Re: [tied] Indo-European /a/

Thank you for your exposition on the sources of Latin /a/. I didn't realize vocalic laryngeals were as common and in as many phonetic environments as they were in Latin. The main source I have simply reconstructs *a in many of the words you presented as examples. I'm guessing that such vocalic laryngeals also account for the majority of /a/'s in non-initial position in Celtic languages.

Andrew Jarrette

P&G <G&P@...> wrote:

> Is the sound /a/ considered to be an original phoneme of > Proto-Indo-European? For some people, it is a matter of doctrine that *a is always and only < *e coloured by h2. Others allow that there are about 20 roots for which we seem to have to reconstruct *a, without any evidence for h2. Examples include *sal "slat", *k'ad "fall", *kan "sing", *nas "nose", though individual instances will no doubt be disputed. It remains one of the points of debate in PIE phonology. >In the vocabularies I have seen of Indo-European, /a/ is especially >frequent initially and before and after ... the velar stops This has also been noted, and some people have suggested that the three-fold velar series (*k, *k' *kW) is derived from a single original velar in three different contexts (*ka, *ke/i, *ko/u). Support for this seems to have faded a bit, as far as I know. >one finds that /a/ seems quite frequent in Latin. Yes. Latin /a/ is usually the outcome of a syllabic laryngeal (h1, h2 or h3), or sometimes a syllabic resonant. E.g. aceo, ago, aio, alo, amo, aro derive from initial h2 capio, fateor, lateo, pavio, statuo, taceo derive from Ch2 facio, iacio, iaceo, quatio sapio derive from Ch1 placeo derives from Ch3 The zero grade of a resonant > /a/ in: caleo, pario, paro, valeo, maneo The sequences -ev- and -ov- > -av- in Latin: e.g. caveo, faveo, lavo, paveo But there are some irreducible /a/ verbs: e.g. cado, cano, madeo, salio, scabo. Other Latin /a/ verbs are denominatives, taking their /a/ from the noun (e.g. acuo). Peter