From: Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen
Message: 22688
Date: 2003-06-05
On Thu, 5 Jun 2003, Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:
[...]
> The comparative evidence points to [e] as the value of PIE *e. If the
> pre-PIE system was triangular, then the choice of *e for the low vowel
> expected in such a system is not particularly felicitous. I'd even describe
> it as misleading.
On that basis I find we'd better describe typology as misleading. The
all-important low vowels did exist in PIE, but they had a relatively
marginal status. Is that unimportant to typology? If so, it makes typology
unimportant.
Jens