word-initial

You overlooked what I already clearly wrote: "avoidance of word-initial semivowel /j/."

Prefixes in Minoan 2010

In Prefixes in Minoan, I alluded to the Proto-Aegean phonotactic constraint against word-initial *y- which is evident not only in Minoan but in Etruscan as well.

Archive 2010-02-01 2010

There's no question to me then that Etruscan phonotactics simply barred the glide from word-initial positions altogether.

Archive 2010-02-01 2010

And, Iūnō is the *Latin* name; Uni is the Etruscan which, lo and behold, avoids the word-initial semivowel /j/.

Prefixes in Minoan 2010

The YA-/A- alternation in Minoan is merely a reflection of the phonotactically motivated avoidance of word-initial semivowel /j/.

Prefixes in Minoan 2010

Given this feature in the language, symbols for YA and A would naturally be interchangeable in word-initial positions, as well as the pairs YE/E, YU/U, etc.

Archive 2010-02-01 2010

In other words, like I suggest for Linear A, Egyptian script wrote phantom glides in word-initial position while having developed a phonotactic constraint against word-initial /j/.

Archive 2010-02-01 2010

Based on its retention of the word-initial/p/, it is probably borrowed, but the source is not yet known. back

Societies, Religion, and History: Central East Tanzanians and the World They Created, c. 200 BCE to 1800 CE 2008

And, Iūnō is the *Latin* name; Uni is the Etruscan which, lo and behold, avoids the word-initial semivowel /j/.

Prefixes in Minoan 2010

Of the 1504 words and names logged in my Etruscan database, not a single one shows an underlying word-initial /j-/.

Archive 2010-02-01 2010