Re: [tied] Origins of Indo-European, and naturalness of laryngeals

> laryngeal theory. It posits the former frequent occurrence of various

> phonemes articulated at the >back of the mouth, often fricative or
> otherwise articulated with constriction of the throat. ...
>PIE probably sounded most similar, of all modern languages, to Arabic.

Although they are called "laryngeals" for historical reasons, we do not know
for certain what they were. One (h1) is likely to have been /h/ or /?/,
both of which are happily familiar to English speakers.
Another (h2) may have been nothing more freaky than a velar fricative, found
in many languages other than Arabic (e.g. modern Greek, modern German, and
Scots English).
The third (if there are only 3) is more debated, but there is no reason that
compels us to push it into the area of the throat where Arabic "gutturals"
are made. It may have been nothing more than a voiced velar fricative,
possibly, but not necessarily, with rounding.

Peter

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I have retracted this message, previously on cybalist.  I am embarrassed that I wrote it, because it really doesn't make good sense, is unquestionably biased, and is overly speculative.  It does not represent my typical point of view on topics such as these.  I apologize for it.

Andrew