PIE e/o Ablaut

[proto-language]

Dear Stanley and IEists:

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "Stanley Friesen" <sarima at friesen.net>
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2000 10:34 AM

> At 10:42 PM 4/9/00 -0500, proto-language wrote:

>> Dear Jens and IEists:
>> [PRp]

>> To clarify what my understanding, wrong though it may be, of the purported
>> change from *e to *o is, I will quote Lehmann's description of the alleged
>> phenomenon, from page 110 of _Proto-Indo-European Phonology_, which I
>> support with some reservations:

>> "After various studies the conditions of change have been defined: /e'/
>> /e':/ [e' e': a' a':], with phonemic pitch accent, became [o' o':] when
>> the chief accent was shifted to another syllable, and the syllable accented
>> formerly received a secondary pitch accent."

[SF]

> Yes, this is one suggested explanation, one I find less than convincing,
> as I find few, if any, well-attested examples of this sort of sound change.

> However, even *assuming* it is the correct model, it still leaves the e/o
> distinction phonemic in PIE!  Lehmann here is discussing the *loss* of a
> conditioning factor as the basis for the sound change.  That is the very
> definition of a phonemic split, similar to the s/z and th/dh splits in
> English.

[PR]
Essentially, I agree with you.

Rightly or wrongly, however, I favor basically Trask's definition with
qualifications: "the smallest unit which can make a difference in meaning";
the qualification being that I take 'meaning', which Trask does not define
in the same place,  as a difference in concept not in inflection. I would
say that 'sooth/soothe' does not establish /dh/ as an English phoneme but
that 'ether/either' does.

Pat

PATRICK C. RYAN | PROTO-LANGUAGE at email.msn.com (501) 227-9947 * 9115 W. 34th
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