PIE vs. Proto-World

[Carol F. Justus]

August Schleicher composed the PIE Fable based on the hypothesis that
Sanskrit was closer to PIE. Hermann Hirt revised it updating with the
knowledge that Sanskrit 'a' came from PIE 'e' and 'o' among other things,
and Lehmann & Zgusta (in the Szemerenyi Fs. ca. 1980) further revised it
based on late 20th century views. I reviewed it in Language some time
thereafter suggesting that our even newer knowledge of the fact that *kwi-
was a focus marker might be integrated into yet another revision.

I'm not sure that these Fable writings reflect a confidence in our
knowledge of what PIE was like, but more likely a synthesis of the
hypothesis so far about the kind of details people usually feel more
comfortable commenting on.

I realize that opinions differ as to what one conceives the goal of
reconstruction to be. Statements like 'The reconstruction X has not been
proven', of course, fly in the face of the face of the assumption that
reconstruction is intended to reflect the hypothesis so far. Continued
revisions of the Fable, however, would seem to be a good example of the
fact that at least some IEists view reconstruction as the most plausibly
account of the known facts so far.

Carol Justus