Re: [tied] A snappy comeback

> >but a detailed conjecture is still a
> >conjecture. And it's based on the assumption that laryngeals had
> >disappeared in Greek, which ihis case amounts to begging the
> >question. I don't think anyone tried to work out the details of the
> >hypothetical case that they hadn't.

No one has bothered because it is not possible. Greek shows the results of
the disappearance of the laryngeals, not the presence of them. The results
are not a one-to-one replacement of one sound with another (eg the 3-way
alternations of oro / or / ro: etc). So Greek as we know it is not
explicable if laryngeals survive.

Peter