Re: [tied] PIE Stop System

----- Original Message -----
From: "Miguel Carrasquer" <mcv@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 9:55 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] PIE Stop System


> What that shows is that *k^ should have been as frequent as *kW. It
isn't:
> it's much more frequent.

But why? We don't now the situation in that pre-PIE? There could have been
three front vowels which caused *k' as I said (*e, *i, *ü) and maybe just *u
caused *kw. In Uralic, if I'm not mistaking, *e, *i, *ü and *ä (a with
Umlaut) are reconstructed. If IE can really be linked with some other group
than it's probably Uralic and it has 4 front vowels which, if Uralic is
conservative vowelwards, could account for the frequency of PIE *k'. I am
not saying that this is true, but even if it isn't we can imagine such a
scenario where all front vowels with *k yield *k' and we get *k only from
*ka and *kw from *ku and maybe *ko. It is certainly not impossible. So the
frequency of *k' can perhaps only tell us that there were a lot of front
vowels in some imaginary pre-PIE before possible vowel colapse.

Mate