Fw: [tied] English Lack of /a/ (was: The oddness of Gaelic words in

Richard,

I have not seen a response to this last email.

If you missed it, or if Yahoo did not deliver your response, please let me know.

If you decline to discuss it, that is, of course, your choice.

Patrick

----- Original Message -----
From: Patrick Ryan

To: CYBALIST

Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 11:28 AM

Subject: Re: [tied] English Lack of /a/ (was: The oddness of Gaelic words in p-)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 8:40 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] English Lack of /a/ (was: The oddness of Gaelic words in
p-)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:

> Then what about PIE <a:>? Do you believe it was a lowish central
vowel also?

Remind me, where does it occur? AFAIK Sanskrit /a:/ is a proper low
vowel.

> Why did <a> not survive in PIE?

Pre-PIE /a/ must have fronted (perhaps even raised to [æ]) and then
perhaps got pushed out by new, central /a/ of various origins. Cf.
varieties of English for which '/a/' is untenable as a description of
the vowel of <bad>.

Richard.

***

Patrick:

Richard, speaking of short vowels only, I wonder if you agree with Miguel
and myself in believing that

pre-PIE *Ci/a/u

became

late pre-PIE *CYV, *CV, *CWV

which subsequently became

PIE *CA (where *A is the Ablautvokal: *e / *o / *° / *Ø)

***