[tied] Re: PIE voiceless aspirates

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:

>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "aquila_grande"

<aquila_grande@...> wrote:

>
> > I wonder: Are there any instances of phonemic difference
> > between aspirated stops and stops + h in IE?
> >
> > If this is not the case, perhaps everything that look like
> > aspirated stops were stops + h(1,2or3) in IE, and the whole
> > consept of aspirated stops an illution?
>
> I do not anticipate any phonemic difference since *H is plainly
> aspiration.
>
> *tH or *t + *H would be /tH/.

No, they would pattern differently, just as *kW and *kw did.

Keeping in mind that 'H' represents the aspiration of the stop
written just before it, while 'h' represents a laryngeal:

*etho would divide into syllables as [et.ho], 1st syllable long, but
*etHo would divide into syllables as [e.tHo], 1st syllable short.

David