Laryngeal
Laryngeal theory is a hypothesis scaffolded by the linguist Swiss Ferdinand de Saussure , and then improved upon by the Danish Hermann Mller to explain certain features of the vowel in Indo-European and Proto-Indo-European.
Under this assumption, the vowels / e /, / a / and / o / would be derived from a combination of basic vowel / e / with three phonemes sucked suitable (the "laryngeal") H 1, H 2, H 3, that would change the tone of the / e / original, to give the three vowels e, a and o according to the scheme described in the table below.
| initial | H = e-1 e- | H = a-2 e- | o = H-3 e- |
|---|---|---|---|
| prconsonnantique | eH = 1 - | at eH = 2 - | = eH 3 - |
The vowels of the first line are short, those of the second long.
History of the Theory
After its initial formulation, it takes 1927 to the linguist Polish Jerzy Kurylowicz announced that the Hittite language , recently discovered, had kept track of phonemes H 2 and H 3, while H 1 amu had in that language. This is a unique phenomenon, no other Indo-European laryngeal who kept track of, if not the form of the resulting vowels. This discovery was therefore seen as irrefutable proof of the validity of the hypothesis of laryngeal.
Other linguists, particularly from the 1950s , have seen fit to award up to three "forms" to laryngeals ( silent , sound , velar ), creating a whopping nine laryngeal sounds.
If the laryngeal theory has been supported by prominent linguists, including mile Benveniste , she was also criticized, particularly by Oswald Szemernyi (in Einfhrung in die vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft), for which the only truly proven laryngeal is the single / h / The proto-Indo-European with the same vowel system in six grades (/ a, e, i, o, u / short and long and the schwa / /) that the Indo-European classic.
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