How many velar series in P.I.E? (was Re: [tied] *kW- "?")

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 01:41:14 +0000, david_russell_watson
> <liberty@...> wrote:
> >
> >What's wrong with Lehmann's view?
>
> Lehmann:
> >In no IE dialect, however, do we find three contrasting phonemes;
> >the greatest number in any dialect is two.
>
> This is not the case for reconstructable pre-stages of
> Albanian, Armenian and Luwian.

Well Lehmann _does_ posit three velar series for PIE -
he merely restricts that state to its final stage - and
so the maintenance of that three-way distinction in
these three branches, although apparently unknown to
him, doesn't really falsify his theory. At least it
doesn't if he places his stage with three velar series
prior to the separation of Luwian. Would that be too
early to refer to the three-velar stage as "a _brief_
stage just prior to the PIE's breakup"?

> Lehmann:
> >k^a- no evidence
> >k^o- rare.
> >ke- rare.
>
> There is evidence for *k^a-, although it is admittedly
> rare. There is plenty of evidence for *k^o- and *ke-.

Well, while I don't want to beat a dead horse, I'd still
like to make sure I fully understand.

Again, Lehmann _does_ posit three velar series for PIE -
he merely restricts that state to its final stage - and
so certainly doesn't deny the existence at some point
of *k^o- and *ke-. Without knowing (referring to myself)
exactly where *k^o- and *ke- are found it's difficult to
be certain that they didn't originate as Lehmann claims.

Lehmann wrote:

> Since e interchanged with o, there would have
> been an interchange of the velar allophones in various
> forms of one word; in verbal forms of the root /lewk-/
> the velar allophone would have been found before the
> thematic vowel in the 2d and 3d sg. A similar inter-
> change would have been found in nominal forms, e.g. the
> -nt- participial forms from /lewk-/ with interchange of
> thematic vowels e and o.
> Such a situation would remain stable as long as the
> conditioning features were not disturbed. When however
> the vowel system was disturbed, a phonemic contrast
> between the palatal and velar allophones would be
> established.

So do *k^o- and *ke- often appear outside of the contexts
described here by Lehmann?

David