Re: [pieml] Labiovelars versus Palatals + Labiovelar Approximant

On 2008-11-01 22:19, tgpedersen wrote:

> We're talking different things. Of course PIE -we- gives -u- in zero
> grade morphologically. I'm saying that unstressed -we- or -wo- -> -u-
> doesn't make much sense phonetically. I'd like to see an example of it
> elsewhere.

Will English do? Here's a classic example. In *-wa- stems like *Barwaz
'grove, wood' the loss of the unstressed vowel in the second syllable
led to the vocalisation of the stranded *w:

*Barwa- > *baru > OE bearu (pl. bearwas)

Do you really think it makes no sense phonetically? Similarly, with the
palatal approximant,

*xarja- > *herja > *heri > here

Piotr