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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 8:58 AM
Subject: Re: The palatal sham :) (Re: [tied] Re: Albanian (1))



> >But you have to admit that the evidence for PIE *a is very slim.
>
> No. I used to think so and then I was enlightened to important facts.
> While the vowel is less frequent than *e and *o (naturally, due to
> ablaut patterns), it does exist independently of colouring. It is a
> phoneme all its own and must be reconstructed in IE. There simply
> is no vowel system without a low vowel so it would be absurd to
> reconstruct an untenable sound system. Thus, both the attestations
> showing *a and the evidence from world languages shows that
> what you're saying is not possible.
>
> Hopefully you'll take note of the evidence.

The system of *a, *e, *o is also very rare if attested. Lg like this mostly
have *a and *@ (two vowels) or *a, *i, *u (three vowels). But reconstructing
*a is not the only way out as you probably know.

Mate