Reconstruction talk:Proto-Brythonic/niβ̃er

Hello @Mahagaja, I'm wondering what your reasoning was for reconstructing this term with an *ɨ rather than *i? It appears to me that the descendants require an *i (nifer, not *nyfyr, etc). ShellfaceTheStrange (talk) 18:28, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

Hmm, I guess you're right. Schrijver (pp. 147–48) points out that PC *u and Latin u became PBr *ʉ (in his notation, ü) before *b (e.g. *dubus > Welsh du; Latin cubitus > Welsh cufydd). However, Proto-Celtic *u remains unchanged before *m (e.g. *tumos > *tuβ̃ > twf). Latin u before m, on the other hand, appears to have become *ʉ in humilis > ufyl but *i in this word only. So it isn't clear why this word has *i instead of *ʉ (or even *u), but it does, and he never suggests it could have had *ɨ. I'll move it. —Mahāgaja · talk 19:29, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

Quite a puzzler, I would say... I have searched around to see if there are any other explanations for the *i in the literature, but there don't seem to be any convincing ideas. ShellfaceTheStrange (talk) 20:49, 28 December 2021 (UTC)