> IE itself could
> ***NOT*** have had palatal velar stops despite the
> stubborn tradition of writing them this way.
Perhaps the stubborn tradition persists because some of us are unconvinced.
Since the reflexes of traditional *k^ are palatals, there must have been
palatalisation at some stage.
Since this occurs in the same roots in those language groups that do it,
those dialect groups must have been in contact. The alternative is to
suggest parallel development in several language groups, which seems
implausible here.
Besides, the PIE symbols can be taken as arbitrary and algebraic: *k^ means
the phoneme which develops into palatals in those roots, and this symbol may
be the best we can do.
Peter