--- In Nostratica@yahoogroups.com, "etherman23" <etherman23@...> wrote:

>
> --- In Nostratica@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" <richard@>
> wrote:
> >
> Okay, rather than trying to debate that *h2 couldn't be /x/ (indeed,
> in my first post I admitted the possibility), would you know of any
> evidence that *h1 couldn't be /S/?

Having seen evidence that the PIE subjunctive/thematic suffix is
-h1e-, I think we need it to lenite further before we reach core-IE
where the thematic suffix becomes common. On the other hand, it's
tempting to speculate about a phonetically conditioned split of */Se/
into subjunctive/thematic -h1e- and future -se- (not sure if this has
to be reconstructed as -sh1e-).

As I think Miguel pointed out, it seems odd for a language with
mandatory initial consonants not to have a glottal stop. The simplest
hypothesis is that such was one of the origins of what is
reconstructed as *h1.

Richard.