The Indo-European Elements in Hurrian

150 9. Before Proto-Indo-European and Hurrian
correspond to plain voiced stops in Hurrian. Even within Indo-European, these two series have
the same reflexes in several of the daughter languages. Moreover, the reconstruction of voiced
aspirates is only needed to account for the developments in certain branches (Indo-Iranian,
Greek, Armenian, and Italic). Finally, there is nothing in the Anatolian Indo-European daughter
languages to indicate that the voiced aspirates of traditional grammar were anything other than
plain voiced stops. And yet, when the entire corpus of comparative data from the Indo-European
daughter languages is taken into consideration, it is clear that it is still necessary to posit two
separate series here at the level of the Indo-European parent language, as well as a third series,
the traditional plain voiceless stops.
One solution is to see the traditional voiced aspirates as later developments within Proto-
Indo-European and to reinterpret them as plain voiced stops. This then makes it necessary to
interpret the traditional plain voiced stops as something else in order to maintain the distinction
between the two series. Proposals include seeing the traditional plain voiced stops as glottalized
stops (ejectives) or as plain (unaspirated) voiceless stops. Under both these proposals, the
traditional plain voiceless stops are then reinterpreted as voiceless aspirated stops. Lehmann
(2002:201) opts for the first alternative — glottalized stops. Unfortunately, Hurrian adds nothing
to the solution. This leads us to the question of what must be reconstructed to account for both
the Hurrian and Indo-European developments. Clearly, the traditional plain voiced stops and
voiced aspirates represent two distinct series in Proto-Indo-European, the Hurrian corresponddences
notwithstanding. Thus, we suggest the following interpretation: (1) the traditional
voiced aspirates (*bh, *dh, *gh) of Indo-European grammar are to be derived from earlier plain
voiced stops (*b, *d, *g), (2) the traditional plain voiced stops (*b, *d, *g) from glottalized stops
(ejectives) (*p’, *t’, *k’), and (3) the traditional voiceless stops (*p, *t, *k) from voiceless
aspirates (*pº, *tº, *kº) — the aspiration was non-phonemic and will not be written in what
follows. Accordingly, we get:
Pre-Hurrian /
Traditional
Indo-European Hurrian Proto-Indo-European
Labial: Voiceless p p p
Glottalized p’ b b
Voiced b b bh
Dental: Voiceless t t t
Glottalized t’ d d
Voiced d d dh
Velar: Voiceless k k $/k
Glottalized k’ g ĝ/g
Voiced g g ĝh/gh
Labiovelar: Voiceless k¦ ku k¦
Glottalized k’¦ gu g¦
Voiced g¦ gu g¦h
Note: The phoneme traditionally reconstructed as *b was extremely rare in Proto-Indo-
European, and some have questioned whether it even existed at all.