Reconstruction talk:Proto-Indo-European/kl̥H-

How come the initial k is retained in the Germanic and where does the initial g in the Balto-Slavic come from? I feel Latin & Indo-Iranian should be under one entry and Balto-Slavic and Germanic under another. -- mādhavpaṇḍit (talk) 01:38, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

@माधवपंडित: See this discussion. —JohnC5 04:23, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

@JohnC5: Thanks a lot! --mādhavpaṇḍit (talk) 04:58, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Why not a labiovelar kʷ- for the onset consonant?

I just checked the meaning of all proto-Indo-European roots starting with *Gel(H) structure, where G is a non-palatal velar sound and I think an initial *kʷ-/*gʷ- is semantically more appropriate. For example, the labiovelar roots *kʷel- (“to turn, to rotate”) and *gʷelh₂- (“to round, to quell”) (as a noun it means 'acorn' or 'bullet') both refer to things which the head does. In comparison, *kelH- (“to hill”), *kelh₁- (“to hale”) and *gel- (“to cool”) refer to things which the head experiences rather than doing. Additionally, the Celtic branch has a word for 'head' which clearly starts with a labiovelar: *kʷennom (possibly derived from a reanalysed older meddiopassive particle *kʷəlennom < pIE *kʷelH-e-mh₁n-). I will also add to list for comparison the Turkic word for head *baĺč, which could be akin to a proto-Indo-European *gʷalH-, but not to *kalw-.