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One of the oldest splits within Indo-European was between the Centum and Satem languages; they differ in what they did to the "accented velar" phonemes (like * and *ǵ).

However, if I understand right, the Anatolian languages split off some time before the Centum-Satem division happened.

So, what happened to "accented velars" in Anatolian?

3 Answers 3

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Several points:
1. some people have put into question the distinction between the k, g, gh series (usually called "velars") and your "accented velars" *ḱ, *ǵ, *ǵh (usually called "palato-velars") in PIE. IMO this is hardly defensible, and the distinction is doubtless necessary.
2. the conventional view is that both velars and palato-velars become k or kk in Hittite. See for example Kloeckhorst's etymological dictionary of Hittite.
3. some people (like Pisani) have challenged that point of view. IMO there's indeed a problem with the conventional approach. And I rather believe that the so-called velars become spirants h and hh in Hittite.

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  • Fascinating! Do you have any examples of PIE *k, *g, or *gh becoming Hittite h or hh? If so, that would round out this answer nicely (and I'd happily accept it).
    – Draconis
    Nov 14, 2019 at 15:52
  • for *k, a good example is "blood" *H1es-rk => Hittite eshar vs Old Indian asrk. I think we don't need to posit that Hittite is from *H1esH2r. If *k > h is accepted, then the equation is perfect. Another item is Hittite *huis- "to live", which can easily be derived from *gweyH- "to be alive". Of course, if we accept the spirantisation of velars in Hittite, it changes the picture of Hittite etymology.
    – user23769
    Nov 15, 2019 at 7:23
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Whether you believe that *k and *ḱ merged to a single phoneme in Anatolian, or that *k split into *k and *ḱ after the separation of Anatolian from IE - in both cases you will get the same result.

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  • Not quite the same result: the three-way distinction still discernible (just) in Luvian is best explained a merger within Anatolian (see Draconis’ new answer). May 10, 2020 at 6:12
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Melchert argues that the "plain velars" and "accented velars" remained distinct in Proto-Anatolian, because they show different reflexes in Luvian: *k becomes Luvian k, while * becomes Luvian z.

He cites as an example the Luvian pronoun zi- "this" from PIE *ḱis, cognate with Hittite ki-, Latin cis, OCS , English he, etc.

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    The claim originated with Melchert (as far as I know), but I don’t think it’s really a case of just “Melchert argues” anymore – in my experience, most Indo-Europeanists accept the three-way distinction in Luvian nowadays. It seems as close to communis opinio as anything in Anatolian ever seems to get. May 10, 2020 at 6:11
  • @JanusBahsJacquet That's fair! In that case I'll probably move the accepted answer to this one—nothing against Fournet's answer, but if there's a decent scholarly consensus on this, that's what I was looking for.
    – Draconis
    May 10, 2020 at 16:51
  • Before you do accept it please read: Melchert, H. Craig "Luvo-Lycian Dorsal Stops Revisited" (Online: UCLA, 2011); Available from Author through UCLA at linguistics.ucla.edu/people/Melchert/melchertopava.pdf (Accessed: 19/3/2021). Melchert has revised his opinions!
    – Ned
    Jun 24, 2021 at 12:59
  • @Ned Very interesting! I need to examine this more closely, but to my understanding he still argues for a three-way distinction in Proto-Anatolian, since the *Ḱ series underwent a conditioned change that the *K series didn't? They merged afterward, but this change can't have happened before Proto-Anatolian or we'd see it in Hittite.
    – Draconis
    Jun 24, 2021 at 17:05
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    @Ned To me it still seems like solid evidence—you can't have palatalization affect Ḱ and not K unless they're distinct at some point later than Proto-Anatolian, after all. Even if they merged in some environments, the fact that they didn't merge in all environments still requires a distinction to be reconstructed.
    – Draconis
    Jun 25, 2021 at 20:22

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