Miguel:
>To explain the nominative sg. *-ah2 out of *-a-ih2 (thematic vowel +
>*-ih2),
>we require a soundlaw that deletes *i after the thematic vowel under
>certain
>circumstances
Of course we do. Let's make even more sound change rules and ignore the
important role of analogy in the evolution of language. Yet another example
of finding a theory to satisfy an idle assumption that may (or more
importantly:
may _not_) be true. There is no guarantee that this is even remotely the
only
solution to the problem. It would be more satisfactory if your *i-deletion
could
be defended as a reasonably widespread sound change and the phonetic
processes that motivated it adequately justified. Rather, it seems that you
invented yet another "law" simply to casually explain away a specific
problem
that demands a more deeply thought out explanation.
= gLeN
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