I just realized that *t, *d and *dH must have been originally pronounced
as *[tH], *[td-/t/-dt] (partially voiced) and *[d] during the lengthening
of schwa before voiced segments in early Late IE -- Lengthened schwa
became *o and regular schwa became *e, in order to explain the ablaut
pattern seen in thematic vowels of Proto-IE proper.
If that's so, Germanic stops must be innovative (opposing the Glottalic
Theory), losing all voicing in *d altogether, leaving *dH to be fully
voiced as normal. Whereas, in dialects like Hellenic, voicing would
progress in the partially voiced but always inaspirate *d pushing the
fully voiced *dH [d] to become a true voiced aspirate [dH]. Thus, *d
fills the "fully voiced" slot. However, the lopsided system that resulted
would then urge the development of a correlating voiceless aspirate [tH]
out of instances of *t before a laryngeal. This would be why *tH, *pH or
*kH doesn't appear to be reconstructable in IE despite the glaring and
unnatural gap in the phonological system.
Aah, I think I've got it. Now we don't have to have a lopsided system in
IE. Any opposition towards this view?
- gLeN
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