Re: Indo-European /a/

> As an alternative, one might consider the possibility that early *a

was

> relegated to the peripheries of the system since it did not

participate

> in productive vowel alternations and so had no grammatical function

to

> play. This is more or less Kurylowicz's position: he points out that

*a

> occurs mostly in isolated "concrete" lexemes.
>

Kuhn points out that the latest-acquired domesticated plants and
animal seem to have root /a/. That would speak for all such words
being loans.


Torsten