It is now over 50 years ago that Gamkrelidze & Ivanov (1973) and Hopper (1973) published their criticisms on the traditional reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European stop inventory (with the three series *T, *D, *Dh), and presented arguments in favour of changing this system into one that contains a glottalic series. Although these publications were not the first to question the traditional reconstruction, they did launch a larger debate on this topic than ever before. The reception of Gamkrelidze & Ivanov’s and Hopper’s alternative interpretation of the Proto-Indo-European stop system, the so-called “Glottalic Theory”, has been mixed—ranging from enthusiastic adoption to outright rejection. Yet, at least some of their reasons for assuming a different reconstruction than the traditional one are still generally considered to constitute issues that require a coherent explanation, for instance: the typological rarity of the traditional system; the ‘b-gap’; certain specific root constraints; etc. Moreover, there seems to be a growing sense among colleagues that the literature on the evolution of the consonant systems of the individual branches has been based too much on the traditionally reconstructed Proto-Indo-European system, and too little on the attested linguistic data and typological considerations.
We thought that the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Glottalic Theory—and with it the first more general debate on the validity of the traditional reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European stop system—would be the perfect occasion to bring together scholars from different Indo-Europeanist backgrounds who discuss the relevant data and theories regarding this topic in one volume. This resulted in the volume you are now reading. It contains chapters that discuss the data and comparative and typological arguments that are relevant for the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European stop inventory, as well as chapters discussing the evolution of the stop systems of the individual branches of Indo-European. The volume summarizes and builds on the insights about the stop systems of Indo-European that have been gained over the last 50 years and aims to inspire new research into the evolution of the stop systems of Indo-European for the next 50 years.
We would like to thank all contributors to this volume for their enthusiastic willingness to participate. We are also grateful to the reviewer of the volume for a very thorough review that improved the contents of this book.
Special thanks are due to Frits Kortlandt and Sasha Lubotsky: the many discussions we have had together on the phonology of Proto-Indo-European in general and the stop system in particular have sparked our deep interest in and enthusiasm on this topic. Through this volume we hope to be able to pass on this interest and enthusiasm to the Indo-Europeanist community at large.
The editors