New answers tagged morphology
5
The development is the result of:
syncope of *-gros to *-grs (with syllabic r, sometimes transcribed as *r̥ following a non-IPA convention). In Latin, the Proto-Italic sequences *-ros, *-ris often show syncope of the vowel after *r, with the r becoming syllabic when preceded by a consonant (as in caper) but not when preceded by a vowel (as in vir, vesper).
...
5
Note that Latin ager inflects as agri, agro, agrum, agro (in the singular), so the transformation of the ending is specific to the nominative singular. It is a regular development of Latin, that *Crus becomes Cer.
5
Most sound changes don't have specific names.
A relevant point of comparison here is puer < *ph₂weros. This suggests that the masculine nominative singular thematic ending -os (as well as the vocative -e) was lost first, suggesting an intermediate form *agr which violates Latin phonotactics and so required the insertion of a vowel to make it legal. In ...
Top 50 recent answers are included