> If anyone bothers to answer these points, where is the opposition
> to laryngeals (authors, bibliography)?
I sent a long and detailed response, but it doesn't seem to have turned up.
I'll attach what I can recover of it below. The opposition to laryngeals
can be found in Szemerenyi, Misra, and a few other linguists. But the three
laryngeals make regular many otherwise unconnected irregularities, and the
evidence from each language group that does provide evidence points to
laryngeals in the same place in the same words. I think their existence is
beyond question now. Even Szemerenyi had to admit one at one point. We
can, however, continue to argue about the phonetic nature, and about some
particular details.
Peter
LARYNGEALS: Some Evidence
General
(a) apophony: long vowel / a~i / Ø
(b) the pattern ReC : aRC < H2ReC ~ H2eRC
(c) "Long" resonants e.g. Skt purna < *pr:na < ** pr.H-no-
Sanskrit
1. set. roots
2. Class 9 present tenses: strong -nâ, weak -niC / -nV < *-neH ~ *-nH.
3. Apparent exceptions to Brugmann's law
4. Aspirates where other languages have no aspirate.
5. kh not palatalized before e, i, y, and alternates with c and k < *kHe,
*keH, *koH
6. Vedic hiatus
7. Vedic short forms in pausa, on words ending in long vowel.
8. Skt ir, ur regularly corresponds to a PIE vocalic resonant followed by
a laryngeal.
9. Skt iRi
10. Skt i ~ Ø
11. Avestan Ø ~ Skt i
12. Lengthening before a root, for example:
· â-yunak ~ yugam ~ iugum suggests laryngeal
· ap (âpas) water: at the end of a compound âpas may appear as apa, or
after -i, -u as îpa, ûpa. This indicates a laryngeal at the beginning of
the word.
13. (perhaps?) reduplication of root inserting -i- e.g. gan-i-gm-at <
Hgen-Hgn-
Greek
1. prothetic vowel in some cases.
2. lengthening in prefix before prothetic vowel or R.
3. lengthening in negatives, e.g. no:phelos ~ ophelos < h³bhel-; and
ne:pios.
4. -ew verbs where the -e- is not lengthened in future or aorist. This
includes the Attic contracted futures in accented -w.
5. Alternation of ere (or ara) with rh / ra e.g. teretra ~ tetre:na (pf)
(Homer Od 5) < *trH "drill"; cf tereo: Pokorny 1071 eregma < *wrh¹g' ~
re:gnumi
Greek râC ~ ara is also found in Italic and Celtic. In other languages no
such difference (Beekes says "RH and ªRH collapsed"). thanatos ~
thne:tos
6. Neuter plural i & u stems, and feminines in ih²
Gk has -ia, -ua, other languages have -long i:, -u:
potnia ~ patni: Myc has po-ti-ni-ja
-teira eg geneteira ~ janitri:, Lat gen-tri:-c-
ferousa ~ bharanti: (for type cf Lith vezanti, Goth frijondi)
Lithuanian
Acute accent without a following voiced stop
Serbo Croat
Serbocroat ä (double grave) (falling tone on a short vowel) < *oH
(important evidence!)
Likewise ë, ü < RH
Latin
-ui perfect on 3rd decl verb. (v/u was put on a vowel or laryngeal stem;
appears in our texts as -u- after consonant). (A few exceptions to
this!)
Hittite
Non-assibilation of *-ti. eg. 3 sing -zi > *-ti, but perf 2 sg -ti < *tHe