On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 15:00:34 -0500, Patrick Ryan
<
proto-language@...> wrote:
>But, since you follow these matters more closely than I, is the prevailing
>theory at this moment that *H2 does not color *o when before or after it?
>
>And, if that is the prevailing view, why would that be?
Why would it be the prevailing view? Because it's what best
fits what can be observed.
Why would */o/ be immune to laryngeal colouring? Well, I
think it's significant that */e:/ is also immune to it. If
*/o/ was originally a long vowel, that would explain it.
I reconstruct a 2x3 vowel system for pre-PIE. Under the
stress, the normal developments were:
*a > *e
*i > *e
*u > *e
*a: > *o:
*i: > *e:
*u: > *o:
Because *o: had no short counterpart, the length was not
contrastive and could be lost (but *ó is still long in open
syllables in Indo-Iranian, and does not get reduced to /ä/
in Tocharian [as are /e/, /i/ an /u/]).
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...