Re: [tied] PIE Stop System

Sanskrit also has i and u.

Those are claimed to be non-phonemic versions of aw, ai, wa, ia. But
nevertheless they are prononced as wovels.

There is one more complication: Short a in Sanscrit is actually a
schwa-sound. Long a is a true a-sound.

So phonetically, sanscrit is not so wovel-poor as usually thought.

I do not think IE ever have been equipped with only one wovel
phonetically.

I think it is very probable that the collapse taking part in IE was
very simular to that taking part in Sanscrit much later. I even
think that the result of this collapse initially was a/@, rather
than e.