On the ancient allophony of *k and *q:
>I don't understand what you're saying. What's the conection between
>*q and *o?
Glad you asked. PIE *o was once *a, a central unrounded low vowel. The
*a that we find in PIE derives from earlier *A as in Canadian "cat" [kAt].
It
is the result of the lowering of *e in uvular environments or by the raising
of former *a (>*o) to *A next to labial phonemes. So PIE *a was once
the "in-between" vowel in terms of height of *e and *o.
The connection between Mid IE *a (>*o) and *q is that both have
the quality of [+low]. The vowel had imparted this quality to the velar,
making it a uvular. Eventually, this *q allophone of *k became a distinct
phoneme.
= gLeN
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