Re: THEORY: derivation question

   Date:         Wed, 24 Mar 1999 20:38:36 -0600
   From: Tom Wier <artabanos@...>

   * (Incidentally, there was no particular reason why the
   protolanguage had to be reconstructed with an original *p; it could
   have had an *f, but then you would have to say all the other
   languages changed with the very same rule, from *f to *p, rather
   than just Germanic changing from *p to *f, and it's much easier to
   say one family made the change than all of them did. There could
   have been this other change, but it'smuch less likely.)

Actually, there is a lot of discussion currently about possible
reconstructions of the PIE stop series. The glottalic theory, nicely
described in one of your pages, is one possibility, but there are
other proposals. In some of them, the traditional *p is neither /f/ or
/p/ as such, but a geminate /pp/ --- so they all changed.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)