Re: Laryngeals: arguments from typology?

From: Etherman23
Message: 66038
Date: 2010-04-07

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, johnvertical@... wrote:
>
>
> Another note, is there any evidence outside of Greek for root-initial
> preconsonantal (ie. vocalizing) laryngeals? If not, is there anything
> speaking against considering these prefixes of some sort? The idea of
> various complex onset clusters reconstructed on the evidence of one
> branch only sounds distressingly ad hoc to me.

Armenian and Hittite. Armenian even distinguishes the three laryngeals like Greek does. In Hittite all three are reflected as *a. However it's my understanding that Hittite data is not entirely clear. I vaguely recall that Latin vocalizes them as well, but I'm not entirely sure.