
The laryngeal theory is a theory in
historical linguistics
Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...
positing that the
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
(PIE) language included a number of
laryngeal consonants that are not
reconstructable by direct application of the
comparative method
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards ...
to the
Indo-European family. The "missing" sounds remain
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
s of an indeterminate
place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is an approximate location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a pa ...
towards the back of the mouth, though further information is difficult to derive. Proponents aim to use the theory to:
* Produce greater regularity in the reconstruction of PIE
phonology
Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...
than from the reconstruction that is produced by the comparative method.
* Extend the general occurrence of the
Indo-European ablaut
In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut ( , from Standard High German, German ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE).
An example of ablaut in English is the Germanic strong verb, strong ...
to
syllables
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
with reconstructed
vowel
A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
phonemes other than or .
In its earlier form (
see below), the theory proposed two sounds in PIE. Combined with a reconstructed or , the sounds produce vowel phonemes that would not otherwise be predicted by the rules of ablaut.
The theory received considerable support after the deciphering of
Hittite, which revealed it to be an Indo-European language. Many Hittite words were shown to be derived from PIE, with a phoneme represented as corresponding to one of the hypothetical PIE sounds. Subsequent scholarly work has established a set of rules by which an ever-increasing number of
reflex
In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus.
Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occurs ...
es in daughter languages may be derived from
PIE roots. The number of explanations thus achieved and the simplicity of the postulated system have both led to widespread acceptance of the theory.
In its most widely accepted version, the theory posits three laryngeal phonemes in PIE: h₁, h₂, and h₃ (
see below). Daughter languages other than Hittite did not preserve the laryngeals themselves, but inherited sounds derived from the
merger
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...
of these laryngeals with PIE
short vowels and the subsequent loss of those laryngeals.
The phonemes are now recognized as consonants, related to
articulation in the general area of the
larynx
The larynx (), commonly called the voice box, is an organ (anatomy), organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. The opening of larynx into pharynx known as the laryngeal ...
, where a consonantal
gesture
A gesture is a form of nonverbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or othe ...
may affect
vowel quality. They are regularly known as laryngeal, but the actual place of articulation for each consonant remains a matter of debate. (
see below).
The laryngeals got their name because they were believed by
Hermann Möller and
Albert Cuny to have had a
pharyngeal,
epiglottal, or
glottal place of articulation, involving a constriction near the
larynx
The larynx (), commonly called the voice box, is an organ (anatomy), organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. The opening of larynx into pharynx known as the laryngeal ...
. While this is still possible, many linguists now think of laryngeals, or some of them, as having been
velar or
uvular.
The evidence for their existence is mostly indirect, as will be shown below, but the theory serves as an elegant explanation for several properties of the PIE vowel system that made no sense without the theory, such as the independent
schwas (as in 'father'). Also, the hypothesis that PIE schwa ''*ə'' was a consonant, not a vowel, provides an explanation for some apparent exceptions to
Brugmann's law in
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...
.
History

The beginnings of the theory were proposed by
Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...
in 1879, in an article chiefly demonstrating that and were separate phonemes in PIE.
In the course of his analysis, Saussure proposed that what had then been reconstructed as long vowels and , alternating with , was an ordinary type of
PIE ablaut. That is, it was an alternation between ''e'' grade and zero grade like in "regular" ablaut (further explanations below), but followed by a previously unidentified element. This element accounted for both the changed vowel colour and the lengthening (short becoming long or ).
So, rather than reconstructing , and as others had done before, Saussure proposed alternating with and with , where and represented the unidentified elements. Saussure called them simply , which was the term for what are now in English more usually called
resonants; that is, the six elements present in PIE which can be either consonants (non-syllabic) or vowels (syllabic) depending on the sounds they are adjacent to: .
These views were accepted by a few scholars, in particular
Hermann Möller, who added important elements to the theory. Saussure's observations, however, did not achieve any general currency, as they were still too abstract and had little direct evidence to back them up.
This changed when
Hittite was discovered and deciphered in the early 20th century.
Hittite phonology included two sounds written with symbols from the
Akkadian syllabary
In the Linguistics, linguistic study of Written language, written languages, a syllabary is a set of grapheme, written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) mora (linguistics), morae which make up words.
A symbol in a syllaba ...
conventionally transcribed as , as in 'I put, am putting'. This consonant did not appear to be related to any of the consonants then reconstructed for PIE, and various unsatisfactory proposals were made to explain this consonant in terms of the PIE consonant system as it had then been reconstructed.
It remained for
Jerzy Kuryłowicz to propose that these sounds lined up with Saussure's conjectures. He suggested that the unknown consonant of Hittite was, in fact, a direct reflex of the that Saussure had proposed.
Their appearance explained some other matters as well. As an example, most verb roots were reconstructed with both initial and final consonants, but some were instead reconstructed with no final consonant; the latter always bore a long vowel, never short, as in "give". The newly reconstructed laryngeals allowed linguists to decompose this further into . This not only accounted for the patterns of alternation more economically than before (by requiring fewer types of ablaut) but also brought the structure of these roots into line with the basic PIE pattern which required roots to begin and end with a consonant.
The lateness of the discovery of these sounds by Indo-Europeanists is largely because
Hittite and the other
Anatolian languages
The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia. The best known Anatolian language is Hittite, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European language.
Undiscovered until the late ...
are the only Indo-European languages for which at least some are attested directly and consistently as consonantal sounds. Otherwise, their presence is to be inferred mostly through the effects they have on neighboring sounds, and on patterns of alternation that they participate in. When a laryngeal is attested directly, it is usually as a special type of vowel and not as a consonant, best exemplified in Greek where syllabic laryngeals (when they appeared next to only consonants) developed as such: > e, > a, and > o.
