From: Patrick Ryan
Message: 52856
Date: 2008-02-12
----- Original Message -----
From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 11:44 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] *a/*a: ablaut
> On 2008-02-12 16:49, Patrick Ryan wrote:
>
> > Let us assume that a given *a: in PIE was pre-PIE *a. Could you give me
> > an
> > idea of what process could lengthen it? - vrdhi will, of course, not be
> > supremely convincing.
>
> I think it was a purely phonetic process, and a fairly natural one.
> Other things being equal, low vowels tend to be longer than high or mid
> ones. Even in US English the vowels of <god>, <long> (if different from
> the preceding one) and <bad>, though phonologically patterning with
> "short/lax" vowels, are quite long phonetically and are easily tensed in
> favourable environments. The first two may occur in "free" positions
> (without a following consonant, as in <bra> and <law>.
>
> Piotr
>
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