Typology and the phonetics of laryngeals

[Ante Aikio]

[I wrote]

> I believe the IE loan words that show laryngeal reflexes in Uralic may
> tell something about the phonetic values of laryngeals. [...]

[Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen]

> I believe the facts of IE are plain in themselves, and make very good
> sense typologically as well. [...]
>    The set [h], [x], [{ghw}] is very close to Dutch which has [h], [x] and
> [{gh}], while in many languages gamma is rounded, cf., e.g., the
> development underlying the orthography of English law, corresponding to
> Danish lov (Swedish lag). I have therefore bee preaching this set for
> quite many years (on record since 1982, I see), often against heavy
> criticism. I now see the very same set advocated, without explicit
> reasons, in Meier-Bru"gger's Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft. Has the
> gospel been heard? At any rate, the agreement is nice to see.

As regards Uralic, your *H2 = [x] and *H3 = *[Yw] (I suppose you mean a
voiced fricative with {gh}) seem to work well. PIE *H3 = [Yw] > PU *x =
[Y] makes sense. There is no known example of *H3 > PU retroflex *S, and
if the sound value [Yw] is correctly reconstructed, it is predictable that
there aren't any - a substitution [Yw] > [S] is certainly not possible.
But there's a problem with *H1 as [h] from an Uralic point of view. There
are quite a few loan words with *H1 > PU *S. A substitution [x] >
retroflex [S] is phonetically sensible, given that the system in the
receiving language doesn't have an unvoiced velar fricative or [h] -
parallels are known. But [h] > [S] seems impossible in any circumstance.
One would rather expect [h] > [k] or even [h] > zero.

But then again, I guess it is not necessarily the case that the sound
values of the laryngeals remained the same in all the daughter languages
before they disappeared. The cases with IE *H1 > U *S seem to be
Pre-Baltic and Pre-Germanic.

I have also entertained the thought that there may be one loan word which
points to a palatal(ized) value of *H1. PU *s´ijili 'hedgehog' might
derive from PIE *H1eg´hi-l- (> German Igel). But this etymology must be
considered uncertain since no parallel cases for PIE *H1 > PU *s´ have
been found.

__________

Ante Aikio