About Proto-Germanic

[Anglesqueville]

Thank you for the compliment, which honours me as much as your presence on this new forum delights me. Concerning the possible role of rhythmic consonantal gradation (probably active in Proto-Uralic if we follow Helimski, in any case in Proto-Balto-Finnic) in the occurrence of Verner's law,  I explained on the old forum what it was for me. I first rejected this hypothesis forcefully when I discovered it in Schrijver's book, and then, as sometimes happens, by thinking about it I ended up developing a certain... sentimental affection for it. I questioned several of your colleagues on this point, and those who answered me gave a rather negative verdict, like you. I can't help but continue to find the resemblance between RhG and Verner strange, but I now refrain from going further. I hope I insisted enough in my presentation, but it was written before I received these opinions, and I took it from the old forum as I had written it. Beyond this question, my reflection on the proto-Germanic question in its relations with the Balto-Finnic family spanned years, with profound reforms along the way. In particular, I was once attached to very deep chronologies which I obviously had to abandon little by little. There must still be some "dross" from my early conceptions, and I suspect that my fascination with Schrijver-Helimski must be one of those "dross". I hope you are on this forum for a long time, it is a great chance that a real specialist agrees to take part in these amateur discussions. As this forum is new, everything is still very calm, but we will probably not have to wait very long to see, here as elsewhere before, the debates ignite. It will then be very useful to have someone around who can correct mistakes and excesses (including mine).