Varieties of laryngeals
There are many variations of the laryngeal theory. Some scholars, such as
Oswald Szemerényi, reconstruct just one laryngeal. Some follow
Jaan Puhvel
Jaan Puhvel (born 24 January 1932) is an Estonians, Estonian comparative linguistics, comparative linguist and comparative mythologist who specializes in Indo-European studies.
Born in Estonia, Puhvel fled his country with his family in 1944 f ...
's reconstruction of eight or more.
Basic laryngeal set
Most scholars work with a basic three:
*, the neutral laryngeal
*, the a-colouring laryngeal
*, the o-colouring laryngeal
Additional laryngeals
*
Some scholars suggest the existence of a fourth consonant, , which differs from in not being reflected as Anatolian
but being reflected, to the exclusion of all other laryngeals, as Albanian ''h'' when word-initial before an originally stressed vowel.
E.g. PIE 'testicle' yields Albanian 'testicle' but Hittite 'testicle' whereas PIE '"bear' yields Albanian 'bear' but Hittite (=/hartka-/) 'cultic official, bear-person'.
When there is an uncertainty whether the laryngeal is or , the symbol may be used.
* doublet
Another such theory, but much less generally accepted, is
Winfred P. Lehmann's view, based on inconsistent reflexes in Hittite, that was two separate sounds. (He assumed that one was a
glottal stop
The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...
and the other a
glottal fricative
Glottal consonants are consonants using the glottis as their primary articulation. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the glottal fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants ...
.)
Direct evidence for laryngeals
Some direct evidence for laryngeal consonants comes from Anatolian.
In PIE is a fairly rare sound, and in an uncommonly large number of good etymologies, it is word-initial. Thus PIE (traditional) 'in front of and facing' >
* Greek 'against'
* Latin 'in front of, before'
* Sanskrit 'near; in the presence of'.
But in Hittite there is the noun 'front, face', with various derivatives ( 'first', and so on), pointing to a PIE root-noun 'face' (of which would be the locative singular).
However, it does not follow that all reconstructed forms with initial should automatically be rewritten .
Similarly, the traditional PIE reconstruction for 'sheep' is (a ''y''-stem, not an ''i''-stem) whence Sanskrit , Latin , Greek . But
Luwian
Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...
has , indicating instead the reconstruction .
Lyco-Carian chain shift
In the Anatolian languages
Lycian and
Carian, there was a
chain shift
In historical linguistics, a chain shift is a set of sound changes in which the change in pronunciation of one speech sound (typically, a phoneme) is linked to, and presumably causes, a change in pronunciation of other sounds. The sounds invo ...
such that > k > c. In other words, PIE is reflected as in these languages, and PIE as .
Alwin Kloekhorst takes this as evidence that PIE originally had a value of , but Martin Joachim Kümmel is skeptical of Kloekhorst's hypothesis and prefers to model the laryngeals as
fricatives
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
.
Pronunciation
Considerable debate still surrounds the pronunciation of the laryngeals and various arguments have been given to pinpoint their exact place of articulation. Firstly, the effect these sounds have had on adjacent phonemes is well documented. The evidence from Hittite and Uralic is sufficient to conclude that these sounds were
guttural
Guttural Phone (phonetics), speech sounds are those with a primary place of articulation near the back of the oral cavity, where it is difficult to distinguish a sound's place of articulation and its phonation. In popular usage it is an imprecise t ...
, pronounced rather back in the vocal tract. The same evidence is also consistent with the assumption that they were fricative sounds (as opposed to approximants or stops), an assumption that is strongly supported by the behaviour of laryngeals in consonant clusters.
Rasmussen suggested a consonantal realization for as the
voiceless glottal fricative
The voiceless glottal fricative, sometimes called voiceless glottal transition or the aspirate, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages that patterns like a fricative or approximant consonant '' phonologically'', but often lacks the ...
with a syllabic allophone (
mid central unrounded vowel).
This is supported by the closeness of to (with which it combines in Greek), its failure (unlike and ) to create an auxiliary vowel in Greek and Tocharian when it occurs between a semivowel and a consonant,
[ and the typological likelihood of an given the presence of aspirated consonants in PIE.]
theorized, based on inconsistent reflexes in Hittite, that there were two sounds: a glottal stop
The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...
and an ''h'' sound as in English ''hat'', similar to reconstructing and as varying between geminate uvular stops and fricatives in PIE, which is typologically likely given the assumed correspondence of the three PIE laryngeals to the Proto-Uralic laryngeal (possibly velar ), Finnic *h < Pre-Finnic *š and k (including word-initially) alike in Jorma Koivulehto's theories about PIE loans into Proto-Uralic. Robert S. P. Beekes suggested that is always a glottal stop .
Alwin Kloekhorst argued that the Hieroglyphic Luwian
Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian languages, Anatolian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya ...
sign no. 19 (, conventionally transcribed ) stood for (distinct from , sign no. 450: ) and represents the reflex of ; this would support the hypothesis that was, at least in some cases, . Later, Kloekhorst claimed that also Hittite preserves PIE as a glottal stop , visible in words like Hittite 'he is' < PIE , where an extra initial vowel sign ( plene spelling) is used. This hypothesis has been met with serious criticism; ''e.g.'', from Elisabeth Rieken, Craig Melchert
Harold Craig Melchert (born April 5, 1945) is an American linguist known particularly for his work on the Anatolian branch of Indo-European.
Biography
He received his B.A. in German from Michigan State University in 1967 and his Ph.D. in Lingui ...
, and Mark Weeden.
Zsolt Simon supported Kloekhorst's thesis by suggesting that plene spelling in Cuneiform Luwian
Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...
can be explained in a similar way. Additionally, Simon's 2013 article revises the Hieroglyphic Luwian evidence and concludes that although some details of Kloekhorst's arguments could not be maintained, his theory can be confirmed.
