Re: [tied] Re:Status of Hittite

----- Original Message -----
From: Alexander Stolbov
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re:Status of Hittite



----- Original Message -----
From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <piotr.gasiorowski@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 11:38 AM
Subject: [tied] Re:Status of Hittite

> This could be proved easily if one convincingly demonstrate: firstly, an
innovation shared by all IE languages but Anatolian,

The three-gender system -- more likely than the reduction of
masculine/feminine/neuter to animate/inanimate in Anatolian (given the
partial survival of the two-way pattern in the Rest).

> secondly, an innovation shared by all IE languages but Anatolian and
Tocharian.

The "thorny" metathesis of *tk clusters, as in *dg^Ho:m and *h2r.tk^os .

> On the other hand, one should be ready to prove that all the common
features of Tocharian and, say, Italic (or Celtic) are just shared archaisms
or coinciding results of independent developments. This task seems to be
harder.

Which particular features? The "r-middle"? That's safely an archaism.

Piotr