Re: [tied] Stative/Perfect; Indo-European /r/

Well, I would guess that syllabic *r of PIE was more like the syllabic are of some Slavic languages (Czech, Slovak, Croatian etc.), rather than the English variant. English has "too much schwa" in it, I think... In my mother tongue (Croatian), we use vibrant -r- which can be syllabic (and even long).

Mate

----- Original Message -----

From: Andrew Jarrette

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 7:01 AM

Subject: [tied] Stative/Perfect; Indo-European /r/

Moreover, PIE /r/ could also function as a vowel, in the same way that /j/ (or /y/) and /w/ corresponded to the vowels /i/ and /u/. It seems to me more likely that a continuant would be used as a vowel, rather than a vibration. North American English has such a vowel in words like burn, bird, earth, herd, etc.