PIE e/o Ablaut

Anthony Appleyard mclssaa2 at fs2.mt.umist.ac.uk
Fri Apr 14 08:46:08 UTC 2000


Perhaps PIE /e/ and /o/ were once allophones, but afterwards analogical
effects messed it up. If it was /o/ only after the stress, so explaining e.g.
the /o/ in verb perfects such as {leloiqw-} = "(he) has left" , the /o/ in
{woid-} might be the result of analogy. Likewise with English /th/ versus
/dh/: the pronunciation /dh/ spread from unstressed pronouns to the same
pronouns pronounced stressed in emphasis. And I have noticed another minimal
pair of English /th/ versus /dh/: {thou} /dhau/ = "you" (sg.) :: {thou} /thau/
= engineering slang for "a thousandth of an inch".



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