Re: PIE *c ? [Was: -osyo 4]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:

> It's arguable that what we find finally in
> *po:d-s and *h1dont-s was a single affricate segment rather than a
> cluster, and */c/ is an attractive analysis of the "thorn" in

the "core"

> IE groups. I'd suggest that the reason why we find *gWHð, *g^Hð,

*kWþ

> and *k^þ, but no *gWð or *g^ð, is that */c/ was the only phonemic
> affricate. It could become allophonically breathy-voiced by

progressive

> assimilation when preceded by a breathy-voiced stop (like *t by
> Bartholomae's Law), but ordinary modal-voice assimilation was
> regressive, so any underlying media was automatically devoiced

before

> */c/. But if */c/ was the first segment in a cluster, its phonation

type

> was automatically assimilated to that of a following stop (*//-d-d-

,

> -t-d-// --> */-cd-/ [3d], etc.). In fact, it behaved exactly like

*/s/

> in these respects.

There is another explanation for the lack of **gWð and **g^ð, which
the metathetic explanation (*k^þ is really *tk) would derive from
**dgW and **dg^. This explanation is the rule that adjacent
unaspirated voiced consonants had to agree in place of articulation.
Unfortunately I noted this rule down over 25 years ago without
recording source or exampes, so I will have to rely on someone else
to defend it if it is challenged. (I hope it wasn't derived from an
analysis of thorny clusters.) I have seen the rule advanced as
evidence for the glottalic theory.

Richard.