Re: v > ?

>    So, the question for you all: how do you think Quenya _v_ would
> be fit
> into the PIE sound system (details below, as relevant to the Celtic
> langs)?
>
>    Stops:  p t k' [k] kw
>                [b] d g' [g] gw
>               bh dh g'h [gh] gwh
>
>    fricative: s [th]
>
>    laryngeals: h1 h2 h3
>    (and does anyone have any resources on recent laryngeal theory?)
I can't name articles right off, but last I heard there was nothing but a
lot of arguing.  The "standard" view endorses them as some sort of
pharyngeal fricative, but there's good arguments to consider them
vocoids.  The real answer is that no one knows and there's probably no
way to find out.

>    sonants: y/i w/u r l m n
>
>    vowels:  [a] e o [a:] e: o:
>
>    As I understand it, the []ed phonemes are ones of questionable
> existence
> at the stage of the first transformations in Proto-Celtic.
>
>    My guess is for _v_ > _bh_ or _w_, but I have no reasoning for
> these
> choices.
I suggest v > w.  That's how my Thai TA realizes English /v/ (which
doesn't occur in her native language), and that seems most likely
typologically.  V > bh seems very unlikely, especially since /bh/ was
definitely not a fricative, and hardening [v] into [b_h] seems quite
unlikely.

Jesse S. Bangs     Pelíran
jaspax@ juno.com
"Skin and tragedy always attract a crowd."
    --Pedro the Lion

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