--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, enlil@... wrote:
> Jens' insistence that Proto-Semitic "had no vowels" because it has
> no evidence of the lexical use of vowels is a perfect example of
> the wrongheaded "absence is proof" mentality.
Whatever mentality I display or suppress is off-topic. I only said
there is reportedly no lexical use of vowel oppositions in Semitic.
Anyone is free to make of that what he likes; to me it means that
the vowel system of the Semitic *lexicon* is zero, which is just
saying the same thing. Rightheaded or wrongheaded as I may be, I
then leave the possibility open for the prehistory of IE too.
Jens