[tied] Re: PIE Word Formation (2)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <G&P@...> wrote:

>
> > I can't see PIE having less than 3 vowels. Even then 4 makes more

sense.

>
> However many vowels you give it, it is extremely odd as a language,

in that

> it seems to use only e (or o in relatively predictable situations)

for full

> grade stems.

Everything about PIE is odd. The three stop series is odd. The three
velar series is odd. The vowel system is odd. The thematic/athematic
distinction is odd.

I wonder, though, if the PIE system could be explained as coming from
a system like /a i u/. *a would have *& as an allophone when
unstressed. Then the stress system changed and then stressed *& became
*e. Under certain circumstances post-stress *& would become *o. Under
other circumstances unstressed *& becomes *0.

> > IMO, *ei and *eu are the result of stressing *i and *u,
>
> Now there's a wonderful idea! Pre-PIE had the vowels **i, u, r, l,

m, n,

> but speakers did what we know has happened several times, at least in
> Germanic:
> /i/ > /&i/, /u/ > /&u/
> You can hear this change today both in Birmingham, UK, and in Bavaria,
> Germany, and it underlies the English Great Vowel Shift.

I'm a bit skeptical of extending it past *i and *u. Unless, perhaps,
this was analogical.

> However the system **i, u, r, l, m, n is itself odd - there should

be a low

> mid or low front vowel in there.

Too odd I should think.