Re: [tied] Re: Schwa (Was PIE Reconstruction)

C. Darwin Goranson wrote:

> It's more that some of the combinations with laryngeals are
> potentially difficult. Not to say that even with non-laryngeal
> consonants there aren't tricky words: *dhghem (earth) isn't exactly
> easy to pronounce.

Excuse a tautology, but no language is difficult to its own speakers
once they have fully acquired it. My own native language has some really
monstrous initial clusters, such as /strf-/, /xs^c'-/ or /mgl-/, and yet
we manage pronounce them without inserting prop-vowels or making
consonants syllabic. Ancient Greek <kHtHo:n> was "difficult" too, so
what? It was easy enough for the Greeks.

Piotr