Etherman23:
> *dont derives from *ed.
We have the choice of either ignoring Greek and
Anatolian evidence of *h1- without further explanation
because we want to be a hip daddy-o...
Or we can keep square, knowing that *h1C- is distinct
from *C- in IE and that *h1C- regularly shows VC- in
some languages. Square is in, baby.
> In some Greek dialects it's even preserved as
> edont.
Yes, still with prothetic vowel I see. That's the
whole point. That these vowels show assimilation
from time to time doesn't really negate the fact
that these vowels surface when we expect an initial
laryngeal... all three laryngeals, in fact.
> Greek, it seems, retains the full grade where
> other languages have the zero grade.
Nice try, but no cigar for you :) The reason is that,
if you were correct, it would be pretty fishy why
your supposed VC- stems just happen to retain full-
grade, when all other stems don't.
So, it's *?es- alright (or *h1es-, if you must). All
you have to do is grow into the fact that while *?es-
doesn't contrast with **es-, the contrast still seems
to exist before sonorants (aka: *n- versus *?n-).
Personally, I think that this contrast is a byproduct
of Syncope.
= gLeN
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