--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
>
>
> >> [Torsten:] Objection: IE spread. Thereofore all the known IE
languages may have substrates.
>
> > [Brian:] Producing the same change in several branches
independently? It doesn't matter much what triggered the change; as
long as it's independent in the several branches, elementary
probability theory will tell you that it's unlikely.
>
> Precisely. What matters is only that those shifts would have had to
involve several independent events, none of which, when taken
separately, can be considered inevitable or even highly probable.
>
Suppose a system p, p', b. On any substrate without glottalics either
p' > p or p' > b.
This will "jam" the system apart.
In the first case you must exaggerate the p-ness of the p, giving ph
and a system ph, p, b.
In the second case you must exaggerate the b-ness of the b, giving bh
and a system p, b, bh (and further bh > ph in Greek, supplemented
with ph in Indo-Aryan).
I can't see there's any other way.
Torsten