Re: THEORY: A possible Proto-World phonology

>From: dirk elzinga <dirk.elzinga@...>
>Many accounts of North-West Caucasian (Abkhaz, Ubykh,
>Circassian, Kabardian, etc) posit a minimal vowel system (1 or 2
>or 3) which balloons into 12-16 surface vowel qualities
>depending on the environment. What Lehmann proposes is something
>similar, IIRC. The contrast isn't among vowels of different
>qualities, but rather between a Vowel and Not a Vowel. Where
>there is a Vowel, its quality is determined solely according to
>context, just as you've said. Typological reconstructionists
>have used this feature (among others) to posit a link between
>PIE and Proto-NW-Caucasian.
The allophonic value of the two vowel phonemes of Common NW Caucasian (which
could just be called "high" and "low") depends on the preceding consonant,
and you get eight (at least):

Neutral: C ~ @/a
Palatized: C' ~ i/e
Labialized Cw ~ u/o
Labiopalatized: C'w ~ y/% (?)

But there might be another vowel, a:, so there may be four more phones,
possibly & and A...

Since Ubykh also had pharyngealized and labiopharyngealized consonants,
those made six more vowels which are themselves pharyngealized.  Ubykh did
have three phonemic vowels, so I'd expect there to be up to 18 surface vowel
qualities.

Any genetic connection between IE and North Caucasian is extremely unlikely,
and not a single proponent of Nostratic supports such a notion.  But the
neutralization of vowels and the secondary featurization of consonants based
on the former vowel position occured in Indo-European, leading to k^/k/kw,
so I am more sure of a pre-IE system of ke/ka/ko than I am of common origin
with the other five language families considered offshoots of Nostratic.

Danny ¶¦¬þ
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