| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Laryngeal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Voiceless | *p | *t | *ḱ | *k | *kʷ | |
| Voiced | (*b) | *d | *ǵ | *g | *gʷ | ||
| Voiced aspirate | *bʰ | *dʰ | *ǵʰ | *gʰ | *gʷʰ | ||
| Fricative | *s | *h₁, *h₂, *h₃ | |||||
| Nasal | *m | *n | |||||
| Liquid | *r, *l | ||||||
| Glide | *w | *y | |||||
Stops
editStops in Proto-Indo-European are generally reconstructed as follows:[1]
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | *p | *t | *ḱ | *k | *kʷ |
| Voiced | (*b) | *d | *ǵ | *g | *gʷ |
| Voiced aspirate | *bʰ | *dʰ | *ǵʰ | *gʰ | *gʷʰ |
*b
editThorn clusters
editGlottalic theory
editCentum and satem
editThe descendants of Proto-Indo-European have traditionally been divided into two camps based on sound changes to the three velar series: the centum group and the satem group. The centum languages, named for the Latin term for 'one hundred', are those in which the palatovelars (*ḱ *ǵ *ǵʰ) merged with the plain velars (*k *g *gʰ). These include the Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, and Tocharian subfamilies.[3] By contrast, the satem languages, named for the Avestan term for 'one hundred' (𐬯𐬀𐬙𐬆𐬨, satəm), are defined by the merger of the labiovelars (*kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ) with the plain velars and the assibilation of the palatovelars into fricatives.[4] This category includes the Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian subfamilies.[5]
The status of Albanian, Armenian, and the Anatolian languages is the subject of some debate.
*s
edits-mobile
edit
Laryngeals
editProto-Indo-European had a set of laryngeal consonants of debated values, represented with *h₁, *h₂, *h₃, and possibly *h₄.[6]
Sonorants
editAblaut grades
editVowels
editOnly two short vowels – *e and *o – are universally accepted by linguists for Proto-Indo-European.[7] Similarly, their long vowel equivalents – *ē and *ō – are also accepted.[8] While *i and *u were present in the language, their status is not phonemic; they were allophones of *y and *w, respectively, especially in zero-grade positions.[7] The status of an *a phoneme is controversial.[7][additional citation(s) needed] Some linguists, particularly those of the Leiden school, view *a as an outgrowth of laryngeal coloring. Thus, etymologies like *sals ('salt'), with *a, are often reconstructed as *sh₂els, with laryngeal–vowel sequences.[7]
Certain etymologies are difficult to square without *a; for example Hittite 𒀀𒀊𒉺 (appa; 'behind, afterwards') and Greek ἀπό (apó; 'away from') cannot be derived from *h₂epó.[9] Alternative theories have been proposed to account for these handful of apparent counterexamples. One hypothesis is that *h₄ was an a-coloring laryngeal wherein the original consonant sound was not preserved as it would have been in Hittite. This would explain the a-vocalization and lack of a largyneal consonant at the beginning of appa.[10] Other examples include alternative etymologies for problem words, such as deriving appa from the etymon of Greek ἐπί (epí; 'on, upon') rather than of ἀπό, positing sound laws that explain the disappearance of laryngeals in Hittite, or attributing the changes to analogical leveling.[11][8] Despite some notable holdouts such as Frederik Kortlandt and Alexander Lubotsky, most mainstream Indo-European linguists accept *a and *ā as legitimate – if relatively rare – phonemes.[12][additional citation(s) needed]
There are four accepted diphthongs for Proto-Indo-European: *ey, *oy, *ew, *ow. The *a equivalents – *ay and *aw, respectively – are also sometimes included, though they may be likewise attributed to the effects of laryngeal coloring. For example, while some linguists reconstruct *kaykos for 'blind', the Leiden school argues that the term should be reconstructed as *kh₂eykos with the a-coloring laryngeal abutting the *ey diphthong.[8]
In cases where two vowels bordered each other and did not become diphthongs, the second vowel was typically lost and the first vowel lengthened to compensate for the loss. Examples of this include the suffix *-ōs, which derived from the earlier form *-o-es.[8][a] This also occurred in some instances where a vowel abutted a diphthong; the first element of the diphthong was deleted and the diphthong was made long with the abutting vowel, as in the suffix *-ōy from an earlier form *-o-ey.[8]
Accent
editPhonotactics
editDevelopment
editHistory
edit
See also
editReferences
editNotes
edit- ↑ This process is sometimes known as Wackernagel's law.[13]
Citations
edit- ↑ Kapović 2008, p. 135.
