Re: [tied] PIE Reconstruction

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "C. Darwin Goranson"
<cdog_squirrel@...> wrote:

>
> > ...h1 did not affect vowel-quality. I'm also prone to think that
> > laryngeals did not affect o-vocalism at all.
> > - Rob
>
> If H1 didn't affect vowel quality, how can we identify if it's in a
> PIE word? Similarly, how can we know if there are laryngeals before
> "o"s if they don't have an effect?

Well, h1 affected vowel *quantity*, namely lengthening a vowel that
came before it.

If laryngeals did not affect the vowel quality of adjacent o-vocalism,
then internal reconstruction can offer no guarantees as to where they
were and weren't. Only where the o-grade alternates with some other
grade can we see where there were laryngeals, based on the evidence in
the daughter languages.

- Rob