Re: Is initial *b really rare?

While waiting for a more expert reply, here's my observation:
Pokorny does list 30 *b- out of 2222, but they seem an unusually weak
group,with doubtful, poorly attested, and nursery onomatopoiea
entries. Cal Watkins' list in the American Heritage Dictionary, which
just includes roots that have derivatives in English, lists two --
*bak "staff" and *bel "strong" -- vs. 35 for *bh-.

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Etherman23 <etherman23@...>"
<etherman23@...> wrote:

> We always hear that PIE initial *b is rare but I don't quite see the
> basis for it. I've recently begun analyzing phoneme frequencies in
> PIE (using a summary of Pokorny I found on the net). In analyzing
> initial vowels and consonants (I have not yet differentiated between
> the two but I will expand my analysis later today) I constructed a
> 98% confidence interval and found that b frequencies occurs
> comfortably within that interval. Other sounds occur much more
> infrequently yet no one says boo about them (well, except unvoiced
> aspirated stops). So what statistical basis do people have for saying
> that initial *b is rare?
>
> I'm wearing flame retardant underwear in anticipation of Glen's
> reply :)
>
>
> Etherman