>>Thank you very much,
Piotr. I can understand why as in proto-Slavic *I and *U can disappear, but why
would /a/ (certainly when stressed in the first syllable) be a preferred target
of elision? Marc
>
face="Courier New" size=2>In a system like Etruscan, with the monophthongs /a,
e, i, u/, /a/ may play the role of "schwa", having no marked features.
The features [high] and [front] suffice to encode the system: /e/ is [front],
/i/ is [high, front], /u/ is [high] (and also redundantly [round]), and /a/ is
the default realisation of an unspecified vowel. In phonological terms, it is
the "cheapest" vowel to delete. Even if we added /o/ to the system,
there would be place for "schwa" = /a/:
/i/ [high, front]
/e/ [front]
/u/ [high, round]
/o/ [round]
/a/ -
As a matter of fact, any unrounded central
vowel could play the role of schwa. Typical schwas are mid or mid-high vowels,
but they may be (non-distinctively) low as well, especially in small vowel
systems with few distinctive features. In more crowded systems
/a/ becomes _distinctively_ [low] and is no longer available as schwa. In a
system like that, the neutral vowel will be one that is not front, high, rounded
or low, i.e. what we have agreed to symbolise as [&] (schwa
proper). Piotr
OK, thank you very much. Was this
disappearance of /a/ (= /&/ ?) in the first syllable part of a general
disappearance of /a/ in Etruscan?
Marc