Re: dhuga:ter ('LARYNGEALS')

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:53:59 -0500, "Patrick Ryan"
<proto-language@...> wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Miguel Carrasquer Vidal" <miguelc@...>
>To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 8:37 PM
>Subject: Re: [tied] Re: dhuga:ter ('LARYNGEALS')
>
>
>> On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:41:00 -0500, "Patrick Ryan"
>> <proto-language@...> wrote:
>>
>> >By the way, is it not suspiciously coincidental that the 'laryngeal'
>> >theory
>> >has three coloring agents that just happen to coincide with the three
>> >attested vowels in PIE?
>>
>> It's neither suspicious nor a coincidence. It's just what we
>> would expect.
>
><snip>
>
>***
>
>Flip answers are timesavers, to be sure.
>
>Why do you not tell me why we should expect this in detail?
>
>Frankly, I think you have no argument to establish that.

There is only so much room in the lower half of the vowel
space, and we can only positively identify the laryngeals by
their effect on the vowels. I suppose that if there had been
only 1 colouring laryngeal --it would have coloured to /a/--
we wouldn't have had the coincidence. In all other cases (2
or more colouring laryngeals), we would have had what we
have.

And most tings in PIE come in threes, anyway (*k, *k^, *kW;
*k, *g, *gh).


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
miguelc@...