Three-Way Contrast of Secondary Articulations in PIE

[Rich Alderson]

On 10 Apr 2001, Dr. David L. White wrote:

[quoting Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

>> They have, for instance Abkhaz.  There is no problem with coarticulations,
>> as Abkhaz does not have /i/ and /u/.

> Yes, but is that in a one-vowel analysis or the two-vowel analysis?

There is no one-vowel analysis of Abkhaz; W. S. Allen analyzed the apparent
large number of vowels into a two-vowel system /+ a/ with large allophony based
on neighbouring obstruents with palatal, labial, or zero secondary coarticula-
tions.  Phonetic [i] and [u] are due to occurrence of /+/ next to a palatalized
bzw. labialized obstruent.

								Rich Alderson