On 07/07/2004 11:22, Philipp Reichmuth wrote:
...
Are you sure about the Turks and the initial consonant clusters? I always thought it depends on the actual cluster structure. Modern Turkish at least has loanwords such as "brokoli", "graten" or the notorious "spor" where the problem is the word-*final* cluster, not the word *initial* one. While Turkic roots usually do not begin with consonant clusters, it appears to be OK in loans.
There are certainly no word initial consonant clusters in native Turkic words. Looking at the specific ST cluster in my Turkish-English dictionary, there are a number of words listed, but they are all transparently loans from western languages and the kinds of words which were probably borrowed in the 20th century: stabilize, stadyum/stat, staj, stajyer, stand, standart, star, statik, statÃ, statÃko, sten, steno(grafi), step ("steppe"), stepne ("spare tyre"), stereo(foni(k)), stereotip, steril(ize/izasyon), sterlin, stetoskop, setyÅÄn ("station wagon"), stil, stilistik, stilo, stok(Ãu/lamak), stop, stopaj, stor, strateji(k), stratosfer, stratus, streptokok, streptomisin, stres (medical), striptiz(ci), stÃdyo. But here are the corresponding words with word initial added vowels: Ästampa, Ästavroz/istavroz (from Greek stavros), istasyon, istatistik(Ãi), istavrit (a fish), istep ("steppe"), istim, istimbot, istiridye (? "oyster"), istop, usturmaÃa (a nautical term probably from "storm"). These words seem to be rather older loans, some perhaps 19th century but Ästavroz/istavroz is surely much earlier, also istavrit if that is a loan from Greek stavrit- as seems likely.
These are complete lists for ST but the same happens with other consonant clusters e.g. SP, SV.
-- Peter Kirk [EMAIL PROTECTED] (personal) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) http://www.qaya.org/

