From: Patrick Ryan
Message: 58469
Date: 2008-05-14
----- Original Message -----
From: "etherman23" <etherman23@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 9:24 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: PIE initial *a
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:
>
>
> Patrick:
>
> Mauvais comme d'habitude, Arnaud.
>
> *bal-bal, *badyos, *baita:-, *bak-, *band-, *bar-bar- . . .
>
>
> Meillet, like you, was wrong! *CaC- exists plentifully.
While I agree that Meillet was wrong and that PIE had *a, these aren't
very good examples. *balbal and *barbar are obvious onomatopoeia
(which frequently have phonemes that don't otherwise exist in a
language). *badyos, IIRC, appears only in Italo-Celtic and is thus
most likely a borrowing. *baita: is explained in the Laryngeal Theory
as *beH2iteH2. *band, IIRC, occurs only in Celtic and Illyrian and is
thus likely a borrowing. Only *bak is likely to go back to PIE.
***
Patrick:
Thank you.
Very appropriate observations.
***