From: Marc Verhaegen
Message: 9680
Date: 2001-09-22
>>Could you please explain what is the relation between syllabic
>>contractions & formation of ejectives?
>
>Well, an ejective is not much more than a stop with an accompanying
>glottal closure. At least in initial position, such a combination
>would have been impossible in Mid IE because *CC- was not allowed.
>It would have been a very syllabic language like Japanese. If
>*H1 had remained *[?] medially, then we would expect combinations
>like *t? or *k? where there had once been an intervening vowel.
>Instead, if *H1 is indeed *[h], there would be no ejective
>formations possible.
>Of course, medially, one might conceive of the possibility of
>ejectives forming early as in a hypothetical MidIE example like
>**tap?e but the syllable boundaries ensure that *p and *? are
>seperate (belonging to different syllables) and hence they aren't
>really a consonant cluster per se. In initial position, *p? would
>indeed belong to the same syllable and would be indistinguishable
>from a full-fledged ejective.
>I still would say that initially, *H1 is *[?], unless there is
>reason to not think so... ?
>
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