From: fournet.arnaud
Message: 55772
Date: 2008-03-23
----- Original Message -----
From: Patrick Ryan
**
Well, it is a minor point in one way but a major point in another.
The major point is that if "we can only positively identify the laryngeals
by their effect on the vowels", then if the lengthened vowels are 'original'
rather than 'colored', there is no evidence to propose that a 'laryngeal'
had any specific nature except to be a consonant that would be likely to
lengthen a vowel: /h/.
===========
Laryngeals :
- color vowels,
- lengthen vowels,
- aspirate consonants,
- voice consonants,
- induce tone patterns,
What else ?
Arnaud
============
The strongest argument I know against 'coloring' 'laryngeals' is that intact
Semitic languages like Arabic have a full complement of 'gutturals'
(?/h/¿,H) and while these may produce allophones of the vocalic phonemes,
the allophones never rise to phonemic status as proposed for PIE.
==========
Precisely because they are just allophones
and laryngeals are still there.
Arnaud
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