Re: [tied] Stative/Perfect; Indo-European /r/

From: Mate Kapovic
Message: 36570
Date: 2005-03-02

Well, I would guess that syllabic *r of PIE was more like the syllabic are of some Slavic languages (Czech, Slovak, Croatian etc.), rather than the English variant. English has "too much schwa" in it, I think... In my mother tongue (Croatian), we use vibrant -r- which can be syllabic (and even long).
 
Mate
----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew Jarrette
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 7:01 AM
Subject: [tied] Stative/Perfect; Indo-European /r/

 
Moreover, PIE /r/ could also function as a vowel, in the same way that /j/ (or /y/) and /w/ corresponded to the vowels /i/ and /u/.  It seems to me more likely that a continuant would be used as a vowel, rather than a vibration. North American English has such a vowel in words like burn, bird, earth, herd, etc.