting sources, some say it was a feature of late CL, others that it was a feature only much later in VL, or indeed after the various languages separated.
My understanding has been that final -m disappeared relatively early in spoken Latin (though maintained in written CL). Not sure about -t ....
Cheers, Carl -- Carl Edlund Anderson mailto:cea@hidden.email http://www.carlaz.com/