[tied] Re: the glottalic theory

From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 16767
Date: 2002-11-15

Thinking of gaps in exotic series, Old English had labial, dental
and, just possibly, palatal presigmatised stops, but no presigmatised
velar stop +[sk]. Because prenasalised and presigmatised stops
reverse the normal gap tendency ([mb] and [sk] missing, as opposed to
[p] and [g]), I thought it sensible to ask whether it is [?p] or [?k]
that goes missing. I will agree that the frequent absence of [?g]
suggests that it should be [?p] that goes missing, but does anyone
actually _know_?

Richard.