The Anatolian stop system and the Indo-Hittite hypothesis

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that the phonetic distinction between the Hittite fortis and lenis stops was not one of voice, but rather one of length, and that this distinction must have been present in Proto-Anatolian as well. On the basis of typological and comparative considerations it is argued that the Proto-Anatolian stop system cannot have developed from the stop system that is traditionally reconstructed for the Proto-Indo-European mother language and in which voice is the basic distinction. Instead, the relationship must have been the other way around: the voice distinction of PIE is a younger development of the length distinction as found in the Proto-Anatolian stop system. This relationship can only be accounted for within the context of the Indo-Hittite hypothesis, and therefore forms a new argument in favor of it.

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