Re: Terkunan > Trekunan?

Hi!

Mark J. Reed writes:
> My first thought is that it's odd to have those sort of constraints in
> a lang that allows initial mf-.
Hehe.  But Dutch allows quite wild initial clusters like [sXR] and
still has exactly the same tendency to not like r + consonant,
inserting schwas.

> Is that m vocalic?
Yes, unless a vowel precedes:

    mperi      [m=peri]  'empire'
    u' mperi   [Umperi]  'an empire'

> That's also a lot of compensatory strategies to throw into the mix.  A
> timeline of when each was dominant might be in order?
I suppose I need to come up with that, yes.  Currently, the GMP is
ordered, but there are no actual time frames assigned.

> But based on your account of Sardinian, it does at least seem plausible.
I should add that Southern Sardinian also removes rC, but it does it a
bit differently, namely by swapping it to Cr in place, not backwards
across a vowel:

    VL cardum > Sard. kaDru   'thistle'

Terkunan, after this proposed change, would probably have 'kradu'.

**Henrik