I am addressing this question to those on the list who especially are
interested in (P)IE phonology.
I am led, by various considerations, to hypothesize that the earliest form
behind *o:u(a:), egg, was
*wawaH(a)
With suppression of the laryngeal, this would become *wawa:
With the stress-accent, this would become *wowá:
To prevent a series of two identical consonants, the initial *w would be
dropped, causing compensatory lengthening in the initial vowel:
*o:wa:
I am therefore proposing that in this word, the exception to the rule, the
initial phone was a vowel rather than a consonant, here a laryngeal (like the,
IMHO, mythical *H3).
Does this sequence of development make any sense at all in terms of PIE
phonology?
I am not proposing to argue the case for this only to get interested
comments.
Patrick