--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:
>
> Well, perhaps not simpler?
>
> But two stops (t?, th) and two affricates (t?s, ths) is pretty simple.
>
> Perhaps you would care to give a few examples that I will try to
illustrate through my proposed system?
Let me reiterate that the voiceless aspirates seem few in number and
are often difficult to reconstruct. However, I don't have a better
explanation of the facts. I will only present a few to illustrate the
point. All examples are from the Tower of Babel database of PIE.
PIE *k^opH/k^apH--hoof
Sanskrit s'apha
Avestan safa
Slavic kopyto (y is a high central vowel)
Baltic kana:^pa:
Germanic xo:fa
This one might be explicable with a laryngeal. Too bad we don't have a
Greek reflex. I'm guessing that the ^ in Baltic is a tone mark.
PIE k^ipH--twig
Sanskrit s'ipha:
Baltic cipulia, cipsna:^
Latin cippus
It's not clear to me if a laryngeal explanation is tenable here. The
first Baltic form doesn't have any tone mark, but the second does.
That could be from the *-eH2 feminine ending.
PIE k^opH--a kind of fish (carp)
Sanskrit s'aphara
Greek kupri:no
Baltic capala, capalia
If there's a laryngeal then I don't understand the Greek reflex. I'd
expect to see an -e- or -a- between the p and r.
PIE spHe:y--to prickle, pointed stick
Tocharian A spinae B spikiye
Sanskrit sphya
Armenian phkhin
Greek spilo, sphe:n
Slavic spi:lja:
Baltic spi:lia
Germanic spito:
Latin spi:ca
Much better attested as PIE, but not without problems. There's
definitely a laryngeal here, but can it cause distant aspiration in
Sanskrit and Greek? Greek voiceless stops don't become aspirated
because of laryngeals, but the Greek has an unaspirated form too.
Armenian is ambiguous because ph can derive from *pH or *sp.
PIE (s)pHeng--to shine
Greek phengo:, phengos
Baltic spinge:^
Germanic fankan
It's difficult to understand this without voiceless aspirates. Batic
could support either *p or *bH (by Sieb's Law if there is such a law)
But Greek supports *bH and Germanic supports *p. I suppose one could
claim there Starostin mixed two separate roots here, but I see it as
evidence for *pH which >f in Germanic and ph in Greek.
PIE mntH--mouth, jaw
Greek mathuiai
Germanic muntha, munthan
Latin mentum
Greek points to *dH but Germanic and Latin point to *t. Positing PIE
*tH explains it without assuming multiple roots or two different root
determinitives.
PIE kHar--hard, rough, stone
Sanskrit khara
Tocharian A tsar
Armenian khar
Greek krano, karkharo
The Greek forms are interesting. The first supports the notion that
voiceless aspirates became plain voiceless in consonant clusters (or
at least when the first member of a cluster). The second is a
reduplicated form with aspiration lost according to Grassman's Law.
The Tocharian form might not be related, going back to *dar instead. I
don't really know for certain though.
PIE khakha--to laugh
Sanskrit kakhati
Armenian xaxank
Old Greek kakhazdo:
Slavic xoxoty
Germanic xaxxitja
Obviously this doesn't support *kh as a phoneme in PIE, but it does
illustrate correspondences.
PIE kHowHl--heap
Sanskrit kholaka
Armenian xoyl
Baltic ku:^la:^
Starostin marks this one as questionable since the Baltic word means
dry grass.