Ray wrote:
>Another symmetrical four-vowel system is found in Apachean, Fox, Shawnee &
>some other native languages of north & south America, namely:
> Font Back
> high /i/ /u/
> low /e/ /o/
Nice! This should be told to whomever wrote in my (ancient) copy of
Guinness's Book of Records that ALL languages possess the vowel "a" ...
>
>Some scholars, indeed, posit the above four-vowel system as being that of
>ProtoGermanic.
They're assuming that /a/ went >/o/ before the /o/>/a/ change? Would be
analguous to the /a:/>/o:/ change, if nothing else.
>
>Some hold that PIE had only one vowel /@/ and others that it had _no_ vowel
>phonemes. That's about as minimalist as one can get, methinks.
This CERTAINLY violates the "at-least-three-vowels" language universal
discussed here some weeks ago! ;-)
Andreas
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