Re: [tied] Re: Indo-European /a/

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 22:51:42 +0000, etherman23
<etherman23@...> wrote:

>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
>> Initial clusters HC- do not generally show up as a-
>> (Indo-Iranian i-) except in Armenian (and as e-, a-, o- in
>> Greek). It seems a bit strange that original _long_ vowels
>> would show such a behaviour.
>
>Perhaps. But I thought it was strange behavior for the vowels when
>according to Beekes *eH1(i,u) > e:(i,u), *eH3(i,u) > o:(i,u), *oH
>(i,u) > o:(i,u), but *eH2(i,u) > a(i,u). Why wouldn't this last give
>a long diphthong when H1 and H3 do?

Yes, it does. I don't agree with Beekes here: *ah2i gives
-a:i in the a-stem dat/loc sg., as expected.

The problem with the "long diphthongs" is that a sequence
*VHi can develop into *VHi (> V:i), *ViH (> Vi [acute in
B-S]) or *VH (> *V:), depending on context (the rules were
laid out by Jens: we have *VHiV, *ViHC and *VHCC/*VHC#, in
stressed position).


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...