Glottal theory
According to the glottal theory , the Indo-European original language had the ejectives p ' t' k ' instead of the voiced plosives b dg of the classical reconstruction .
A predecessor to this theory was suggested by the Danish linguist Holger Pedersen , but it did not contain glottalized sounds. Even if linguists such as André Martinet and Morris Swadesh recognized early on the potential associated with replacing unaspirated voiced plosives with glottalized sounds, this proposal remained purely speculative, until 1973 there was solid evidence simultaneously and independently from Paul Hopper (USA) in the Magazine “Glossa” and by Tamaz Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav Ivanov (USSR) in the magazine “Phonetica”.
Traditional reconstruction
The traditional reconstruction of Indo-European includes the following plosives :
| Consonants | labial | dental | palatalized velars | velar | labialized velars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless plosives | p | t | kʲ | k | kʷ |
| voiced plosives | ( b ) | d | G | G | G |
| voiced- aspirated plosives | bʱ | dʱ | G | G | G |
/ b / is in brackets because it was extremely rare at best, if not non-existent.
Original proposal
The glottal theory suggests other sounds for the Indo-European plosives:
| Consonants | labial | dental | velar | labialized velars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless plosives | p ~ pʰ | t ~ tʰ | k ~ kʰ | kʷ ~ kʷʰ |
| ejective or glottalized plosives | ( p ' ) | t ' | k ' | kʷ ' |
| voiced plosives | b ~ bʱ | d ~ dʱ | ɡ ~ ɡʱ | ɡʷ ~ ɡʷʱ |
objection
Revised proposal
One of the objections raised against the glottalic theory is that the voiced plosives in some daughter languages voiceless are voiceless in Tocharian and Anatolian , aspirates, later fricatives in Greek and Italic . While aspirata quite often become tenuis and then voiced, like pʰ → p → b , the opposite is rare (see lenition ). Therefore, more recent versions of the glottal theory no longer have any voiced consonants at all, or see voicing as allophones , i.e. not as meaningful. Such a sound inventory is:
| Consonants | labial | dental | velar | uvular | labialized velars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless plosives | p | t | k | q | kʷ |
| ejective or glottalized plosives | ( p ' ) | t ' | k ' | q ' | kʷ ' |
| aspirated plosives | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | qʰ | kʷʰ |
(Here the relationship of the traditional palatalized to normal velar is shown as velar-uvular contrast, as suggested by Hopper 1981. This is not a necessary aspect of glottal theory and could have been allophonic at an earlier stage of the original language .)
Current status
After the glottal theory had gained considerable acceptance in the 1980s, its acceptance ( acceptance ) currently seems to be on the decline again. It is currently used by Gamkrelidze itself, for example. B. still represented by Bomhard (last 2007). On the other hand, other former representatives, such as Theo Vennemann , have recently turned away from her.
In German standard works such as B. Mayrhofer (2004) also described it neutrally, but received only a short paragraph in Meier-Brügger (2010).
credentials
- ↑ Manfred Mayrhofer (2004) Main Problems of the Indo-European Phonology. In: Meeting reports of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, No. 709
- ↑ Michael Meier-Brügger (2010). Indo-European Linguistics. 9th revised and supplemented edition. Berlin / New York: De Gruyter.
swell
- Robert SP Beekes: Comparative Indo-European Linguistics . John Benjamin, 1995.
- Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic: Comparative Morphology, Phonology, and Vocabulary . Charleston: Signum, 2007.
- Anthony Fox: Linguistic Reconstruction . Oxford publisher? , 1995.
- Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and Vjacheslav V. Ivanov: Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans , translated by Johanna Nichols, 2 volumes. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1995.
- Paul J. Hopper: Glottalized and murmured occlusives in Indo-European. Glossa 7 : 2: 1973, 141-166.