Re: [tied] *es- or *h1es- ?

----- Original Message -----
From: "etherman23" <etherman23@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 1:42 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] *es- or *h1es- ?


> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
> <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
> >
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "etherman23" <etherman23@...> wrote:
> > >
> > > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
> > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > ***
> > > > Patrick:
> > > >
> > > > No PIE root may begin with a vowel.
> > >
> > > That's the standard theory but not a single IE language lacks native
> > > words with initial vowels.
> >
> > I had always understood that Farsi was an IE language. (I don't know
> > whether the Daric variant of Modern Persian has initial vowels; it
> > still has syllable-initial consonant clusters, whereas Farsi doesn't.)
>
> If Farsi lacks vowel initial words it must be an innovation. The
> oldest attested languages has vowel initial words.
>
> > > Hittite, which generally retains
> > > laryngeals, has no attested laryngeal for PIE *es.
> >
> > What attestation could you possibly expect for Hittite if the *h1
> > were a glottal stop? Do we have ancient texts describing the
> > pronunciation of Hittite?
>
> Do glottal stops have a magical property that they can't have a
> written letter associated with them?

***
Patrick:

Any cuneiform sign of the shape VC probably should be understood to read
?VC.

This is presumably true of hieroglyphic Hittite and the Luwian syllabary.

German <ein> is really [?ain]. Since no (native) German word can begin with
a vowel, it is superfluous to write it.

***