Tampering with history

T.I. Console info at TICONSOLE.NL
Fri Jun 19 18:56:15 UTC 1998


Lars Martin Fosse wrote:

Retroflexion may be both. Modern Norwegian and Swedish both have
retroflexion, which developed quite independently of Dravidian languages!

I can add two more examples: two `remote' areas of the former Roman empire,
namely Puglia in South Italy and the island of Sardinia, have preserved the
the retroflex sound, spelled as a double dd, and pronounced as the Indian
retroflex .d On the whole, the language in these areas is far more archaic than
modern Italian, for example, they still say `kelu' for, where the Italians say
`cielo' (`heaven', Latin: celum. Pronunciation c=k). So, I cannot escape the
expression that there is a development WITHIN Indo-European of retroflex
sounds, and this already in an early stage.

Dr. Alexandra van der Geer
Leiden, The Netherlands
E-mail: info at ticonsole.nl





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