The palatal sham :) (Re: [tied] Re: Albanian (1))

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> >
> > >[...] I think there was no real phoneme *a in PIE
> >
> > Think all you want. It's incorrect. Not only is the lack of *a in
> > a vowel system completely unattested in all known languages
> > (at least human ones), you simply cannot wave away such a
> > common root as *kap- "grasp, hold, have". It is far too secure to
> > ignore.
>
> English. What used to be, and still is written as <-a-> is now an
> ablaut series |eI, ä, &|. All occurrences of proper /a/ in English
> are loans (eg. <spa>).

And where does <father> come from?

In Received Pronunciation you also have such native words as <far>
and <fast>.

Richard.