An idea occasionally advanced that the laryngeals were dorsal fricatives corresponding directly to the three traditionally reconstructed series of dorsal stops ( palatal, velar, and labiovelar; i.e., that the laryngeals , and are more accurately written , , and respectively) suggests a further possibility, a palatal fricative .
From what is known of such phonetic conditioning in contemporary languages, notably Semitic languages, (the a-colouring laryngeal) could have been a pharyngeal fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
such as and . Pharyngeal consonants (like ''heth
Heth, sometimes written Chet or Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''ḥēt'' 𐤇, Hebrew ''ḥēt'' , Aramaic ''ḥēṯ'' 𐡇, Syriac ''ḥēṯ'' ܚ, and Arabic ''ḥāʾ'' . It is also related to ...
'' in the Semitic abjads) often cause a-colouring in the Semitic languages.
Uvular fricative
Uvulars are consonants place of articulation, articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the Palatine uvula, uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stop consonant, stops, fricative consonant, ...
s may also colour vowels; thus, is also a noteworthy candidate. Weiss (2016) suggests that this was the case in Proto-Indo-European proper, and that a shift from uvular into pharyngeal may have been a common innovation of the non-Anatolian languages (before the consonant's eventual loss). Rasmussen (1983) suggested a consonantal realization for as a voiceless velar fricative
The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English, e.g. in ''lo ...
, with a syllabic allophone , i.e. a near-open central vowel.[
Kloekhorst proposes, based on evidence from ]Anatolian languages
The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia. The best known Anatolian language is Hittite, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European language.
Undiscovered until the late ...
, that was originally a geminate uvular stop (he also holds the view that the traditionally voiceless stops of PIE were in fact geminate, as in Hittite), although he judges it plausible that already in PIE it had a fricative allophone.
Likewise it is generally assumed that was rounded (labialized) due to its o-colouring effects. It is often taken to have been voiced based on the perfect form from the root "drink" and Cowgill's law in Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...
(PIE ''→'' PPGmc ''→'' PGmc , "us two"). Rasmussen chose a consonantal realization for as a voiced labialized velar fricative , with a syllabic allophone , i.e. a close-mid central rounded vowel
The close-mid central rounded vowel, or high-mid central rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase barred letter o. The value was specified only in ...
.[ Kümmel instead suggests .
Kloekhorst reconstructs as the basic value, which in his view would be the labialized counterpart to (see above).][
]
Support for theory from daughter languages
The hypothetical existence of laryngeals in PIE finds support in the body of daughter language cognates which can be most efficiently explained through simple rules of development.
Direct reflexes of laryngeals
Unambiguous examples are confined to Anatolian languages
The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia. The best known Anatolian language is Hittite, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European language.
Undiscovered until the late ...
. Words with Hittite (''hh''), Luwian
Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...
''h'' and Lycian are explained as reflexes of PIE roots with .
Some Hittitologists have also proposed that was preserved in Hittite as , although only word initially and after a resonant. Kortlandt holds that was preserved before all vowels except . Similarly, Kloekhorst believes they were lost before resonants as well.
In Germanic
Reconstructed instances of in Proto-Germanic have been explained as reflexes of PIE (and possibly ), a process known as Cowgill's law. The proposal has been challenged but is defended by Don Ringe.
In Albanian
In the Albanian language
Albanian (Endonym and exonym, endonym: , , or ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid, Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan languages, Paleo-Balkan group. It ...
, a minority view proposes that some instances of word-initial ''h'' continue a laryngeal consonant.
In Western Iranian
Martin Kümmel has proposed that some initial and in contemporary Western Iranian
The Western Iranian languages or Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranian languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median.
Languages
The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southweste ...
languages, commonly thought to be prothetic, are instead direct survivals of , lost in epigraphic Old Persian
Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as (I ...
but retained in marginal dialects ancestral among others to Modern Persian.
Proposed indirect reflexes
In all other daughter languages, a comparison of the cognates can support only hypothetical intermediary sounds derived from PIE combinations of vowels and laryngeals. Some indirect reflexes are required to support the examples above where the existence of laryngeals is uncontested.
The proposals in this table account only for attested forms in daughter languages. Extensive scholarship has produced a large body of cognates which may be identified as reflexes of a small set of hypothetical intermediary sounds, including those in the table above. Individual sets of cognates are explicable by other hypotheses but the sheer bulk of data and the elegance of the laryngeal explanation have led to widespread acceptance in principle.
Vowel coloration and lengthening
In the proposed Anatolian-language reflexes above, only some of the vowel sounds reflect PIE . In the daughter languages in general, many vowel sounds are not obvious reflexes. The theory explains this as the result of H coloration and H loss.
:1 H coloration. PIE *e is coloured (i.e. its sound value is changed) before or after and , but not when next to .
:2 H loss. Any of the three laryngeals (symbolized here as H) is lost before a short vowel. Laryngeals are also lost before another consonant (symbolized here as C), with consequent lengthening of the preceding vowel.
The results of H coloration and H loss are recognized in daughter-language reflexes such as those in the table below:
Greek triple reflex vs schwa
Between three phonological contexts, Greek reflexes display a regular vowel pattern that is absent from the supposed cognates in other daughter languages.
Before the development of laryngeal theory, scholars compared Greek, Latin and Sanskrit (then considered earliest daughter languages) and concluded the existence in these contexts of a schwa (ə) vowel in PIE, the ''schwa indogermanicum''. The contexts are: 1. between consonants (short vowel); 2. word initial before a consonant (short vowel); 3. combined with a liquid
Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...
or nasal
Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination:
* With reference to the human nose:
** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery
* ...
consonant , l, m, n(long vowel).
