Re: *a/*a: ablaut

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Wordingham" <richard@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] *a/*a: ablaut


--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:
>
> Is not /a/ a central vowel?

Yes. Piotr means that /a, e, i, u/ is commoner than /a, @, i, u/, in
which the central vowel under discussion is /@/.

(Please note that we must be sparing with the use of '@' - strings
including it are often mangled in the archives to prevent e-mail
harvesting.)

Richard.

<snip>

> > Yes, I mentioned the fact that /a, e, i, u/ was more widespread than
> > systems with a central vowel (auditory salience probably plays a role
> > here). Actually, such a system may be preferable for pre-PIE if one
> > takes Ockham's Razor into account.

Is that what is written here, Richard?


Patrick