Re: PIE voiceless aspirates

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dariusz_piwowarczyk"
<dariusz_piwowarczyk@...> wrote:

>
> Is there a necessity to reconstruct voiceless aspirates (i.e. ph th
> kh) for the Indo-European proto-language?
>
> Many books I've come across does not postulate them for PIE. On the
> contrary, my own teacher of IE Comparative Linguistics (W. Smoczynski)
> argues that their presence is necessary in order for the system to be
> phonologically complete (i.e. to have the opposition between the
> voiced and voiceless aspirates). Can someone tell me what's the
> general opinion on that subject?
>
> I'd be grateful for any help.

The overwhelming majority opinion is that they're unnecessary.