Re: PIE voiced aspirates (?)

--- etherman23 <etherman23@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister
> <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
> >
> > Although Etruscan had no voiced stops, or at least
> its
> > alphabet did not, there are Latin words with
> voiced
> > stops that purportedly came from Etruscan. Off the
> top
> > of my head, I can think of balteus, the source of
> > English belt. Would these words have been more
> likely
> > to have originally been aspirated or non-aspirated
> > stops in Etruscan or would it have been impossible
> to tell?
>
> It's difficult to say. Etruscan often interchanged
> aspirates and
> non-aspirates. I haven't been able to spot any
> patterns to it. I
> wonder if aspiration was even phonemic.
>

Perhaps if someone has the wherewithal to do a thesis
linking aspiration (and lack thereof) to specific
times and places, they might find a pattern. Perhaps
in the early stages, people did not master writing
well enough and in the later stages, the language was
so moribund they mangled the spelling. Sound facile
but it could be true.