pre-IE k > H

[proto-language]

Dear Leo and IEists:

 ----- Original Message -----
From: <CONNOLLY at LATTE.MEMPHIS.EDU>
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2000 4:21 AM

> Pat Ryan wrote:

>> In Greenberg's new book, _Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives_, the
>> proposal is made on pp. 59-60 that pre=3DIE 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.

[LC]

> I haven't seen Greenberg's book, but this is strange, since IE languages are
> full of words with initial k- (k'-).  Any such change would have to have been
> very rare.  And would there have been a conditioning factor?  Hard to find
> one with so few examples (impossible, of course, if there's only one).

> If there were any connection (unlikely, I think), one might think rather of a
> "hardening" of laryngeals to a velar stop, perhaps in sandhi -- since final
> laryngeals were common enough, one could consider whether /-VH HV-/ was
> realized as [-Vk kV-], the second word then being reanalyzed as /kV-/.  That,
> at least, could have a certain phonetic plausibility.  But please, folks,
> this is *highly* speculative, and unless several more plausible examples can
> be found, it isn't worth the phosphors it is written on.

[PR]

We are in complete agreement. I was asking for other examples from
list-members to so if I could imagine Greenberg's suggestion as more
plausible.

Pat

PATRICK C. RYAN | PROTO-LANGUAGE at email.msn.com (501) 227-9947 * 9115 W. 34th
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