Miguel nitpicks:
>But ejectives are *not* consonant clusters, they are single segments.
>[C'] is not the same as [C?], and there are languages where both
>occur.
I'm fully aware of this. However, for a language without ejectives,
the formation of consonant clusters like *C? is the first step to
forming them in the first place!! (??)
It's hardly reasonable to think that IE had both glottal
clusters AND ejectives, let alone ejectives at all! However, lest
you fly off the handle some more, I still feel that a very ancient
stage of IE (aka "Early Proto-Eurasiatic" c.12,000 BCE) _did_ have
ejectives at one time (in order to explain some typological
constraints unfortunately used to justify the doomed Ejective IE
hypothesis). Essentially, the series *[t?, k?, (p?)] became
*[t:, k:, (p:)] by the time ProtoSteppe came into the picture
c.9000 BCE.
IndoEuropean simply inherited this series, eventually becoming the
more familiar *[d, g, (b)]. This may be why, for instance, **b
(< *p?) is missing from the IE phonemic kit and why instances of
**deg^- (< *t?ek?-) or **deh- (< *t?e?-) don't exist either (due
to an early erosion of the first of two ejectives in a given
syllable).
Voila.
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