Re: Common Slavic *v/*w

At 9:00:11 PM on Wednesday, March 4, 2009, Andrew Jarrette
wrote:

> I forgot to mention that Torsten reiterated his theory
> about PIE *k^ being merely the allophone of a *k before
> front vowels, and of PIE *ke being the allophone of PIE
> *kW before *e (/kW/ remaining e.g. in the combination
> *kWo).

> I countered that it seemed more likely to me at least that
> *kW would lose its W-element before rounded vowels (since
> the W would not be clearly audibly distinct from the
> following rounded vowel), while before unrounded vowels it
> would remain because it was clearly distinct from the
> vowel.

According to Ringe, citing Weiss, the contrast between
velars and labiovelars cannot be reconstructed before *w,
*u, or *u:. He also notes that *KW > *K in the development
from PIE to PGmc.

Brian