--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "etherman23" <etherman23@...>
wrote:
> How about *es? Then I don't have to invent a consonant that
appears as
> a vowel only in Hittite.
And
> Personally I think the contrast is a desperate attempt to explain
> everything with laryngeals.
The reconstruction *H1es- is not based solely on the prothetic
vowels of Greek and Hittite. There is also lengthening across
boundaries as in Ved. á:sat- 'not being' from *n.-H1s-n.t-; and
there is the imperfect 3pl á:san which only has the normal
relationship to the 3pl prs. sánti if posited as *é + *H1s-ént and
*H1s-énti (like á-ghn-an and ghn-ánti).
Of course it is a desperate attempt to explain everything with
whatever works. But what is wrong with that?
Jens