On 04-10-18 01:08,
enlil@... wrote:
> So
> (gasp!) even though I'm not catching on to the idea yet, it's possible
> that *h3 could be voiced, at least in some dialects of IE, and that
> it could assimilate a neighbouring sound if *hW were simply a lightly
> rounded [hW]. Thus the 3ps *pi-ph3-e-ti in some dialects could have
> been pronounced [pibHWeti] instead of [piphWeti], thereby being
> reinterpreted as *pibHeti or *pibeti.
As far as I'm concerned, *pi-ph3-e/o- didn't count as decisive evidence
as long as it was an isolated known instance of the voicing. I saw no
way of ruling out other possible explanations, such as sporadic voicing
dissimilation (*p...p > *p...b). But Hamp's elegant analysis of the
"river" word *abon- as *h2ap-h3on- has strengthened the case for voiced
*h3 considerably, and Olsen's demonstration that the Hoffmann suffix
regularly induced assimilatory voicing in preceding stops practically
proves that *h3 was _distinctively_ [+ voice]. The only proviso is that
we agree to reconstruct the suffix as *-h3on- (rather than, say,
*-h1on-, which, if my memory serves me well, was Hoffmann's own
reconstruction). I used to have doubts about it, but now, having done
more reading on nasal suffixes and some more thinking on my own I have
overcome my initial objections. I even think Olsen is probably right in
identifying *-h3on- with the root *//h3en(h2)-// 'carry (a burden)', as
in <onus>.
Piotr