:1 Between consonants
::Latin displays a and Sanskrit i, whereas Greek displays e, a, or o.
:2 Word initial before a consonant
::Greek alone displays e, a, or o.
:3 Combined with a liquid or nasal
::Latin displays a liquid/nasal consonant followed by ā; Sanskrit displays either īr/ūr or the vowel ā alone; Greek displays a liquid/nasal consonant followed by ē, ā (in dialects such as Doric), or ō.
Laryngeal theory provides a more elegant general description than reconstructed schwa by assuming that the Greek vowels are derived through vowel colouring and H loss from PIE , , and , constituting a triple reflex.
:1 Between consonants
::An explanation is provided for the existence of three vowel reflexes in Greek corresponding to single reflexes in Latin and in Sanskrit.
:2 Word initial
::The assumption of *HC- in PIE yields an explanation for a dichotomy exhibited below between cognates in the Anatolian, Greek, and Armenian languages reflexes with initial a and cognates in the remaining daughters which lack that syllable, The theory assumes initial in the PIE root, which has been lost in most of the daughter languages.
:: 'star': Hittite , Greek ''astḗr'', Armenian ''astł'', Latin , Sanskrit
:: 'live, spend time': Hittite 'live', Greek ''á(w)esa'' 'I spent a night', Sanskrit 'spend the night', English ''was''
:: 'man': Greek ''anḗr'', Armenian ''ayr'' (from ''*anir''), Oscan ''niir'', Sanskrit
:3 Combined with a liquid or nasal
::These presumed sonorant reflexes are completely distinct from those deemed to have developed from single phonemes.
:
The phonology of the sonorant examples in the previous table can only be explained by the presence of adjacent phonemes in PIE. Assuming the phonemes to be a following , , or allows the same rules of vowel coloration and H-loss to apply to both PIE and PIE sonorants.
Support from Greek ablaut
The hypothetical values for sounds with laryngeals after H coloration and H loss (such as seen above in the triple reflex) draw much of their support for the regularization they allow in ablaut patterns, specifically the uncontested patterns found in Greek.
=Ablaut in the root
=
In the following table, each row shows undisputed Greek cognates sharing the three ablaut grades of a root. The four sonorants and the two semivowels are represented as individual letters, other consonants as C and the vowel or its absence as (V).
The reconstructed PIE e grade and zero grade of the above roots may be arranged as follows:
An extension of the table to PIE roots ending in presumed laryngeals allows many Greek cognates to follow a regular ablaut pattern.
=Ablaut in the suffix
=
The first row of the following table shows how uncontested cognates relate to reconstructed PIE stems with e-grade or zero-grade roots, followed by e grade or zero grade of the suffix . The remaining rows show how the ablaut pattern of other cognates is preserved if the stems are presumed to include the suffixes , , and .
Intervocalic H loss
In the preceding sections, forms in the daughter languages were explained as reflexes of laryngeals in PIE stems. Since these stems are judged to have contained only one vowel, the explanations involved H loss either when a vowel preceded or when a vowel followed. However, the possibility of H loss between two vowels is present when a stem combines with an inflexional suffix.
It has been proposed that PIE H loss resulted in hiatus, which in turn was contracted to a vowel sound distinct from other long vowels by being disyllabic or of extra length.
=Early Indo-Iranian disyllables
=
A number of long vowels in Avestan
Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...
were pronounced as two syllables, and some examples also exist in early Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
, particularly in the ''Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...
''. These can be explained as reflexes of contraction following a hiatus caused by the loss of intervocalic H in PIE.
=Proto-Germanic trimoraic o
=
The reconstructed phonology of Proto-Germanic (PG), the ancestor of the Germanic languages, includes a long phoneme, which is in turn the reflex of PIE . As outlined above, laryngeal theory has identified instances of PIE as reflexes of earlier , or before a consonant.
However, a distinct long PG phoneme has been recognized with a different set of reflexes in daughter languages. The vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels.
On one hand, many ...
has been calculated by observing the effect of the shortening of final vowels in Gothic.
Reflexes of trimoraic or overlong are found in the final syllable of nouns or verbs, and are thus associated with inflectional endings. Thus four PG sounds are proposed, shown here with Gothic and Old English reflexes:
A different contrast is observed in endings with final :
Laryngeal theory preserves regularities in declensions
In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to wikt:decline#Verb, decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, ...
and conjugations by explaining the trimoraic sound as a reflex of H loss between vowels followed by contraction. Thus
* by H loss *oHo > *oo > *ô;
* by H coloration and H loss *eh₂e > *ae > *â > *ô.
(Trimoraic *ô is also reconstructed as word final in contexts that are not explained by laryngeal theory.)
=Balto-Slavic long vowel accent
=
The reconstructed phonology of the Balto-Slavic languages
The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family of languages, traditionally comprising the Baltic languages, Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits ...
posits two distinct long vowels in almost exact correspondence to bimoraic and trimoraic vowels in Proto-Germanic. The Balto-Slavic vowels are distinguished not by length but by intonation; long vowels with circumflex accent correspond to Proto-Germanic trimoraic vowels. A significant proportion of long vowels with an acute accent (also described as with acute register) correspond to Proto-Germanic bimoric vowels. These correspondences have led to the suggestion that the split between them occurred in the last common ancestor of the two daughters.
It has been suggested that acute intonation was associated with glottalization
Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent cons ...
, a suggestion supported by glottalized reflexes in Latvian. This could lend support to a theory that laryngeal consonants developed into glottal stops before their disappearance in Balto-Slavic and Proto-Germanic.
