Re: IE Thematic Vowel Rule

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "elmeras2000" <jer@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Rob" <magwich78@...> wrote:
>
> > Well, do you have any idea as to what that "certain prominence"
> was?
> > I, for one, cannot answer those questions until I get more
> > information about your ideas here.
>
> But how can you say there was *no* special prominence in stem-

final

> vowels? That is what we observe, and denying it is a very strong
> statement that demands good arguments in its favour. You do not

seem

> to accept that obligation. I find it relatively easy to guess at

word-

> final vowel lengthening (as in Avestan and Old Persian) operating

at a

> time before the flexives became fully attached. That woudl indeed
> produce what we find. I do not know the development of many

languages

> over millennia, so I do not feel particularly embarrassed that I
> cannot produce another one that does exactly the same.
>

Apart from the nominative supposed *-z, all the succeeding
consonants that cause the thematic vowel to be /o/ are nasals. Now
suppose the nominative ending was instead *-ns (<- *-ms ?); then
they were all nasals. In that case we might have */aN/ > /ãN/ >
*/õN/ > /oN/; that would explain the timbre.


Torsten