Re: [tied] *kW- "?"

This is because uvulars are most likely to

> colour *e to *a by assimilation of a particular
> quality from the phoneme to the vowel: [+low]. Well,
> uvulars naturally have that very quality! We may then
> unite *q (trad. *k), *G (trad. *g) and *GH (trad.
> *gH) with *h2 to form a more cohesive 'uvular'
> class. It then can phonetically explain why there is
> a near-absence of reconstructions with *qe or *eq. In
> fact, it is more than likely that they are nothing
> but post-IE mirages anyway.

Let me get this straight: do you see the origin of the ablaut vowel
(the "citation vowel" of most IE roots) as being /e/, backed to /a/
near uvulars, or /a/, fronted to /e/ except near uvulars?


Torsten