Re: Laryngeal h4

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> At 12:56:50 PM on Thursday, November 6, 2008, etherman23
> wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
> > <gpiotr@> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> >> 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).
>
> Do you mean OE <læccan> 'to grasp, to seize'?

Yes.

> That appears
> to be from PGmc. *lakjan or the like, and I expect that a
> labiovelar wouldn't have survived WGmc. gemination and
> palatalization even if it was present in PGmc.

Indeed. So it's a pretty poor witness for the existence of a
labiovelar. So we have to rely on the Greek word. In any case it
really doesn't change the thesis. This could be a word borrowed into
Greek and Germanic but retained only in Old English and Greek.