Re: [tied] Timing of ablaut

>I was objecting to the concept of "apophonic o" or "alternating o"
>which appears nonsensical. What difference could it possibly make
>that the /o/ concerned is just part of any-old alternation series as
>opposed to an /o/ that is not known to appear as anything else?

It means there was a difference in pronunciation in I-I at some early
period. If Brugmann's Law is correct, then we have significant information
from Skt which is hidden in other IE languages that collapsed apophonic -o-
with -o- from other sources. It means that the attested -e-/-o- alternation
in verb and noun stems hides an earlier, and different, vowel alternation -
precisely as some people on this list have been suggesting.

Peter