"syllabicity"

[Patrick C. Ryan]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

Dear Jens ante portas and IEists:

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen <jer at cphling.dk>
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 1999 4:57 PM

> On Thu, 13 May 1999 CONNOLLY at latte.memphis.edu wrote:

>> Someone wrote:

>>>>>> Thus, since even an extremist monovocalic IE phonology would oppose a
>>>>>> 3sg in *-t to a 2pl in *-te, it must have a phoneme /e/.  This of course
>>>>>> does not detract from the stimulating effect of the book - just look at
>>>>>> us!

>> Pat replied:

>>>>> With the best attempt to see this, I confess I cannot.  The difference
>>>>> between *-t and -*te is simply explained by paying attention to the
>>>>> stress-accentuation: *"-t(e) and *-"te.

> Pardon my gate-crashing,

C'mon in. But, the water is murky.

> but I was the "someone", and perhaps I should be clearer: There is no
> disputing that the PIE thematic verb formed a 3sg injunctive *bhe'r-e-t and a
> 2pl injunctive *bhe'r-e-te; if you prefer imperfects, you may add the augment
> in any form you think it had in PIE.  The fact will remain that one form is
> an *-e longer than the other, everything else being the same. That extra *-e
> makes a difference all by itself and so is phonemic,

If anyone has disputed that the *-e makes a difference, it is not I. My
point was, that you could just as easily notate the form as -*tV since there
is no contrasting -**ta or **-to.

> even under an (erroneous) analysis that accepts only one vowel for PIE.

And I thought perhaps we on a similar wavelength after what you wrote about
Sanskrit!

For PIE, I reiterate that I believe the situation was as you described so
masterfully for Sanskrit - monovocalic. For later IE, the situation is
considerably more complex.

Pat

PATRICK C. RYAN (501) 227-9947; FAX/DATA (501)312-9947 9115 W. 34th St.
Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 USA WEBPAGES:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803 and PROTO-RELIGION:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/proto-religion/indexR.html "Veit
ek, at ek hekk, vindga meipi, nftr allar nmu, geiri undapr . . . a ~eim
meipi er mangi veit hvers hann af rstum renn." (Havamal 138)