Further on minimal pairs 3 [was Re: PIE e/o Ablaut]

[Stanley Friesen]

At 03:09 PM 10/5/00 +0100, petegray wrote:
>IE *e/o-Ablaut inflectional or
> > >derivational?

>> o-form as a noun or adjective,
>> and an e-form as a verbal root

>Might it not begin as, say, a result of phonetic environment, but in later
>PIE be used for derivational purposes?  This "grammaticalising" of an
>originally phonetically conditioned variant is known elsewhere in various
>languages.

>So the fact that it is used derivationally does not prove it began that way.

Of course not.  The issue I am addressing is its status in PIE
itself.  Pre-PIE is a different issue.

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com