Re: [tied] H4 - identity? Existance?

From: P&G
Message: 43643
Date: 2006-03-03

>Are there other possible
>identities for h4? Does h4 actually exist, and if not, where does the
>"h" in Albanian come from?

I suspect the only source for h4 is the desire of linguists to explain why
some apparent h2 survive in Hittite while in other cases it vanishes. Is
there anything outside Hittite that would compel us to suggest h4? If we
could show that some Albanian initial h correspond precisely to cases where
Hittite loses h2, then you might be on to something. But I suspect you'll
only be able to find one or two instances at best.

So my advice is to make sure we have to believe in it, before we try to work
out what it was.

Peter