Greek Prothetic Vowel as Reflex of PIE Laryngeal (was: swallow vs. n

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

> The Greek prothetic vowel is not a regular reflex of a PIE laryngeal,
> cf. *h1ed- > odont- "tooth". Besides, loanwords do strange things.

The colouring of the prothetic vowel by an adjacent vowel rather than
the by *h1 is one of these 'irregular rules' that bedevil comparative
linguistics. For this word, cf. Aeolian Greek _édontes_ 'teeth'. I
don't know what to make of the accent placement in Aeolian Greek, though.

Richard.