PIE e/o Ablaut

[Brian M. Scott]

> Umm, what sort of example would you expect?  The shift **a: > *o would have
> been a regular phonetic change, and thus would have been essentially
> universal.  [...]

> And that particular change is well attested in later languages.  It
> happened between Old English and Modern English, for instance.  OE /sta:n-/
> became Modern English 'stone', but the short vowel, as seen in my name,
> remained low and unrounded.

> [The name 'Stanley' derives from OE 'stanlig' or 'stanlice'].

Eh?  Surely it's a transferred locative surname, from OE
<sta:n-le:ah> (or its dat. sing.).  There's no shortage of
compound place-names in which OE <sta:n-> has become PDE
<Stan-> /st&n-/; I take it that these are the result of
early ME shortening of the vowel before consonant groups.

Brian M. Scott