Re: PIE initial *a

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...> wrote:

>
>
>
> "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:
> We know that OE /æ/ and /A/ merged in very late OE / very
> early ME, and we know that later on the value was /a/. It
> seems to me that the simplest explanation is that the
> initial merger was to /a/. Also early, but probably after
> this merger (according to a chronology set out by Roger
> Lass), is the raising of OE /æ:/ to /E:/, and the raising of
> /A:/ to /O:/ is a bit later yet. At that point the full
> non-northern system would have been:
>
> i: i u u:
> e: e o o:
> E: O:
> a
>
> OSL then filled the missing /a:/ slot.
>
> -----------
> Not to mention, in Southwest and Midland dialects,
> y: y
> ø: ø
> ?œ:?
>

Same as Danish today.

I noticed that English spelling conventions for long vowels using
digraphs can be systematized this way:

ie ue
ee oo
ea oa
(a)

which seems to reflect a system of long vowels
i: u:
e: o:
E: O:
(a)

but aren't those conventions much younger?


Torsten