From: Patrick Ryan
Message: 42128
Date: 2005-11-17
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 5:09 PM
Subject: [tied] Indo-Iranian Vowel Collapse (was: IIr 2nd Palatalisation)
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
> wrote:
>
> > I thought it unlikely that, having gone through a radical vowel
> reduction
> > once before, after which the Ablaut-vowel developed into *e and *o,
> that Old
> > Indian would be subjected to a similar radical vowel reduction, <e>
> and <o>
> > becoming <a>. But, it appears to be the only reasonable explanation.
> > Presumably, Dravidian influence.
>
> Why Dravidian influence? Firstly, I thought Dravidian languages
> tended to have 5-vowel systems, not 3-vowel systems, and secondly, I
> thought the vowel collapse applied to all of Indo-Iranian.
***
Patrick:
Good question. A reflex answer rather than a considered one.
Comparative studies do _not_ support vowel collapse in Proto-Dravidian (or
Elamitic) though consonant collapse is a real possibility.
The only source for vowel collapse that seems reasonable so far North is
contact with a reduced vowel Caucasian language like Abkhaz.
Obviously, this contact would have been with Indo-Iranians.
***
> A third point is that the merger of short /a/ and short /o/ is pretty
> widespread. It not only occurs in a once-contiguous swathe from
> Indo-Iranian to Germanic, but also in Hittite. The unusual feature is
> the further merger of *e with *a and *o.
>
> Richard.