User:Tom 144/sandbox

Plosives
Hittite had two series of consonants, one which was written always geminate in the original script, and another that was always simple. In cuneiform, all consonants sounds except for glides could be geminate. It has long been noticed that the geminate series of plosives is the one descending from Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops, while the simple plosives come from both voiced and voiced aspirate stops. This is often referred as Sturtevant's law. Because of typological implications of Sturtevant's law, the distinction between the two series is commonly regarded as one of voice. However, there isn't agreement over the subject among scholars since there's also a group who view the series as if they were differenced by length, as a literal interpretation of the cuneiform orthography would suggest.

Supporters of a length distinction usually point the fact that Akkadian, the language from which the Hittites borrowed the cuneiform script, had voicing; nevertheless, Hittite scribes used voiced and voiceless signs interchangeably. Kloekhorst has also argued that the absence of assimilatory voicing is also evidence for a length distinction. He points out that the word "e-ku-ud-du - [ɛ́gʷtu]" does not show any voice assimilation. However, if the distinction were one of voice, agreement between the stops should be expected since the velar and the alveolar plosives are known to be adjacent, given that the "u" in this word does not stand for a vowel, but represents labialization instead.


 * Mention the medial position: regular gemination occurred in between vowels only. Kummel

Evidence for voice distinction:
 * Luvian and lycian
 * Hittite cognates
 * Typology
 * ss is not lenited by Eichners rule??

Hittite cognates:
 * 1) upati- "landed property, concession" > Akk ubadinnu (name of a landed concession donated to the king dignitaries)
 * 2) Akk ṭiparu "torch" > Hitt. zuppari- "torch".
 * 3) Akk magarru "wheel" > Hitt.  magareš "coppery things"
 * 4) Hitt. ḫa-lu-ka-aš "message" > Akk ḫu-lu-ga-an-nu-um/ḫi-lu-ga-an-nu-um