Three-Way Contrast of Secondary Articulations in PIE

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

A way to reformulate what I've said about a three-way contrast in
pre-PIE consonants that does not involve secondary articulations,
multiplication of the consonant inventory, or typological objections,
would be to focus on what became of the vowels.  So, instead of
reconstructing, say, three nasals **n (>*n, *-r), **n^ (>*n ~ *i) and
**nw (> *n ~ *m ~ *u), one would simply reconstruct **na, **ni and
**nu.  When the vowels disappeared (when unstressed), or merged (when
stressed), there may well have been a brief and unstable period where
the three-way contrast was transferred, in the shape of secondary
articulations, to the consonants, leading to a separate labio-velar
series in PIE, and to certain transformations of or variations in the
other consonants (e.g. *n ~ *i, *n ~ *m, *l ~ *i, *t ~ s, *t ~ *i, *p
~ *kw, *m ~ *u).

Schematically:

         stressed         unstressed
**Ca     Ca > Ce          C@ > C
**Ci     Cya > C(y)e      Cy@ > C(y)
**Cu     Cwa > C(w)e      Cw@ > C(w)
**Ca:    Ca: > Co         Ca > Ce
**Ci:    Cai > Cei        Ci
**Cu:    Cau > Ceu        Cu

         with old vrdddhi:
         Ca: > Co         C@: > Co
         Cya: > C(y)o     Cy@: > C(y)o
         Cwa: > C(w)o     Cw@: > C(w)o
         [Ca:: > Co]      Ca: > Co
         Ca:i > Coi       Ci:
         Ca:u > Cou       Cu:

         with young / old+young vrddhi:
         Ce: / Co:        -- / Co:
         C(y)e: / C(y)o:  -- / C(y)o:
         C(w)e: / C(w)o:  -- / C(w)o:
         Co: / Co:        Ce: / Co:
         Ce:i / Co:i      Ci: / [Ci:]
         Ce:u / Co:u      Cu: / [Cu:]

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl