Re: [Re: [Re: [Re: [Re: Roll Your Own IE language]]]]

On Thu, 8 Apr 1999, Edward Heil wrote:

> Bryan Maloney <bjm10@...> wrote:
> > Has anybody noticed that some of the speculation on PIE phonology bears a
> > striking resemblence to "grunt talk" stereotypic of "barbarians"?
> >
> > No real vowels, lots of pharyngeal/laryngeal stuff, etc.
>
> Well, it's the end result of a long scholarly process.  At first reconstructed
It's still an amusing coincidence.

> That's where the "no vowels in early PIE" idea comes from.  And it doesn't
> mean that it was pronounced without vowels; if you listened to it it'd sound
> more or less like any other modern natlang.  It's that vowels weren't parts of
> roots the way they are in most modern languages, at least at an early stage.
If the vowels weren't in the roots, then weren't they pronounced without
vowels, or were the roots never actually pronounced (simply "implied")
but always given some form of alteration (I hesitate to say "inflection",
specifically) when actually used?