"syllabicity"
Patrick C. Ryan
proto-language at email.msn.com
Wed May 19 08:05:14 UTC 1999
[ 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)
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