Re: [tied] Sanskrit and e, a, o

Greek <u> "upsilon" (short and long alike) became fronted (like Latin
<u> in French) and eventually unrounded, merging with /i/. The merger
proves that the fronting was complete at the time. Of course the
change was gradual, and the first step was the centralisation of
former /u/, whose slot in the vowel system was taken by the former
diphthong /ou/, which developed into close /o:/ and eventually
into /u:/. In a diachronic perpective (written records of Ancient
Greek span a period of about two millennia), Greek vowels are not
nailed down to their "ideal" positions but move to and fro in the
vowel space as the system evolves.

Piotr

--- In cybalist@..., "wtsdv" <liberty@...> wrote:

> I.E. long i becomes Greek long i which is the spread close
> front cardinal vowel. I.E. short i becomes Greek short i
> which is slightly more open than the spread close front cardinal
> vowel. I.E. long u becomes Greek long ü which I always
> thought was the rounded close front vowel, but which Beekes gives
> as a rounded close central vowel. I.E. short u becomes Greek
> short ü which I always thought was slightly more open than the
> rounded close front vowel, but which Beekes likewise gives as
> central. Of course long i and ü are also longer in duration
> than their short counterparts. Hopefully one of the Greek
> experts on the list can clarify the pronunciation of the ü
> for us.