Thread:User talk:CodeCat/PGmc *ak/reply

Gothic has both ak and auk, and Gothic is old enough that it doesn't have any changes related to lack of stress. There are certainly no signs that au could have become a when unstressed. So the only possible relationship between the two would be in PIE, but that isn't possible on the grounds that their root formations necessarily differ because of the -u-, which doesn't participate in ablaut and so can't account for alternative forms lacking it.