--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> On 2008-11-06 03:35, etherman23 wrote:
>
> > Pretty interesting that *h2 doesn't occur before labiovelars.
>
> I actully overlooked one example: *sleh2gW-
According to Starostin this only occurs in Greek and Old English. The
Old English, laccan, appears to lack a labiovelar (though perhaps this
is due to the loss of labialization before rounded vowels if OE /a/
was rounded).
The case for *h1 before labiovelars isn't looking too good either. I
found two roots. *k'eh1kW, meaning hay. It occurs in Old Indian,
Baltic, and Germanic. However, it is well represented in the Baltic
and Germanic families. *yeh1gW meaning power. It occurs only in Greek
and Baltic (Lithuanian and Lettish).
IIRC, every example I've found is represented in Greek (usually with
Baltic) and none in Hittite, Tocharian, Italic or Celtic. This
suggests to me that the handful of counterexamples are borrowings from
a Western European substrate.