Re: Schwa (Was PIE Reconstruction)

> Wording it as you have, one gets the impression that
> phonemic transcriptions of Kartvelian can do entirely
> without vowels. Is that really so?

Well, in everyday Georgian, I've read, vowels are often skimped over,
so everything seens to be in consonants. Probably more that all the
vowels are weakened so much that they become unnecessary schwas, which
are mostly dropped.

> In any case, I don't think it's a such a matter of all
> or nothing. It's not necessary for P.I.E. to have had
> an aversion to vowels before it could have possibly
> permitted any consonant clusters of this sort. If it
> were, speakers of even English would owe an explanation
> to the Japanese. :^)

It's more that some of the combinations with laryngeals are
potentially difficult. Not to say that even with non-laryngeal
consonants there aren't tricky words: *dhghem (earth) isn't exactly
easy to pronounce.