b>laryngeal theory is a generally accepted theory of historical linguistics which proposes the existence of one or more consonants, termed "laryngeals", in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). These sounds have disappeared in all present-day Indo-European languages, but some laryngeals are believed to have existed in Hittite and other Anatolian languages. The laryngeals are so called because they were once hypothesized (by Müller and Cuny) to have had a pharyngeal, epiglottal, or glottal place of articulation involving a constriction near the larynx.
The evidence for their existence is mostly indirect, as will be shown below. But the theory serves as an elegant explanation for a number of properties of the Proto-Indo-European vowel system that, prior to the postulation of laryngeals, were unanalyzable, such as "independent" schwas (as in *pəter- 'father'); and the hypothesis that PIE schwa *ə was actually a consonant, not a vowel, provides an elegant explanation for some apparent exceptions to Brugmann's law in Indic.
The original phonetic values of the laryngeal sounds remain controversial (see below).
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