pre-IE k > H

[Plourde Eric]

On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, Patrick C. Ryan wrote:

> Dear Indo-Europeanists:

> In Greenberg's new book, _Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives_, the
> proposal is made on pp. 59-60 that pre=IE or early IE k became a
> "laryngeal".

> Greenberg cites Latin costa, 'rib', and Greek ostou^s, 'bone', among others,
> as examples of "a number of roots which require proto-forms with k alongside
> of H".

> I was, of course, aware of *kost- and *ost(h)-, for which I would prefer
> another explanation, but I am unaware of numerous examples suggesting this
> relationship.

> Anyone know of a few more?

Actually, this phonological change is quite common in other language groups,
for example in PF-U *k- becomes h- in Hungarian (but stays k- in Finnish) when
it is followed by vowels such as a or o. It parallels IE examples (including
the one you have mentioned) and Sino-Tibetan examples