Miguel:
>That is partially correct: vowel colouring to /a/ was effected not
>only by *h2, but also by velar (= uvular) *k, *g and *gh, and perhaps
>also by the nasals *n and *m (*-V:NC- > *-aC- ?).
I don't observe a colouring effect from nasals. The reason behind the
colouring of *e to *a is due to uvular phonemes like *q, *G, *GH and
*x (*h2). Lacking a motivation or concrete evidence for Miguel's ad hoc
"nasal colouring", the *a's that happen to coexist with nasals in some
IE roots should not be seperated from other words that lack any nasal
trigger (eg: *dakru "tear").
>Lengthening was caused by the laryngeals *h1, *h2 and *h3, but also
>under special circumstances (-VCs#) by *s [and *h2] (Szemer?yi
>lengthening).
The phenomenon behind the lengthening seen for the nominative *-s and
the aorist *-s-, as opposed to the occasional genitive in *-s (as in
*xwei-s "of the bird") which did not cause lengthening, is caused by
the effect of "clipping" in early Late IE. I'm not aware of any
examples as yet of this clipping rule amongst laryngeal affixes however.
The nominative originates from a newly postfixed demonstrative *-s&
(note later *so "that"), shortened to *-s with resultant compensatory
lengthening of the preceding vowel. Similarly, the aorist was initially
formed from noun stems in stative *-&s (later *-es). The aorist was
also clipped to *-s- and the usual added length in the preceding vowel
was applied as with the nominative.
- gLeN
_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail