Re: [tied] pronunciation of laryngeals

The available evidence is discussed very carefully in Puhvel's article on Anatolian laryngeal reflexes in W. Winter (ed.) "Evidence for the Laryngeals". Leaving aside Puhvel's somewhat speculative reconstruction of PIE values, his down-to-earth analysis of Hittite orthography (the graphemes used by Hittite scribes, handling of loanwords, etc.) points to a back (velar/uvular) fricative.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: Miguel Carrasquer Vidal

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 2:07 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] pronunciation of laryngeals

On Sun, 11 Feb 2001 09:35:41 -0000, "petegray" <petegray@...> wrote: >I have read that there is no evidence at all that the sound transcribed as ><h with a thing underneath it> was actually a velar fricative in Hittite. >It could simply have been /h/ as in English. The transcription comes from >the tradition of transcribing it that way within all cuneiform inscriptions, >which itself can be questioned. In Hittite there is no other /h/ sound. > >How far is this accurate? The evidence we have for [x] is indirect, but pretty solid. There is internal evidence, such as the occasional variation between <h> and <k> (hameshants/hameskants "spring"), which is best explained if <h> were a velar fricative, and there is external evidence, in particular the rendering of the name <Hatti> in hieroglyphic as <xt3> (Egyptian had <x> (h-ring) = /x/, <h> (h) = /h/, <X> (h-bar) = /ç/(?) and <H> (h-dot) = /H/, the pronunciation of which [except for "h-bar"] can be solidly established by comparing the Egyptian rendering of West Semitic names and words, and the West Semitic rendering of Egyptian words and names). In Akkadian cuneiform, <h> represents the PSem. velar fricatives */x/ and */G/ (while the PSem. glottals */?/, */h/ and epiglottals/ pharyngeals */3/ and */H/ are unmarked), so I don't think there is much reason to question the tradition of reading cuneiform <h> as /x/. It's harder to say whether Hittite had more than one H-sound: cuneiform spelling did not provide more than one series. It has been suggested that medially, <h> was distinct from <hh>. ======================= Miguel Carrasquer Vidal mcv@...