We have no direct evidence of pre-raising forms in the Latin record. The earliest epigraphic evidence for this change is the gentilic qvinctio(s) < *kweŋktios on one of the Egadi anchors (AE 2014:540, 264-1 bce). This change is presumably the same as that raising o to u in the same environment. See p. 151. So the actual sound change is: short mid vowels are raised to high vowels before a velar nasal.
To the discussion of the raising of e to i before mb (I A 2) add a footnote to the example limbus:
The form lembum in the meaning ‘zodiacal circle’ is transmitted at Var. R. 2.3.7 in the two chief witnesses to Varro’s work, the Codex Parisinus Latin 6842A [see image above] and in the now lost Codex Marcianus, as reported by Poliziano. It is possible that Varro was using a dialectal or archaic form.
Add to end of example list:
*nembhos ‘rain-cloud’ > Lat. nimbus, cf. MP namb ‘dew’
simbella ‘a coin worth half a lībella’ (Var.) may perhaps be added but the names for Latin coin and measure series are notorious for irregular reductions (cf. dōdrāns ‘ three quarters’ from *dēquandrāns) and the exact pathway from a putative *sēmilibella to simbella is probably irrecoverable.
This is presumably the same rule that raises o to u in the same environment. See p. 151.
Exceptions: Septembris, Nouembris and Decembris are modeled on the corresponding cardinals. The expected form novimbr(es) is recorded on the Feriale Cumanum for October 18th (CIL 10.3682). The loanword lembus ‘small fast sailboat’ from Gk. λέμβος, though attested in Plautus, arrived too late to undergo the change. The word stlembus attributed to Lucilius in Paul. Fest. p. 413L (stlembus grauis tardus sicut Lucilius (1109) pedibus stlembum dixit equum pigrum et tardum “stlembus means heavy, slow as for example, Lucilius called a slow and lazy horse stlembus of foot.”) is dialectal or iconic. An unexplained exception is membrum. Given the relative recentness of the sound change—to judge from lembus it was either not common to all dialects or recent enough that pre-sound change forms were recorded in writing— it is unlikely that the etymological source of the b from *s played any role. Perhaps at the relevant time the ancestor of membrum was still *mẽbrom.
Some scholars believe this raising also happened before mp, but the only positive evidence for this extension is simplex ‘simple’ and simplus ‘the simple sum’, which may owe their initial vowel to singulus ‘single’ or to the generalization of the variant sim- also seen in simul ‘together’, similis ‘similar’. The form simpuvium ‘sacrificial ladle’ ~ simpulum is probably a loanword of unknown origin. And there are counterexamples: semper ‘always’, templum ‘temple’, the gentilic Sempronius, and especially tempus ‘time’ and ‘temple (of the head)’.
On p. 151 replace C 1 with
C. *o > u
1. *o > u/__ŋ. This is part of the same raising rule that changed e to i in the same environment. See p. 148
*oŋgwen ‘ointment’ > unguen, cf. Ved. añjí- ‘salve’, OHG ancho ‘butter’.
*oŋkos ‘hook’ > uncus, cf. Gk. ὄγκος ‘barb’.
*hom-ke, acc. sg. masc. of demonstrative > hoŋke (honc, ILLRP 310 3rd cent. bce, Rome; honce ILLRP 505, Spoletium, 2nd century bce18) > hunc.19
Gk. ὀγκία ‘ounce’ ⟶ Lat. uncia 20
18. On the date of this inscription, see Vine 1993:289.
20. See Weiss ftcm. "Latin uncia à la Heron.' Exceptions: tongeō ‘I think’ (Ennius) may be dialectal or archaic. Aelius Stilo (Fest. p. 488 L) attributes the word tongitiō ‘thought’ to the Praenestines. longus ‘long’ has no really good explanation. Sommer (1914a:64) suggested that the initial l prevented the raising. The rule does not apply across a prefix boundary, e.g. con-gerō ‘I bring together’.
20. See Weiss ftcm. "Latin uncia à la Heron.' Exceptions: tongeō ‘I think’ (Ennius) may be dialectal or archaic. Aelius Stilo (Fest. p. 488 L) attributes the word tongitiō ‘thought’ to the Praenestines. longus ‘long’ has no really good explanation. Sommer (1914a:64) suggested that the initial l prevented the raising. The rule does not apply across a prefix boundary, e.g. con-gerō ‘I bring together’.
And split C 3 into C 3 and 4 as below:
3. *o > u/__mb
*h3n̥bh-Vl- > *omb-Vl-īkos > umbilīcus ‘navel’, cf. Gk. ὀμφαλός.
*h3n̥bh-on- > *ombō > umbō ‘boss (of a shield)’
*ombroi̯ (the name of the Umbrians) > Umbrī, cf. SP ombriíen ‘Umbrian’ loc. sg. plus postposition -en (CH 2), Gk. Ὀμβρικοί (Hdt. +). Cf. also the gentilic Ombrius (CIL 6.6553), etc.
This is presumably the same rule that raises e to i in the same environment. See p. 148. The earliest epigraphical evidence for this change is the gentilic vmbonivs (Lilybaeum, present-day Marsala, ca. 250-200 bce, AE 1997:737), assuming that it is a derivative of umbō. The rule does not apply across a prefix boundary, e.g. comburō ‘I burn’.
4. *o > u/__.m or perhaps *o > u/__ma according to Höfler 2018
*omVso- ‘shoulder’ > umerus, cf. Umb. onse (VIb 50), Hesych. ἀμέσω· ὠμοπλάται ‘shoulder blades᾽ perhaps for *emasō, Ved. áṃsa-.
*homo- ‘earth’ > humus, cf. Umb. hondra (VIa 15, etc.) ‘below’.
Gk. νομάδα ‘nomad’ acc. sg. >> Numidae (a nomadic people of North Africa).
Perhaps *komVsa ‘vessel, bin’ > cumera, if to be compared to Ved. camasá- ‘sacrificial vessel’
But not in domus ‘house’, homō ‘human’
[Eliminate the discussion omnis and somnus because they would not be expected to fall under the newly specified rules 3 and 4 so nothing needs to be said about their relative chronology]
A number of apparent exceptions—depending on the correct formulation—arose too late to be affected by this change, e.g. uomō ‘I vomit’< *u̯emō, glomus < *glemos.21
The condition environment is unclear. Höfler 2018 suggests that the raising took place when the pre-weakening vowel of the second syllable was a. He explains humus as backformed from the loc. humī which in turn continues an allative *homai, umerus from *emasos. See Nishimura 2018 for a different explanation.
Höfler, Stefan. 2018 "A look over Lat. umerus 'shoulder'." In Proceedings of the 29th AnnualUCIA Indo-Eutropean Conference, ed. David Goldstein, Stephanie W. Jamison, and Brent Vine. Bremen: Hempen, 129–46.
