From: Rick McCallister
Message: 53216
Date: 2008-02-15
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan"____________________________________________________________________________________
> <proto-language@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > Is not /a/ a central vowel?
>
> Yes. Piotr means that /a, e, i, u/ is commoner than
> /a, @, i, u/, in
> which the central vowel under discussion is /@/.
>
> (Please note that we must be sparing with the use of
> '@' - strings
> including it are often mangled in the archives to
> prevent e-mail
> harvesting.)
>
> Richard.
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
> > To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 3:55 PM
> > Subject: Re: [tied] *a/*a: ablaut
>
> > > On 2008-02-14 22:44, Richard Wordingham wrote:
>
> > > > Actually, it has an unusual degree of
> symmetry. 4 vowel systems are
> > > > usually more asymmetric. For yet more
> examples, we have the
> > > > Proto-Austronesian system of /a, e, i, u/, and
> the Cree system, with
> > > > length contrasts, of /a, e, i, o/. Indeed the
> latter system seems
> > > > quite widespread in Canada.
>
> > > Yes, I mentioned the fact that /a, e, i, u/ was
> more widespread than
> > > systems with a central vowel (auditory salience
> probably plays a role
> > > here). Actually, such a system may be preferable
> for pre-PIE if one
> > > takes Ockham's Razor into account.
>
>
>
>