What about the equally irregular voicing in
hebdo- (or Slavic sedm-) or dekad-, or Latin viginti? Ogdoos derives
from ogdow-o-, which can scarcely be a reflex of *oktH3-o-s. The very idea that
some of the laryngeals were *distinctively* voiced (non-distinctively voiced
ones would not have caused this kind of assimilation) is a Pandora's box opener.
Two or three laryngeals are just enough for my taste.
In case you wonder, I don't accept the
reconstruction of *pibeti 'drinks' as *pi-pH3-e-ti either, and generally object
to explaining just about everything by positing "laryngeals with appendices" --
a futile formal game initiated by André Martinet.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2000 9:31 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Catching up again...
>As for "eight", the exact reconstruction of the ending is
difficult. ...
the laryngeal may have been *H1.. rather than *H3
([xW]).
One of the arguments for H3 is the voicing in, for example, Greek
compounds
in ogdo-.
Peter