Re: Short and long vowels

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:

> Finally, we have 'father', the 'feeder'. Rather than connecting it

with

> *pa:-, I would connect it with the derived root *p6-t- (*pH2-té-),

which,

> when combined, gives us *pH2-t-á:tr.-. For euphony, this was

simplified to

> *pH2{t}-tér."

I am surprised by this reconstruction: I had expected you to derive the
*-H2- as a reduced form of *-aH- or *-Ha-. Is it that for lack of
Nostratic evidence you can't determine which? Or might there perhaps
have been an original naked laryngeal between consonants?