Proto-Indo-European phonology
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The phonology of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) has been reconstructed by linguists, based on the similarities and differences among current and dead Indo-European languages. Because PIE was not written, linguists must rely on the transcriptions of its earliest descendants, such as Hittite, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and Latin.
While there are many common traits shared by these theoretical forms, these reconstructions often contradict one another. For example, the Glottalic theory holds that the language contained ejectives, and there is considerable debate over whether or not certain velar sounds were allophones or considered individual phonemes. The Laryngeal theory, which proposes a set of guttural consonants in PIE no longer present in any existing Indo-European language, has been interpreted in a variety of ways.
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[edit] Phonology
Proto-Indo-European is conjectured to have used the following phonemes. See Indo-European languages for a summary of how these sounds evolved in the various Indo-European languages.
[edit] Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Velar | Laryngeal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| palatal | plain | labial | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Plosive | p | t | ḱ | k | kʷ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ǵ | g | gʷ | ||
| aspirated | bʰ | dʰ | ǵʰ | gʰ | gʷʰ | ||
| Fricative | s | h₁, h₂, h₃ | |||||
| Liquid | r, l | ||||||
| Semivowel | j | w | |||||
The table gives the most common notation in modern publications. Variant transcriptions are given below. Raised ʰ stands for aspiration. According to the glottalic theory, the "voiced stops" of the system as described above were originally glottalic, perhaps ejectives, while the "voiced aspirated stops" may not have been voiced.
- Proto-Celtic, Proto-Balto-Slavic, Albanian, and Proto-Iranian merged the voiced aspirated series bʰ, dʰ, ǵʰ, gʰ, gʷʰ with the plain voiced series b, d, ǵ, g, gʷ. (However, Proto-Celtic did not merge gʷʰ and gʷ into gʷ like the others did - instead, the former became gw while the latter became b).
- Proto-Germanic underwent Grimm's law, changing voiceless stops into fricatives, devoicing unaspirated voiced stops, and de-aspirating voiced aspirates.
- Grassmann's law (Tʰ-Tʰ > T-Tʰ, e.g. dʰi-dʰeh₁- > di-dʰeh₁-) and Bartholomae's law (TʰT > TTʰ, e.g. budʰ-to- > bud-dʰo-) describe the behaviour of aspirates in particular contexts in some early daughter languages.
[edit] Labials
p, b, bʰ, grouped with the cover symbol P. b was a very rare phoneme, which is one argument in favor of the glottalic theory - it seems that languages having ejective stops tend not to have an ejective labial stop p'.
[edit] Coronals/dentals
The standard reconstruction identified three coronal/dental stops: t, d, dʰ. They are symbolically grouped with the cover symbol T.
Some theorists conclude that consonant clusters of the form TK would undergo a metathesis in the proto-language, resulting in Kþ, compare Hittite dagan "earth" with Greek khthōn "earth", from ǵʰðōm, from earlier *dʰǵʰoms; Hittite hartagas "monster", Greek arktos "bear" from hrkþos from earlier *h₂r̥tǵos. Both metathetized and unmetathetized forms survive in different ablaut grades of the root *dʰégʷʰ "burn" (cognate to day) in Sanskrit, dáhati "is being burnt" < *dʰégʷʰ-e- and kṣā́yat "burns" < *dʰgʷʰ-éh1-.
[edit] Dorsals
Direct comparison, informed by the Centum-Satem isogloss yields the reconstruction of three rows of dorsal consonants in PIE.
- Palatovelars, ḱ, ǵ, ǵʰ (also transcribed k', g', g'ʰ or k̑, g̑, g̑ʰ or k̂, ĝ, ĝʰ). These were [k]- or [g]-like sounds which underwent a characteristic change in the Satem languages; they were possibly palatalized velars ([kʲ], [gʲ]) in Proto-Indo-European.
- Pure velars, k, g, gʰ.
- Labiovelars, kʷ, gʷ, gʷʰ (also transcribed ku̯, gu̯, gu̯h). Raised ʷ stands for labialization, or lip-rounding accompanying the articulation of velar sounds ([kʷ] is a sound similar to English qu in queen).
