Bomhard - Typological Studies and the Identification of the Indo-European Laryngeals (1979) (original) (raw)
Related papers
On Indo-European Laryngeals [& Peter Dunphy-Hetherington]
The so-called laryngeal theory, today dominant in Indo-European studies, is the most eloquent example of the great achievements of traditional Indo-European Linguistics according to many scholars. However, this theory has always had and still has many detractors. Here we compile the fundamental objections that one might formulate against the laryngeal theory.
Bomhard - An Outline of the Historical Phonology of Indo-European (1975)
1975 article comparing Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Semitic. Note: This was my first paper on distant linguistic relationship. My views have matured considerably since then -- my latest work (2018/2020) on the subject is entitled "A Comprehensive Introduction to Nostratic Comparative Linguistics". It is available for free download from academia.edu.
System PIE : The Primary Phoneme Inventory and Sound Law System for Proto-Indo-European
2013
The Indo-European sound laws are the best known of all language families. Yet many sound laws remain incompletely formulated due to a failure in the interpretation of the Old Anatolian laryngeal. The postulation of multiple laryngeals (at least three in the mainstream laryngeal theory) has led to a significant detour in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). A single laryngeal PIE * i. was already discovered by Ladislav Zgusta (1951), however, and subsequently it was confirmed by Johann Tischler (1977ff.). The current dissertation studies unexplored properties of PIE * and demonstrates that this laryngeal had a voiceless (PIE *h) and a voiced (PIE * ) variant with glottal fricative articulation. PIE * appears with PIE *a in diphonemic PIE * a and *a . This solution to the laryngeal problem allows for a clarification of the relationship between PIE *h/ and the rest of the phoneme inventory. Segmental analysis results in System PIE, the primary phoneme inventory for Proto-Indo- European consisting of PIE *a/ ? *e/ *h/ *i/ *k/g *l/ *m/ *n/ *o/ *p/b *r/ *s/z *t/d *u/ . The phoneme inventory of System PIE is minimal: it cannot be reduced and it is sufficient to generate attested Indo-European forms. Accordingly, the import of System PIE for Indo-European linguistics is comparable to mastery of the building blocks of DNA. In addition, the dissertation modernizes the essential Indo-European sound laws in terms of the laryngeal PIE *h/ . Due to the advanced stage of Indo-European linguistics, no entirely new sound laws are presented, because the yet remaining problems of the traditional sound laws reflect the absence of the
The Indo-European phonological system as traditionnally reconstructed must be regarded as extremely unlikely since that system is totally isolated typologically. Therefore, an alternate reconstruction, along the lines suggested by HOPPER and GAMKRELIDZE-IVANOV, is substituted for the traditional system. The ramifications caused by this substitution are discussed briefly, and the development of the system in the daughter languages is then traced.