PCR: The first thing here is to look at the publishing date: 35 years
ago.
When IEists first discovered that <h> in Hittite occurred where
(most) 'laryngeals' were reconstructed for PIE, there was some misguided
resistance, probably inspired by a reluctance to acknowledge that PIE had
suspiciously Semitic-looking sounds in its earliest stages.
I would be willing to bet that Wyatt, if he is still alive, has retracted
his views on <h>.
I would be hard put to think of anyone today who still maintains such a
view about the misnamed 'laryngeals'.
On the other hand, I believe that PIE at its earliest had a tripartite
system of vowels, a front, central, and back vowel (like Afro-Asiatic) that,
when _short_, all became PIE *<e>, which was _later_ subject
to stress-related Ablaut as *<ΓΈ> and *<o>.
Long vowels, however, retained their original quality: *<a:>,
*<e:>, *<o:>.
Long vowels derived principally, at the earliest stage, from congruity with
aspirated voiceless stops, derived, in turn, from earlier voiceless affricates
*/pf/ > */ph/, */ts/ > */th/, and */kx/ > */kh/,
which, when giving up their aspiration, lengthened the vowels; thus */pha/
> */pa:/.
I do not believe the Hittite evidence allows us to reconstruct 'coloring'
'laryngeals'.
The traces of aspirated voiceless stops are quite elusive as we all
know.
The only way to reach this early stage of reconstruction is to compare PIE
with other (I would claim) related language families (which distinguish the
reflexes of stops and affricates, and the original vowel qualities), which
IEists are resolutely opposed to doing, and so we proceed no farther.
In addition, this is the only way to reconstruct the earliest vowel
qualities, with three notable exceptions: IE */g^/, */gh^/, and */k^/. They
derive, I believe, from */ge/, */ghe/, and*/k[h]e/ at the earliest stage of PIE.
They were not originally phonemes in their own right but
merely allophones of */g/, */gh/ (earlier */gG/) and */k[h]/ before a front
vowel.
One of the most widely employed morphemes of PIE was */?a/, which conveyed
a stative. When we see a reconstruction like Pokorny's *1. k^ad-, 'fall', we can
fairly confidently reconstruct an earlier */ke/, 'gray', + */?a/, STATIVE, +
*/d/, probably 'giving grayness' (/ke-'?a-d[a]/), i.e. 'like a dead body'.
Another: Pokorney's *3. ka:i[d]-, 'heat', from */k[h]a/, 'burn(ning
sensation)' + */je/, PROGRESSIVE, +*/d/, probably 'giving burning sensation'
(*/'k[h]a-j[e]-d[a]/).
Also, finally, I dispute strongly that PIE */i/ and */u/ were part of the
original PIE vowel system: they are always avocalic reductions of */j/ and
*/w/.
I realize this will be a great deal to swallow for most list-members but
until we are willing to look beyond purely internal PIE evidence, we will not
progress.
Patrick
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 10:39
AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Indo-European
/a/
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew
Jarrette <anjarrette@......>
wrote:
> Is the
sound /a/ considered to be an original phoneme
of
Proto-Indo-European? Or is it only the result of laryngeal
colouring
of former *e (or *o?).
********
I find
on my bookshelf a thin volume simply entitled
"Indo-european /a/" William
F. Wyatt Jr. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press
1970.
Quoting from the back cover blurb:
"This acutely
reasoned study provides an account of the
development of the IE vowel
system in its latest stages. Prof. Wyatt
believes that previous
studies have, because of a long tradition of
morphological rather than
phonological analysis, introduced into the
IE language entities --
laryngeal consonants --which have no place
there. ... He argues not
only that /a/ was a part of the inventory of
IE vowels but also that it
occurred more frequently and in more
positions in individual words than has
previously been supposed...."
Rejecting laryngeals
is maybe too heretical to be considered
seriously, but this seems to be
something you might want to read.
Dan
Milton
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