Re: [tied] Unreality...

Peter:

> But every vowel except /a/ has a non-vocalic allophone. Now that is
> simply not true of English or most other languages. That is why the
> discussion does go somewhere, and why it proves that mono-vocalic
> analyses are not bizarre.

Alright, but I'm still not sure about the point to this fun pasttime.

> As for the universals, Sanskrit would fit with them better than
> PIE, simply because the monovowel is /a/. That's why some folks are
> persuaded that the reconstructed /e/ of breaking-up PIE, which must
> have been /e/ when it hits Sanskrit, must have been phonemic /a/ at
> some stage.

Yes, but this is what I'm trying to understand. Why?? Why do it? What
does it serve? It doesn't make things elegant. It makes the vowel
system worse and completely unlikely, robotic, strange, weird. It
doesn't make sense. Is this a mathematicians idea of a party? Still
don't understand.


= gLeN