The pronunciation of post-velars (was Re: [tied] *kW- "?")

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 19:41:12 +0000, tgpedersen
> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >How come so many PIE *ka-, *k^a- survive in Bangani?
> >
> >http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pehook/bangani.abbi2.html
>
>
> Because, controversy aside, that's the only characteristic
> of "pre-Bangani" identified to date: its centum reflexes of
> *k^-.
>
> It's like asking, if Scandinavian languages had died out,
> and nothing was known of them except for traces left in
> English, why so many Scandinavian words start with sk-.
>

Erh, what exactly would 'Scandinavian word' mean if there are no
Scandinavian languages? Why would anyone then choose to identify
English words in sk- in that way?

What I meant was: why does such a large proportion of the centum
reflexes in Bangani have the root vowel /a/, not /e/?


Torsten