Re: *a/*a: ablaut

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

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If I understand well,
you think PIE had
Open a
Middle * (ablaut joker)
Closed i u

Right ?

Which examples of four-V inventories
can you propose like that ?

Arnaud
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