Re: [tied] Laryngeals revisited

> Form what I can tell, the 3 laryngeals are vowel-changing sounds.

Not entirely.
(a) H1 leaves the vowel unchanged.
(b) There is debate over the outcome of some sequences where the vowel is
not /e/.

>I've
> seen several views on their indentities:
>Which is most widely accepted?

h1 was probably /h/ or /?/.
h2 may have been a velar or post-velar fricative.
h3 may have been voiced (though evidence is slim) and may have been rounded.

>And would
> there be a "w" sound in things like *kwon,

Yes. We have to distinguish the sequence k-w/u- from the single phoneme kW.

> If there IS a "w" sounds, wouldn't Pxwter sound a
> bit too consonant-based?

If you're suggesting that h2 was a rounded x, you're not likely to be right.
But labialised consonants do occur before /t/, eg in *nekWt = night.

> Amd is it now more generally accepted that Hittite is the first branch
> of PIE?

All branches were first equal. But if you mean the first to separate off,
then lots of people agree with you. The other branches show similarities
with each other, so either Hittite changed or they did. This suggests
Hittite was separate early. It does not mean Hittite is closer to PIE.

Peter