Re: *a/*a: ablaut

On 2008-02-14 07:22, Rick McCallister wrote:

> So in terms of vowels, it basically looked like some
> of the languages from the Caucasus --NW, if I remember
> correctly
> Given that some put the IE Heimat close to the
> Caucasus and there was supposedly some interaction
> between NWC and IE, do you see this as a Sprachbund
> phenomenon?

I'm not arguing for a strictly vertical vowel inventory. For all we
know, *u and *i may have been phonemic too -- they just failed to
develop ablaut patterns of their own (or maybe they did develop them, if
Miguel is right), and "3+1" vowel systems with three peripheral members
(/i, u, a/) plus one vowel somewhere in the mid/central range are quite
common (about one-third of all four-vowel inventories).

Piotr