Re: [tied] Battle of the cow

Yes, it exists, but only in circumstances that favour
extreme forms of phonological reduction (including vowel
syncope). For example, *pk^u- as a reduced for of of *pek^u-
is found in derivatives and compounds only, while its
expected occurrences in the noun paradigm were replaced with
more transparent analogical forms, apparently at an early
date.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 11:34 PM
Subject: [tied] Battle of the cow



> >The laryngeal (when it still existed) caused
syllabification problems; this
> >is why the reduced form *gW(h3)u- > *g(W)w- is rarely
attested except in
> >some compounds and derivatives like Toch. A ki < *gw-ih2-
and Gk.
> >(hekatom-)be: < *-gw-ah2.
>
> Yet, you're saying that it STILL exists. Therefore, it
apparently
> didn't create too much of a syllabification problem. It's
> interesting to note that my early prothetic *a- idea
should be
> relevant here if what you say is true. We would have had
> messy *CCC- situations in Late Mid IE like **g(W)xWw-
which
> would have necessitated *a-, producing **ag^xWw- and later
> **og^xWw- (this result is based on the example of *ok^to:u
> from *kWetWaxe). Instead, we only have *gw-ix- and
*-gw-ax,
> which tells me that there is no such *H3 present.