H loss adjacent to other sounds
=After stop consonants
=
A significant number of instances of voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
aspirates in the Indo-Iranian languages
The Indo-Iranian languages (also known as Indo-Iranic languages or collectively the Aryan languages) constitute the largest branch of the Indo-European language family. They include over 300 languages, spoken by around 1.7 billion speakers ...
may be explained as reflexes of PIE stop consonants immediately followed by laryngeals (*CH > *Cʰ).
=After resonants
=
PIE resonants (sonorants) , , , are predicted to become consonantal allophones
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plosi ...
, , , when immediately followed by a vowel. Using R to symbolize any resonant (sonorant) and V for any vowel, *R̥V>*RV. Instances in the daughter languages of a vocalic resonant immediately followed by a vowel (RV) can sometimes be explained as reflexes of PIE *R̥HV with a laryngeal between the resonant and the vowel giving rise to a vocalic allophone. This original vocalic quality was preserved following H loss.
=Next to semivowels
=
Laryngeal theory has been used to explain the occurrence of a reconstructed sound change known as Holtzmann's law or sharpening (German ) in North Germanic and East Germanic languages. The existing theory explains that PIE semivowels and were doubled to Proto-Germanic and , and that these in turn became and respectively in Gothic and and in early North Germanic languages. However, the existing theory had difficulty in predicting which instances of PIE semivowels led to sharpening and which instances failed to do so. The new explanation proposes that words exhibiting sharpening are derived from PIE words with laryngeals.
Many of these techniques rely on the laryngeal being preceded by a vowel, and so they are not readily applicable for word-initial laryngeals except in Greek and Armenian. However, occasionally languages have compounds in which a medial vowel is unexpectedly lengthened or otherwise shows the effect of the following laryngeal. This shows that the second word originally began with a laryngeal and that this laryngeal still existed at the time the compound was formed.
Support for theory from external borrowings
Further evidence of the laryngeals has been found in Uralic languages
The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...
, and some marginal cases also in Kartvelian. While the protolanguages of these families have not been convincingly demonstrated to be genetically related to PIE, some word correspondences have been identified as likely borrowings from very early Indo-European dialects to early Uralic and Kartvelian dialects. In a few such instances, laryngeal consonants reconstructed in PIE stems show correspondences with overt dorsal or laryngeal consonants in the Proto-Uralic and Proto-Kartvelian forms, in effect suggesting that these forms result from very old PIE borrowings where the consonantal nature of the PIE laryngeals was preserved.
Laryngeals reflected in the Kartvelian languages
The evidence for the preservation of laryngeals by borrowings into Proto-Kartvelian is meagre, but intriguing.
It has been suggested that some examples of an initial Proto-Kartvelian sequence may reflect sequences of the form borrowed from PIE — cp. e.g. PK 'to weave' alongside PIE 'id.', PK 'to turn, to twist' alongside PIE 'to turn, to roll' — although evidence for sequences in most of the proposed PIE source terms is controversial and other possible explanations for Proto-Kartvelian sequences exist.
A separate suggestion proposes that the PIE -colouring laryngeal is reflected as Proto-Kartvelian in two fruit names borrowed from PIE 'apple', namely Proto-Kartvelian 'pear' and 'medlar', the latter etymologically the ' rotten () pear'.
Laryngeals reflected in the Uralic languages
Evidence for the PIE laryngeals has been suggested in ancient loans into Proto-Uralic. Work particularly associated with research of the scholar Jorma Koivulehto has identified several additions to the list of Finnic loanwords from an Indo-European source or sources whose particular interest is the apparent correlation of PIE laryngeals with three postalveolar phonemes (or their later reflexes) in the Finnic forms. If so, this would suggest great antiquity for the borrowings; since no attested Indo-European language neighbouring Uralic has consonants as reflexes of laryngeals, this would bolster the idea that laryngeals were phonetically distinct consonants.
However, Koivulehto's theories are not universally accepted and have been sharply criticized (e.g. by Finno-Ugricist Eugene Helimski) because many of the reconstructions involve a great deal of far-fetched hypotheses and the chronology is not in good agreement with the history of Bronze Age and Iron Age migrations in the Eastern Europe established by archaeologists and historians.
Three Uralic phonemes have been posited to reflect PIE laryngeals. In post-vocalic positions both the postalveolar fricatives that ever existed in Uralic are represented: firstly a possibly velar one, theoretically reconstructed much as the PIE laryngeals (conventionally marked *x), in the very oldest borrowings and secondly a grooved one ( as in ''shoe'' becoming modern Finnic ''h'') in some younger ones. The velar plosive ''k'' is the third reflex and the only one found word-initially. In intervocalic position, the reflex ''k'' is probably younger than either of the two former ones. The fact that Finno-Ugric may have plosive reflexes for PIE laryngeals is to be expected under well documented Finnic phonological behaviour and does not mean much for tracing the phonetic value of PIE laryngeals.
The correspondences do not differentiate between , and . Thus
# PIE laryngeals correspond to the PU laryngeal in wordstems like:
#*Finnish 'woman' / 'female' < PU < PIE [] = /-/ > Sanskrit 'goddess', OIr. ''mná'' (gen. of ''ben''), ~ Greek 'woman' (cognate to Engl. ''queen'')
#*Finnish ~ Sami languages, Samic *sukë- 'to row' < PU < PIE
#*Finnish 'bring' ~ Samic *tuokë- ~ Tundra Nenets ''tāś'' 'give' < PU < PIE [] = // > Greek , Lat. , Old Lith. 'give', Hittite 'take'
#:Note the consonantal reflex /k/ in Samic.
