Schrijver Peter. The Reflexes Of The Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals In Latin

[Leiden Studies in Indo-European 2] — Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi, 1991. ― 660 pp.Still blissfully ignorant of what lies before him, the reader must be informed that this book contains little pretending to alter our knowledge of the Indo-European protolanguage. The canonical picture of the Proto-Indo-European phonemic system, including its three "laryngeals" which are the subject of this study, is not challenged on the following pages. Rather, my most positive hope is that the reader is left with the impression that, as far as Latin is concerned, there is no reason to revise the laryngeal theory as we know it.
At the beginning of a sizeable book as this, such a notice is not intended as a display of arrogance on my part, but it rather serves to indicate that - with hindsight - this book has as its subject not the physiognomy of the Proto-Indo-European mother but rather the embryology of the Latin daughter.
The study of Latin historical grammar for a period of four years has given me the pleasure of watching the fascinating machine of linguistic change in operation from very near. The best I can hope for is that some of this fascination has managed to trickle through the austere columns which follow.