[YG Conlang Archives] > [romconlang group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
--- Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@hidden.email> wrote: > > [loss of final -S (/z/), Verner's Law] > > My understanding is that by the time Latin reached > Germania Verner's Law had long since ceased to be > operative, Latin -S was and remained voiceless, -S > ought to remain in a Germano-Romance which preserves > cases, rather as it did in Old French You make a good argument, but that would be a major rewrite! Although, I am curious to see what the effect would be... I explain the anachronism by suggesting that while the Romans were into GERMANIA (Inf & Sup) by about 60/50 BCE *here*, they were a little earlier *there*. Verner's law is posited as beginning during the 5th century BCE and of course it didn't cease to be productive the following Wednesday afternoon, so you only have to move the Roman expansion back maybe 200 years for it to begin to look plausible. The longer Roman presence could also account for the persistance of a Romance tongue. If it all happens exactly as it did *here*, you'd end up with Hochdeutsch... > [... past participle prefix] > At the same time CON feels somehow more realistic to > me, including having some semantic vagueness which > invites reinterpretation. Unstressed it would probably also end up as ke- /k@/ which is only one position away from the German ge- :) Pete