The centum group of languages merged the palatovelars ḱ, ǵ, ǵʰ with the plain velars k, g, gʰ while the satem group of languages merged the labiovelars kʷ, gʷ, gʷʰ with the plain velars k, g, gʰ.
The existence of the plain velars as phonemes separate from the palatovelars and labiovelars has been disputed. In most circumstances they appear to be allophones resulting from the neutralization of the other two series in particular phonetic circumstances. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what the circumstances of the allophony are, although it is generally accepted that neutralization occurred after s and u, and often before r. Most PIE linguists believe that all three series were distinct by late Proto-Indo-European, although a minority, including Frederik Kortlandt, believe that the plain velar series was a later development of certain satem languages; this belief was originally articuled by Antoine Meillet in 1894. Those who support the model of the threefold distinction in PIE cite evidence from Albanian[1] and Armenian[2] that they treated plain velars differently from the labiovelars in at least some circumstances, as well as the fact that Luwian apparently has distinct reflexes of all three series: *ḱ > z (probably [ts]); *k > k; *kʷ > ku (probably [kʷ]).[3] Kortlandt, however, disputes the significance of this evidence.[4] Ultimately, this dispute may be irresoluble -- analogical developments tend to quickly obscure the original distribution of allophonic variants that have been phonemicized, and the time frame is too great and the evidence too meager to make definite conclusions as to when exactly this phonemicization happened.
[edit] Fricatives
s (with the voiced allophone z). The "laryngeals" may have been fricatives, but there is no consensus as to their phonetic realization. There were also fricative allophones of t, d, usually transcribed þ, ð.[citation needed]
[edit] Laryngeals
The symbols h₁, h₂, h₃, with cover symbol H (or ə₁, ə₂, ə₃ and ə), stand for three hypothetical "laryngeal" phonemes. There is no consensus as to what these phonemes were, but it is widely accepted that h₂ was probably uvular or pharyngeal, and that h₃ was labialized. Commonly cited possibilities are ʔ ʕ ʕʷ and x χ~ħ xʷ; there is some evidence that h₁ may have been two consonants, ʔ and h, that fell together.[citation needed]
The schwa indogermanicum symbol ə is commonly used for a laryngeal between consonants.
[edit] Nasals and liquids
r, l, m, n, with vocalic allophones r̥, l̥, m̥, n̥, grouped with the cover symbol R.
[edit] Semivowels
w, y (also transcribed u̯, i̯) with vocalic allophones u, i.
[edit] Vowels
- Short vowels a, e, i, o, u
- Long vowels ā, ē, ō; sometimes a colon (:) is employed to indicate vowel length instead of the macron sign (a:, e:, o:).
- Diphthongs ai, au, āi, āu, ei, eu, ēi, ēu, oi, ou, ōi, ōu
- vocalic allophones of consonantal phonemes: u, i, r̥, l̥, m̥, n̥.
Other long vowels may have appeared already in the proto-language by compensatory lengthening: ī, ū, r̥̄, l̥̄, m̥̄, n̥̄.
It is often suggested that all a sounds (short and long) were earlier derived from an e preceded or followed by h₂, but Mayrhofer[5] has argued that PIE did in fact have a and ā phonemes independent of h₂.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Holger Pedersen, KZ 36 (1900) 277-340; Norbert Jokl, in: Mélanges linguistiques offerts à M. Holger Pedersen (1937) 127-161.
- ^ Vittore Pisani, Ricerche Linguistiche 1 (1950) 165ff.
- ^ Craig Melchert, Studies in Memory of Warren Cowgill (1987) 182–204.
- ^ F. Kortlandt, Recent developments in historical phonology (1978) 237-243 = [1].
- ^ Mayrhofer 1986: 170 ff.
[edit] See also
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| Language | Phonology | s-mobile | Sound laws |
| Ablaut | Nouns | Numerals | Pronouns and particles | Roots | Verbs |
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