Re: [tied] Re: Schwa (Was PIE Reconstruction)

From: Exu Yangi
Message: 39028
Date: 2005-07-02

>From: "C. Darwin Goranson" <cdog_squirrel@...>
>
> > 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.
>

It is? Funny, but I have no problem with it at all. (As an aside, my
great-father came from Khazakhstan, and I often heard him speak it...