> In fact my question was : are there 'pure' long vowels in PIE ?
What about the ablaut vowels?
Secondly, how would we tell the difference between a root with (e.g.) -eH-
and one with long -e:-, if there were no forms other than the noun?
You might look at:
*k'ru:s thigh
*kru:t vault, breast
*mu:s mouse
*pu:ro grain
*su:ro sour
*su:s pig
*su:s to whistle (wind)
*su:s creator
*k'u: stake, pointed
*syu: to sew
These are from Bird's summary of Pokorny.
I know some (perhaps all) of these are to be analysed as -uH-.
I can't find any words with long i:
There are about 48 with long o:, about 90 with long a:, and many more with
long e:
I'd guess we'd analyse all of them differently these days.
Peter