Wiktionary talk:About Proto-Iranian

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Cheung's dictionary is a handy reference for sure, but his system of reconstruction is clearly not the way to go, on at least two counts:

  • *s and *z rather than *ts and *dz (*c and *j?) is clearly post-Proto-Iranian, as Old Persian fronted these further (> /θ/, /d/); but did not front retained *s in clusters such as *sk, *st, *sn.
  • His claim of retaining a laryngeal *H might be acceptable, but this clearly requires not reconstructing the shift *s > *h at the same level.

Another possible issue is whether we should follow the traditional reconstruction with *f, *θ, *x, or still maintain *p⁽ʰ⁾, *t⁽ʰ⁾, *k⁽ʰ⁾. The problem is that spirantization does not appear in Wakhi and Khotanese, and it's been argued they split off already before this change.

--Tropylium (talk) 00:03, 16 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(Spirantization is also not apparent in Balochi, and I wonder if this might also be an archaism, but it appears to be generally considered a reversal.) --Tropylium (talk) 16:12, 23 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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