Re: Nostratic (was Re: Schwebeablaut (was Re: tolkien?))
| From: | John Cowan <cowan@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, December 21, 2003, 22:37 |
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Rob Haden scripsit:
> Assuming that voiced stops were earlier unvoiced ejective stops? Or what?
Yes, the so-called "glottal theory", which reinterprets the traditional
voiced-aspirated / voiced / voiceless stops as voiced / voiceless ejective /
voiceless respectively. There are two main advantages to this: 1) It
is typologically more reasonable. No known language has voiced aspirated
stops without voiceless aspirated ones. 2) It neatly accounts for the
rarity of traditional *b, since it is known that labial ejectives are
less common than non-labial ones.
--
John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com www.reutershealth.com www.ccil.org/~cowan
[R]eversing the apostolic precept to be all things to all men, I usually [before
Darwin] defended the tenability of the received doctrines, when I had to do
with the [evolution]ists; and stood up for the possibility of [evolution] among
the orthodox--thereby, no doubt, increasing an already current, but quite
undeserved, reputation for needless combativeness. --T. H. Huxley
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