From: fournet.arnaud
Message: 58486
Date: 2008-05-14
----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
>>
>> > Patrick:
>> >
>> > I am citing Pokorny's reconstructions. Take it up with his spirit.
>> > I have explained, over and over, that pre-PIE had four pure vowels:
>> >
>> > *e:, *a:, *o:, *A
>> >
>> ============
>>
>> You are the only one who could ever believe this makes four pure vowels.
>> Actually, I can see only three : e o a with short/length contrast.
>>
>> You cannot fuse short (Pok) *e and short (Pok) *o under one grapheme.
>> You need two vowels.
>>
>> Arnaud
>> =============
> Patrick:
>
> IEists routinely write it *e/*o.
==========
I don't think they mean there is only one phoneme.
I understand that as meaning _two_ phonemes.
I suppose they might confirm it.
Arnaud
========
>>
>> > PIE *a, as I also have explained at least a dozen times, results from a
>> > shortening of *a: due to the Law of Phonological Entropy; and that
>> > pre-PIE
>> > unlengthened *a was _not_ preserved.
>>
>> ============
>> your own mother tongue refutes your Law of Entropy.
>>
>> Th stands for both tdh voiced and tth unvoiced.
>> There is no minimal pair for this contrast between tdh and tth
>> but tdh has not disappeared.
>>
>> The idea that a long a: could become short
>> while there still are long vowels in the system does not make sense.
>>
>> Arnaud
>> =========
>
> ***
>
> Patrick:
>
> I do not have a "mother tongue".
>
> I have a Proto-Language.
>
======
You misread me.
I meant the English language.
Arnaud