Re: [tied] Laryngeal Loss =?UNKNOWN?Q?=28was?= Does Koenraad Elst Me

The IE languages eventually lost the _original_ PIE laryngeals, but many if not most of them developed new generations of "laryngeals" -- various /x/ and /h/-like phonemes with dorsal, pharyngeal or glottal articulations. The loss of such sounds is a common cross-linguistic tendency, by no means restricted to IE.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: <richard.wordingham@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 6:16 PM
Subject: [tied] Laryngeal Loss (was Does Koenraad Elst Meet Hock´s Challenge?)


> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>"
> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> > All true.
> > Let me try to recapitulate. I wondered why IE, unlike AfroAsiatic,
> > has done away with their laryngeals. You, Piotr, then assure me,
> with
> > many examples from various IE branches, that the loss of laryngeals
> > is a natural process. It seems to me that you have thereby declared
> > the AfrAs languages to be unnatural, which I don't think was your
> > intended purpose? Which takes me back to my original question: why
> IE
> > and not AfrAs?