Ix-nay on the ostratic-nay

[Patrick C. Ryan]

Dear Rich and IEists:

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick C. Ryan <proto-language at email.msn.com>
Date: Thursday, March 04, 1999 1:54 AM

[ moderator snip ]

>>Bomhard mentions an IE *e- 1rst person pronoun that I don't recall
>>actually attested.

>This is the demonstrative H4V, 'here', but because H4 did not inhibit
>apophony, it appears in the IE dictionary as e-; H1V, 'there', would also
>have yielded e-, and so the distinction between proximal and distal was
>lost.

>[ Moderator's comment:
>  *H_4 is the "a-coloring" laryngeal that does *not* appear as <HH> in
>  Hittite, so would not lead to *e- in any dictionary.
>  --rma ]

Sorry about that. I have also since been told that H4 is not generally
accepted as a "laryngeal". So please let me explain it this way, and you
tell me how it it should be notated. Nostratic ?a, 'here'; ?e, 'there'; both
lead to IE *e-.

<snip>

Pat

[ Moderator's response:
  One of the problems I have in accepting Nostratic is the vowel system, which
  does not provide for the Indo-European vowel system which we reconstruct.  I
  cannot tell you what notation to use, therefore, in a Nostratic context.  I
  will insist that when you use Indo-European notations, you use them correctly
  to avoid confusion.
  --rma ]