[tied] Re: IE thematic presents and the origin of their thematic vo

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, glen gordon <glengordon01@...>
wrote:

> Piotr to Rob:
> > In those positions where we would expect *e:
> > itself to be lengthened (i.e. superlong), we find
> > *o: (or *o as a conditioned shortened reflex
> > thereof).
>
> [gLeNny crInGes and shIvErs] Ick...
>
>
> > In specific conditions we find even more exotic
> > alternations that can be explained in similar ways,
> > cf. *a/*e:/*o: in *káp-je/o- 'take, grasp' with an
> > a-coloured vowel from earlier **kép-je/o- <
> > ***ke:p-jé/ó- (Lat. capio:, Goth. hafjan) vs.
> > *ke:p- (perhaps directly reflected in Lat. ce:pi:)
> > vs. *kó:pah2 (Gk. kó:pe: 'handle') from **O-kép-
> > e-h2 < ***O-ke:p-é-h2.
>
> This is silly. First of all, let's get with the
> 21st century at write the stem properly as *qep-.
> The *e is phonetically coloured to /A/ after the
> uvular *q, just as it would be next to uvular *x
> (trad. *h2). Still, the phoneme remains *e despite
> allophony. Everyone get it? Good. :P

Personally, I'm inclined to view *kap- as a loanword. Surely it's at
least *possible* for IE to have acquired loanwords before it broke
apart into dialects.

- Rob