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I wonder which variant of reconstruction of this word, meaning "sheep" in PIE is the correct.

Beekes gives *h₃eu̯is, Fortson gives *h₂ou̯is. Both are respected scholars, Fortson's source is the later. Who is correct?

Anixx
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  • I had provided an answer, but after discussion it seems it was not on point to what you are looking for. – Mark Beadles Jun 25 '12 at 17:13
  • Or to put it the other way, *owis is the late PIE form which had lost the laryngeals while the Proto-Indo-Hittite (early PIE) had laryngeals http://tinyurl.com/7wpsb7g – Anixx Jun 25 '12 at 17:14
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    To clarify: are you asking what criteria are used to decide whether a root is h2o- vs. h3e-? That is, Xe- vs. Xwe- – Mark Beadles Jun 25 '12 at 17:14
  • Yes. What laryngeal is predicted by the most modern theory. The vowels reconstructed adjanced to the laryngeals also differ. – Anixx Jun 25 '12 at 17:15
  • The explanations about laryngeal theory that I have seen just say that word-initial o was actually a combination of h3e and initial a was h2e. But the reconstructions of Schleicher's tale in Wikipedia show the completely different reconstruction. – Anixx Jun 25 '12 at 17:19
  • Forston 2011 gives h2o- for "sheep" but as I don't work in PIE studies, I don't know how universally agreed that is. – Mark Beadles Jun 25 '12 at 17:19
  • Well indeed Forston favors the first variant. But the other book I linked gives the other. – Anixx Jun 25 '12 at 17:21
  • Also Wikipedia gives the second variant: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:List_of_Proto-Indo-European_roots/h%E2%82%83 – Anixx Jun 25 '12 at 17:22
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    Anixx, you have asked a number of questions related to PIE and accepted zero answers. I fear, though I'm not sure, that you are not looking for answers so much as looking to start discussions. – Mark Beadles Jun 25 '12 at 17:32
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    Your question in its current form has no answer because it is based on a wrong assumption. There is no such thing as the only one correct reconstructed form. They are different because different researchers subscribe to different hypotheses. – Alex B. Jun 25 '12 at 17:35
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    @AlexB. That wouldn't be a bad answer, actually. I mean, your first sentence (and the rest). :) – Alenanno Jun 25 '12 at 17:46
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    It would be even better it it described which researchers support which theory and why. – Anixx Jun 25 '12 at 17:52
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    If you can read in Russian, you should read Herzenberg 2012 http://iling.spb.ru/comparativ/mater/tronsky2012/tronsky2012.pdf In that paper he compares major versions of Schleicher's fable. – Alex B. Jun 25 '12 at 19:20
  • @Alex, very interesting. Don't you want to make an answer? I am still reading. – Anixx Jun 25 '12 at 20:11
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    @AlexB.: I agree with Alenanno and Anixx that you can contribute a good answer to this question based on what the different hypotheses are. – hippietrail Jun 26 '12 at 11:46
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    Ok, I'll try to do it this weekend. – Alex B. Jun 26 '12 at 20:08

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