[tied] Re: Germanic Scythians?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <petegray@...> wrote:

> > Producing the same change in several branches independently?
> > It doesn't matter much what triggered the change; as long as
> > it's independent in the several branches, elementary
> > probability theory will tell you that it's unlikely.
>
> And yet elementary linguistics tells you that in well attested

cases, it has

> happened. Greek, I-I and Italic all seem to have maintained

laryngeals at a

> time when they were separate, and all lost them in parallel (though

not

> identical) ways. Grassman's Law appears to be independent in Greek

and Skt.

> and so on and so on....
>
> Peter

Yes, but consider the scenario in which a dwindling upper class
of "real" PIE speakers gradually adopts the non-laryngeal speech
habits of the great unwashed... Laryngeals would disappear in
different ways, depending on the sociological situation, but they
would be doomed from the beginning (of occupation).

Torsten


Torsten