Greek vowels may become u-coloured next to a labiovelar (which becomes delabialised upon losing its secondary articulation to the vowel). That's the case of <nuks>, <kuklos> (*kWekWlo-), <gune:> (*gWn.na:, cf. dialectal bana:). With *dl.ku-, we'd be in a Catch 22 situation: if *k is uvular, it can't u-colour the syllabic *l; if derives from a labiovelar, it can't a-colour things.
Greek does have various kinds of "umlaut", but I have yet to see *a..u.. > u..u.. in a u-stem. We have <brakHus>, <barus>, <elakHus> etc. without any colouring.
Otherwise, not a bad idea.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2002 5:13 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Got milk?
> Hmm, how do we get /nyx/ out of *nokWt- though? I
> know that there is no **nukWt-. Could /glykys/
> derive from *dlok-u-? And again, you *e-grade a verb
> like *dlok-, and you get *dlak- through uvular
> colouring via *k. Perfect for the "milk" word.