# PIE laryngeals correspond to Finnic *h, whose normal origin is a Pre-Finnic fricative in wordstems like:
#*Finnish () 'medical plant, green herb' < PreFi < PreG > Gmc. 'green growth' > Swedish 'germ (shoot)'
#*Old Finnish ''inhi-(m-inen)'' 'human being' < PreFi 'descendant' < PIE > Sanskrit 'born, offspring, descendant', Gmc. 'generation, lineage, kin'
# PIE laryngeals correspond to Pre-Finnic in wordstems like:
#*Finnish 'summer' < PFS *kesä < PIE () > Balto-Slavic *eseni- 'autumn', Gothic 'summer'
#*Finnish 'burnt-over clearing' < Proto-Finnic
Proto-Finnic or Proto-Baltic-Finnic is the common ancestor of the Finnic languages, which include the national languages Finnish language, Finnish and Estonian language, Estonian. Proto-Finnic is not attested in any texts, but has been linguisti ...
*kaski < PIE/PreG [] = // > Gmc. 'ashes'
#*Finnish 'to perceive, sense' < PreFi < PIE [] = // > Greek 'look, observe' (cognate to Lat. 'eye')
#*Finnish 'to go, walk, wander' ~ Hungarian 'to go, walk, proceed' < PFU *kulki- < PIE > Greek '(originally) to be moving', Sanskrit 'goes, walks, wanders (about)', cognate Lat. 'to till, cultivate, inhabit'
#*Finnish - 'do, make' ~ Hungarian , 'to do, make, put, place' < PFU *teki- < PIE > Greek , Sanskrit 'put, place', but 'do, make' in the western IE languages, e.g. the Germanic forms ''do'', German , etc., and Latin (though OE and into Early Modern English ''do'' still sometimes means "put", and or still does in Dutch and colloquial German).
This list is not exhaustive, especially when one also considers several etymologies with laryngeal reflexes in Finno-Ugric languages other than Finnish. For most cases no other plausible etymology exists. While some single etymologies may be challenged, the case for this oldest stratum itself seems conclusive from the Uralic point of view, and corresponds well with all that is known about the dating of the other most ancient borrowings and contacts with Indo-European populations. Yet acceptance for this evidence is far from unanimous among Indo-European linguists, some even regard the hypothesis as controversial (see above). If, on the other hand, the Indo-Uralic hypothesis is supported, the explanation of why the correspondences do not differentiate between , and is that Pre-PIE or Indo-Hittite
In Indo-European linguistics, the term Indo-Hittite (also Indo-Anatolian) refers to Edgar Howard Sturtevant's 1926 hypothesis that the Anatolian languages split off a Pre-Proto-Indo-European language considerably earlier than the separation o ...
innovated this difference as a part of developing ablaut, where the zero grade matched ( and , the front-unrounded full ("e") grade matched (mainstream > and < ) and the back-rounded full ("o") grade matched (Kümmel's uvular > pharyngeal fricative and ).
PIE laryngeals and Proto-Semitic
Several linguists have posited a relationship between PIE and Semitic, almost right after the discovery of Hittite. Among these were Hermann Möller, though a few had argued that such a relationship existed before the 20th century, like Richard Lepsius in 1836. The postulated correspondences between the IE laryngeals and that of Semitic assist in demonstrating their evident existence. Given here are a few lexical comparisons between the two respective proto-languages based on Václav Blažek, who discusses these correspondences in the context of a proposed relation between IE and Afroasiatic, the language family to which the Semitic languages belong:
# Semitic 'to want, desire' ~ PIE [] 'to fuck'
# Semitic ~ PIE [] 'to take'
# Semitic 'in', 'on', 'by' ~ PIE [] > Sanskrit , ~ Greek
# Semitic ~ PIE 'I'
# Semitic 'to pass (over), move, run' ~ PIE [] 'to pass through'
# Semitic 'to rise, grow, go up, be high' ~ PIE [] 'to grow, nourish'
# Semitic : Arabic 'to rise, be big' ~ PIE [] 'to grow, nourish'
# Semitic 'next, in addition' ~ PIE [] 'in'
# Semitic: Arabic 'side', 'from, for; upon; in' ~ PIE [] 'on'
Comments
The Greek forms and are particularly valuable because the verb roots in question are extinct in Greek as verbs. This means that there is no possibility of some sort of analogical interference, as, for example, happened in the case of Latin "plow", whose shape has been distorted by the verb "to plow" (the exact cognate to the Greek form would have been ). It used to be standard to explain the root vowels of Greek "put, stood, given" as analogical. Most scholars nowadays probably take them as original, but in the case of "wind" and "plow", the argument cannot even come up.
Regarding Greek , the pseudo-participle affix *-''ro''- is added directly to the verb root, so - > *''isero''- > *''ihero''- > (with regular throwback of the aspiration to the beginning of the word), and Sanskrit . There seems to be no question of the existence of a root "vigorously move/cause to move". If the word began with a laryngeal, and most scholars would agree that it did, it would have to be , specifically; and that is a problem. A root of the shape is not possible. Indo-European had no roots of the type , , , i.e., with two copies of the same consonant. But Greek attests an earlier (and rather more widely attested) form of the same meaning, . If we reconstruct , all of our problems are solved in one stroke. The explanation for the business has long been discussed, without much result; laryngeal theory now provides the opportunity for an explanation which did not exist before, namely the metathesis of the two laryngeals. It is still only a guess, but it is a much simpler and more elegant guess than the guesses available before.
The syllabic *' in "father" might not be isolated. Certain evidence shows that the kinship affix seen in "mother, father" etc. might have been instead of . The laryngeal syllabified after a consonant (thus Greek , Latin , Sanskrit ; Greek , Sanskrit "daughter") but lengthened a preceding vowel (thus say Latin "mother", "brother") — even when the "vowel" in question was a syllabic resonant, as in Sanskrit "husbands' wives" < - < -).
Laryngeals in morphology
Like any other consonant, laryngeals feature in the endings of verbs and nouns and derivational morphology, the only difference being the greater difficulty of telling what's going on. Indo-Iranian, for example, can retain forms that pretty clearly reflect a laryngeal, but there is no way of knowing which one.
