Reconstruction talk:Proto-Germanic/kelþaz

RFM discussion: January 2015–August 2016

 * See Reconstruction talk:Proto-Germanic/kelþą.

z-stem
There was a "discussion" about this, but no real discussion took place. So what's the proof for a z-stem? Apparently Old English did have r-forms, but the plural was (more?) commonly unchanged. So wouldn't the more likely scenario be that the r-plural is from analogy with words like "lamb", "calf", as also happened with throughout continental West Germanic?


 * I seem to remember there's a more detailed discussion of the whole problem in Schaffner 2001, but I don't have access to it right now (I believe he concludes that calf is an original z-stem but lamb is not; however, I don't remember what exactly he says about child). Our decision to reconstruct a z-stem appears to be mainly based on Orel, who however does not offer details and merely cites the existing literature on the topic. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 19:41, 5 January 2020 (UTC)