On Wed, 04 Jun 2003 10:50:07 +0000, Richard Wordingham
<
richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen <jer@...>
>wrote:
>>
>> The relevance for IE is that, in the discussion of IE, it is the
>sheer
>> possibility of reducing the sounds [e, a, o, e:, a:, o:] to a
>single vowel
>> phoneme /e/ that is rejected on typological grounds. And for these
>> elements Sanskrit does in fact make do with /a/ and /aa/ only.
>
>As /a/ and /aa/ are [&] and [a:], Sanskrit provides a parallel to
>both Miguel's 2-vowel PIE system (length contrast) and to Glen's
>(height contrast).
Actually, I don't have a two-vowel system anywhere in my reconstruction of
pre-PIE. The stages I envisage are:
stressed unstressed svarita
*á *á: *í *í: *ú *ú: *a *a: *i *i: *u *u: *a: *i: *u:
reduction: short vowels become schwa, unstressed long vowels are shortened
(except in svarita position), high long vowels are lowered. Former *i(:)
and *u(:) are preceded by a y-glide (^) or a w-glide ("), except when
followed by -y or -w (in the Auslaut, stressed *-í and *-ú are maintained,
as in the pronoun *tú):
This leaves:
stressed *&' (*^&', *"&') *á: *^é: *"ó: (*-í *-ú)
unstressed *& (*^&, *"&) *a
svarita *a: *^e: *"o:
The palatal and labial glides were absorbed by the preceding consonant
(*kW, *gW, *hW/*xW = *h3, etc.) or disappeared, only in morpheme initial
position were they maintained as *y and *w. Stressed &' is fronted to é,
and so is unstressed *a, while *a: is backed to *o:, and unstressed long
vowels are shortened. *o: is shortened even in stressed position (at least
in closed syllables).
We now have:
stressed *é *ó (~ *ó:) *é: (*-í, *-ú)
unstressed *& *e
svarita *e *o
Szemerény lengthening then creates new long vowels:
stressed *é *ó *é: *ó: (*-í, *-ú)
unstressed *& *e *&: *e:
svarita *e *o *e: *o:
Long *&: becomes o:, all other schwa's are deleted, *ye and *we become *i
and *u in closed syllables:
stressed *é *ó *é: *ó: *í *ú
unstressed *e *o: *e: *i *u
svarita *e *o *e: *o:
This is the PIE system. In tabular form:
stressed +Sz-length unstr. +Sz-length svarita +Sz-length
*a é é: -- o: o o:
*a- é/ó e/o
*a: ó ó: e e:
*i é é: -- o: o o:
*-i í yé:(?) i ye: i ye:
*i: é: -- yo:(?)
*-i: yé: i yo:(?)
*u é é: -- o: o o:
*-u ú wé:(?) u wo:(?) wo wo:
*u: ó ó: -- o:
*-u: wó wó:(?) u wo:(?)
At no time was there a bivocalic system, except in unstressed position.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...