Re: [tied] Laryngeal theory as an unnatural

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 18277
Date: 2003-01-29

Miguel's "nasal" rule:
>This might explain a number of words such as Pokorny's *dha(m)b(h)-,
>*g^hans-, *la(m)b(h)- [2x], *mad-, *mag^h-,
>*mag^-, *mand-, *man-us, *marko-, *matH-, *mat-, *mazdo-, *nant-,
>*nas-, *pando-, *pank-/*pang-, *sal- (if *sa(m)-l-), *tap-
>(*tap-n-, *wank^-.

This nasal rule stinks. If *men- exists, obviously *m- cannot
serve as the trigger of this rule... so what nasal as affected
the vowel??? It's crap.

On the other hand, here again, we might solve this with
laryngeals, particularly syllabic laryngeals that have been
vocalized into vowels (ie: *h1 > *e, *h2 > *a, *h3 > *o).
For example, *mad- might be a zero-graded form of **mVxd- or
*mxVd-.

For others, a lurking laryngeal might still exist, as in *sxal-
(*sh2al-) for *sal- "salt" which may then be connected with
*sax- "to parch".


- gLeN


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