Govor, Vol. 20 No. 1-2, 2003.
Original scientific paper
THE PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN VOWEL SYSTEM FROM THE TYPOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW
Ranko Matasović
; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb Croatia
Abstract
In this paper I examine the proposed reconstructions of the PIE vowel system from a typological point of view. It is argued that the monovocalic or vowelless systems are improbable, because no such systems are attested in the languages of the world. On the other hand, the maximalistic view of the PIE vowel system is equally unacceptable, because the alleged instances of PIE *a can be explained away as containing *h2, and the PIE long vowels *e and *o are best treated as short *e and *o with the additional suprasegmental feature of length. However, the most usual phonetic interpretation of the ablauting PIE vowels *e and *o is not convincing, because there are no languages containing /e/ and /o/ but no /a/. Although the final solution of this problem is not offered, it is argued that it would be possible to interpret PIE e as /a/, and * PIE *o as /O/ to achieve a typologically plausible reconstruction of the PIE vowel system.
Keywords
Proto-Indo-European; vowel system; phonetic typology
Hrčak ID:
179379
URI
Publication date:
1.9.2003.
Visits: 623 *