The following is a rundown of laryngeals in Proto-Indo-European morphology.
* is seen in the instrumental ending (probably originally indifferent to number, like English expressions of the type ''by hand'' and ''on foot''). In Sanskrit, feminine - and -stems have instrumentals in , , respectively. In the Rigveda, there are a few old -stems (PIE {{{lang, ine-x-proto, o-stems) with an instrumental in {{lang, sa-Latn, -ā; but even in that oldest text the usual ending is {{lang, sa-Latn, -enā, from the {{lang, sa-Latn, n-stems.
::Greek has some adverbs in {{lang, grc-Latn, -ē, but more important are the Mycenaean forms like {{lang, grc-Latn, e-re-pa-te "with ivory" (i.e. {{lang, grc-Latn, elephantē? {{lang, grc-Latn, -ě?)
::The marker of the neuter dual was {{lang, ine-x-proto, *-iH, as in Sanskrit {{lang, sa-Latn, bharatī "two carrying ones (neut.)", {{lang, sa-Latn, nāmanī "two names", {{lang, sa-Latn, yuge "two yokes" (< ''yuga-i''? *''yuga-ī''?). Greek to the rescue: the Homeric form ''ósse'' "the (two) eyes" is manifestly from *''h₃ekʷ-ih₁'' (formerly *''okʷ-ī'') via fully regular sound laws (intermediately *''okʷye'').
::''*-eh₁''- derives stative verb senses from eventive roots: PIE {{lang, ine-x-proto, sed- "sit (down)": *''sed-eh₁''- "be in a sitting position" (> Proto-Italic *''sed-ē-ye-mos'' "we are sitting" > Latin {{lang, la, sedēmus). It is attested in Celtic, Italic, Germanic (the Class IV weak verbs), and Baltic/Slavic, with some traces in Indo-Iranian (In Avestan the affix seems to form past-habitual stems).
::It seems likely, though it is less certain, that this same {{lang, ine-x-proto, -h₁ underlies the nominative-accusative dual in ''o''-stems: Sanskrit ''vṛkā'', Greek ''lúkō'' "two wolves". (The alternative ending -''āu'' in Sanskrit cuts a small figure in the Rigveda, but eventually becomes the standard form of the ''o''-stem dual.)
::{{lang, ine-x-proto, -h₁s- derives desiderative stems as in Sanskrit ''jighāṃsati'' "desires to slay" < {{lang, ine-x-proto, gʷhi-gʷhṇ-h₁s-e-ti- (root {{lang, ine-x-proto, gʷhen-, Sanskrit ''han''- "slay"). This is the source of Greek future tense formations and (with the addition of a thematic suffix *-''ye/o''-) the Indo-Iranian one as well: ''bhariṣyati'' "will carry" < {{lang, ine-x-proto, bher-h₁s-ye-ti.
::''*-yeh₁-/*-ih₁''- is the optative suffix for root verb inflections, e.g. Latin (old) ''siet'' "may he be", ''sīmus'' "may we be", Sanskrit ''syāt'' "may he be", and so on.
*{{lang, ine-x-proto, h₂ is seen as the marker of the neuter plural: *''-h₂'' in the consonant stems, *-''eh₂'' in the vowel stems. Much levelling and remodelling are seen in the daughter languages that preserve any ending at all, thus Latin has generalized *-''ā'' throughout the noun system (later regularly shortened to -''a''), Greek generalized -''ǎ'' < {{lang, ine-x-proto, -h₂.
::The categories masculine/feminine plainly did not exist in the most original form of Proto-Indo-European, and there are very few noun types which are formally different in the two genders. The formal differences are mostly to be seen in adjectives (and not all of them) and pronouns. Both types of derived feminine stems feature {{lang, ine-x-proto, h₂: a type that is patently derived from the ''o''-stem nominals; and an ablauting type showing alternations between {{lang, ine-x-proto, -yeh₂- and {{lang, ine-x-proto, -ih₂-. Both are peculiar in having no actual marker for the nominative singular, and at least as far as the *-''eh₂''- type, two features seem clear: it is based on the ''o''-stems, and the nom.sg. is probably in origin a neuter plural. (An archaic trait of Indo-European morpho-syntax is that plural neuter nouns construe with ''singular'' verbs, and quite possibly *''yugeh₂'' was not so much "yokes" in our sense, but "yokage; a harnessing-up".) Once that much is thought of, however, it is not easy to pin down the details of the "''ā''-stems" in the Indo-European languages outside of Anatolia, and such an analysis sheds no light at all on the {{lang, ine-x-proto, -yeh₂-/{{lang, ine-x-proto, -ih₂- stems, which (like the {{lang, ine-x-proto, eh₂-stems) form feminine adjective stems and derived nouns (e.g. Sanskrit ''devī''- "goddess" from ''deva''- "god") but unlike the "''ā''-stems" have no foundation in any neuter category.
::{{lang, ine-x-proto, -eh₂- seems to have formed factitive verbs, as in {{lang, ine-x-proto, new-eh₂- "to renew, make new again", as seen in Latin ''novāre'', Greek ''neáō'' and Hittite ''ne-wa-aḫ-ḫa-an-t-'' (participle) all "renew" but all three with the pregnant sense of "plow anew; return fallow land to cultivation".
::{{lang, ine-x-proto, -h₂- marked the 1st person singular, with a confusing distribution: in the thematic active (the familiar -''ō'' ending of Greek and Latin, and Indo-Iranian -''ā(mi))'', and also in the perfect tense (not really a tense in PIE): {{lang, ine-x-proto, -h₂e as in Greek ''oîda'' "I know" < {{lang, ine-x-proto, woyd-h₂e. It is the basis of the Hittite ending {{lang, hit-Latn, -ḫḫi, as in {{lang, hit-Latn, da-aḫ-ḫi "I take" < {{lang, hit-Latn, *-ḫa-i (original {{lang, hit-Latn, *-ḫa embellished with the primary tense marker with subsequent smoothing of the diphthong).