- ↑ Kapović 2008, p. 137.
- ↑ Trask 2000, p. 53.
- ↑
- Mallory & Adams 1997, p. xxiii.
- Beekes 2011, p. 302.
- Trask 2000, p. 297.
- ↑ Trask 2000, p. 297.
- ↑ Zair 2012, p. 3.
- 1 2 3 4 Byrd 2018, p. 2057.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Byrd 2018, p. 2058.
- ↑ Byrd 2018, pp. 2057–2058.
- ↑ Zair 2012, pp. 3–4.
- ↑ Zair 2012, p. 4.
- ↑ Zair 2012, pp. 10–11.
- ↑ Trask 2000, p. 365.
Sources
edit- Byrd, Andrew Miles (2015). The Indo-European Syllable. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-29302-1.
- Byrd, Andrew Miles (2018). "121. The phonology of Proto-Indo-European". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 2057–2079. ISBN 978-3-11-054052-9.
- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2011). de Vaan, Michiel (ed.). Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (2nd ed.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-8500-3. OCLC 730054595 – via Internet Archive.
- Clackson, James (2007). Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-36609-3. OCLC 123113761.
- Jankowsky, Kurt (2023). "The Neogrammarians and their Role in the Establishment of the Science of Linguistics". In John E. Joseph; Linda R. Waugh; Monique Monville-Burston (eds.). The Cambridge History of Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 345–360. doi:10.1017/9780511842788.021. ISBN 978-0-521-84990-6.
- Kapović, Mate (2008). Uvod u indoeuropsku lingvistiku: pregled jezikâ i poredbena fonologija [An Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics: A Survey of the Languages and Comparative Phonology] (in Croatian). Zagreb: Matica hrvatska. ISBN 978-953-150-847-6.
- Kloekhorst, Alwin (2016). "The Anatolian stop system and the Indo-Hittite hypothesis" (PDF). Indogermanische Forschungen. 121 (1): 213–248. doi:10.1515/if-2016-0013. ISSN 1613-0405.
- Kloekhorst, Alwin; Pronk, Tijmen, eds. (2026). The Reconstruction of Indo-European Stop Systems: From the Traditional Model to Glottalic Theories. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004750449. ISBN 978-90-04-75044-9.
- Kiparsky, Paul (1982). "From Paleogrammarians to Neogrammarians". Explanation in Phonology. De Gruyter. pp. 175–188. ISBN 978-3-11-166624-2.
- Adams, Douglas Q.; Baldi, Philip; Barber, E. J.; Beekes, Robert S. P.; Della Volpe, Angela; Robbins Dexter, Miriam; Friedrich, Paul; Greppin, John; Jellison Hansen, Leigh; Huld, Martin; Justus, Carol; Mallory, J. P.; Miller, Dean; Niepokuj, Mary; O'Brien, Steven; Polomé, Edgar C.; Salmons, Joe (1997). Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5 – via Internet Archive.
- Murray, Robert W. (2015). "The Early History of Historical Phonology". In Honeybone, Patrick; Salmons, Joseph (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Historical Phonology. Oxford University Press. p. 0. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232819.013.022. ISBN 978-0-19-923281-9.
- Olander, Thomas (2020). "To *b or not to *b: Proto-Indo-European *b in a phylogenetic perspective". Historical Linguistics. 133 (1): 182–208. doi:10.13109/hisp.2020.133.1.182. ISSN 0935-3518.
- Pronk, Tijmen (2019). "Proto-Indo-European *a ". Indo-European Linguistics. 7 (1): 122–163. doi:10.1163/22125892-00701002. ISSN 2212-5884.
- Trask, R. L. (2000). Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-7331-6. JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctvxcrt50.
- Vijūnas, Aurelijus (2010). "The Proto-Indo-European Sibilant */s/". Historical Linguistics. 123 (1): 40–55. doi:10.13109/hisp.2010.123.1.40. ISSN 0935-3518.
- Zair, Nicholas (2012). The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Celtic. Studies in Indo-European Languages & Linguistics. Vol. 7. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004233096. ISBN 978-90-04-23309-6.