Reconstruction talk:Proto-Germanic/lanō

Reconstruction

The PIE root for Greek ελάω (eláō) is reconstructed as *h₁elh₂- by Beekes. A reconstruction *h₁lh₂-neh₂ might work if the medial laryngeal were syllabic. If metathesis were involved, *h₁leh₂-, we could reconstruct *h₁loh₂unéh₂, which would be more or less cognate to Ancient Greek *ἐλαϝαρ (*elawar), *ἐλαυνος (*elaunos) (as in Beekes), whence ἐλαύνω (elaúnō, “to drive, set in motion”) was derived. I'm not sure about the order of pretonic shortening before resonants vs loss of glide in long diphthongs in open syllables, but hypothetically it could go *h₁loh₂unéh₂ > *lāunā́ > *lānā́ > *lanō. Anglom (talk) 07:14, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

*lāunā́ would presumably just give *launō, I don't know under which conditions the u would be lost, if any. —CodeCat 13:11, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

The glide should be lost only in an open syllable: *lōmaz < *loh₁umos, *stōraz < *steh₂uros (compare the zero-grades in Icelandic luma (“to conceal”) and Old Swedish stur). But then again, I don't know whether pretonic shortening came before or after this; if it came before then it could only give *lōnō, I think. Now that I think about it, it seems too much of a stretch on my part to link it with the Greek formation. Anglom (talk) 16:21, 13 July 2015 (UTC)