Re: [tied] p-IE vocalic system (it was: Reconstruction of Proto-Ind

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <petegray@...> wrote:

> >the existence of Kallam system supports the tipological
> > reliability of IE vocalic system: /e, a, o/.
>
> There is no problem at all with a system /e, a, o/. Such systems

are fairly

> common. What is unusual is the apparent PIE system /e/. Yes,

there are

> other vowels as syllabic allophones of /r, l, m, n, y, w, h1, h2,

h3/ and

> there is the apophonic /o/, and there are a few roots which seem to

have an

> irreducible /a/, but the only real vowel appears to be /e/. A one

vowel

> system with /a/ or /&/ woudl be more believable, so some people have
> suggested that we shoudl reconstruct **/a/, which > */e/ as **h2e >

*a.

> There has been much discussion of this, even on this list, so I

won't repeat

> it here.
>
> Peter

My ideas concerning PIE vowels are this: There was originally one
true vowel, /a/, and a stress-accent system. Unaccented /a/
subsequently disappeared in many instances. Then the stress-accent
scheme changed into a tonal accent one, whereby /á/ > /&/ > /e/
and /à/ > /å/ > /o/. Also, I think later *a- (almost) always derives
from earlier *xa- (where /x/ = h2).

- Rob