*{{lang, ine-x-proto, -eh₃ may be tentatively identified in a directive case. No such case is found in Indo-European noun paradigms, but such a construct accounts for a curious collection of Hittite forms like {{lang, hit-Latn, ne-pi-ša "(in)to the sky", {{lang, hit-Latn, ták-na-a "to, into the ground", {{lang, hit-Latn, a-ru-na "to the sea". These are sometimes explained as ''o''-stem datives in -''a'' < *-''ōy'', an ending attested in Greek and Indo-Iranian, among others, but there are serious problems with such a view, and the forms are highly coherent, functionally. And there are also appropriate adverbs in Greek and Latin (elements lost in productive paradigms sometimes survive in stray forms, like the old instrumental case of the definite article in English expressions like ''the more the merrier''): Greek ''ánō'' "upwards, ''kátō'' "downwards", Latin {{lang, la, quō "whither?", {{lang, la, eō "to that place"; and perhaps even the Indic preposition/preverb ''â'' "to(ward)" which has no satisfactory competing etymology. (These forms must be distinguished from the similar-looking ones formed to the ablative in *-''ōd'' and with a distinctive "fromness" sense: Greek ''ópō'' "whence, from where".)
Criticism
Throughout its history, the laryngeal theory in its various forms has been subject to extensive criticism and revision.
The original argument of Saussure was not accepted by anyone in the Neogrammarian
The Neogrammarians (, , ) were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound change.
Overview
According to the Neogrammarian ...
school, primarily based at the University of Leipzig, then reigning at the cutting-edge of Indo-European linguistics. Several of them attacked the {{lang, fr, Mémoire savagely. Hermann Osthoff's criticism was particularly virulent, often descending into personal invective.[{{cite book , contributor-last=de Mauro , contributor-first=Tullio , contributor-link=Tullio De Mauro , year=1972 , contribution=Notes bibliographiques et critiques sur F. de Saussure , last=de Saussure , first=Ferdinand , author-link=Ferdinand de Saussure , title=Cours de linguistique générale , location=Paris, FR , publisher=Payot , pages=327–328 , isbn=2-22-850070-4]
For the first half-century of its existence, the laryngeal theory was widely seen as "an eccentric fancy of outsiders".{{sfnp, Szemerényi, 1996, p=123 In Germany, it was roundly rejected.{{sfnp, Szemerényi, 1996, p=134 Among its early proponents were Hermann Möller, who extended Saussure's system with a third, non-colouring laryngeal, Albert Cuny, Holger Pedersen, and {{ill, Karel Oštir, sl. The fact that these scholars were engaged in highly speculative long-range linguistic comparison further contributed to its isolation.
Although the founding fathers were able to provide some indirect evidence of a lost consonantal element (for example, the origin of the Indo-Iranian voiceless aspirates in *CH sequences and the ablaut pattern of the heavy bases, *CeRə- ~ *CR̥̄- in the traditional formulation), the direct evidence so crucial for the Neogrammarian thinking was lacking. Saussure's structural considerations were foreign to the leading contemporary linguists.[
After Jerzy Kuryłowicz's convincing demonstration that the Hittite language preserved at least some of Saussure's {{lang, fr, coefficients sonantiques, the focus of the debate shifted. It was still unclear how many laryngeals are to be posited to account for the new facts and what effect they have had exactly. Kuryłowicz, after a while, settled on four laryngeals, an approach further accepted by ]Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States ...
, Edgar Sturtevant, and – through them – much of American linguistics. The three-laryngeal system was defended, among others, by Walter Couvreur and by Émile Benveniste
Émile Benveniste (; 27 May 1902 – 3 October 1976) was a French Structuralism, structural linguistics, linguist and semiotics, semiotician. He is best known for his work on Indo-European languages and his critical reformulation of the linguist ...
. Many individual proposals were made, which assumed up to ten laryngeals, such as that of André Martinet. While some scholars, like {{ill, Heinz Kronasser, de and Giuliano Bonfante, attempted to disregard Anatolian evidence altogether, the "minimal" serious proposal (with roots in Pedersen's early ideas) was put forward by Hans Hendriksen, {{ill, Louis Hammerich, sv, and later Ladislav Zgusta, who assumed a single /H/ phoneme with no vowel-colouring effects.
However, by the 2000s a widespread agreement was reached in the field – though not unanimous – on reconstructing Möller's three laryngeals. One of the last major critics of this approach was Oswald Szemerényi, who subscribed to a theory similar to Zgusta's.{{sfnp, Szemerényi, 1996
Today, the laryngeal theory is almost universally accepted in this new standard form. Nevertheless, marginal attempts to undermine its bases are occasionally undertaken.[{{cite book , last1=Voyles , first1=Joseph , last2=Barrack , first2=Charles , year=2015 , title=On Laryngealism , quote=A coursebook in the history of a science. , location=München, DE , publisher=Lincom , isbn=978-3-86-288651-7]
References
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{{refend
External links
* {{cite web
, title= Proto-Indo-European phonology (Nonstandard and Theoretical)
, url = http://www.tundria.com/Linguistics/pie-phonology.shtml
, access-date = 11 November 2005
*Kortlandt, Frederik (2001)
Initial laryngeals in Anatolian
(pdf)
Lexicon of Early Indo-European Loanwords Preserved in Finnish
{{Proto-Indo-European language
Indo-European linguistics
Proto-Indo-European language
Ferdinand de Saussure