Abstract
The Indo-European (IE) sound laws are the best known of all language families. Yet many laws remain incompletely formulated due to a failure in the interpretation of the Old Anatolian laryngeal. The postulation of multiple laryngeals (at least three in the mainstream laryngeal theory) has led to a detour in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (PIE).
A single laryngeal PIE *ḫ ≡ Ḫi. ḫ was already discovered by Ladislav Zgusta, however, and subsequently it was confirmed by Johann Tischler. The dissertation studies unexplored properties of PIE *ḫ and demonstrates that it had a voiceless (PIE *h) and a voiced (PIE *ɦ) variant with glottal fricative articulation. PIE *ḫ appears with PIE *a in diphonemic PIE *ḫa and *aḫ.
The solution to the laryngeal problem allows for a clarification of the relationship between PIE *h/ɦ and the rest of the phoneme inventory. This analysis results in the primary phoneme inventory for Proto-Indo-European consisting of PIE *a/ā? *e/ē *h/ɦ *i/y *k/g *l/L *m/M *n/N *o/ō *p/b *r/R *s/z *t/d *u/w.
The inventory is minimal: it cannot be reduced and it is sufficient to generate attested IE forms. Accordingly, the import of System PIE for Indo-European linguistics is comparable to mastery of the building blocks of DNA. In addition, the dissertation modernizes the IE sound laws in terms of PIE *h/ɦ. Due to the advanced stage of IE linguistics, no entirely new sound laws are presented, because the yet remaining problems of the traditional sound laws reflect the absence of the comparative interpretation of the Old Anatolian laryngeal.
The scientific framework is the comparative method of reconstruction, recognized as a branch of natural science already by August Schleicher. The dissertation contributes to the development of the field by explicating the method by means of predicate calculus, including a formulation of Schleicher s intuitive description of the decision method for IE etymology. As such, System PIE can be digitalized i.e. turned into a programming language that can generate IE data from reconstructions.
The most reliable etymological and standard dictionaries are used as the material. While these sources present the data and etymological suggestions, no full comparative conclusions have yet been drawn. As a contribution to this area of the field, the dissertation presents hundreds of new etymologies, which serve as examples of the Proto-Indo-European Lexicon, a digital etymological dictionary of IE languages that will be published at http://pielexicon.hum.helsinki.fi
A single laryngeal PIE *ḫ ≡ Ḫi. ḫ was already discovered by Ladislav Zgusta, however, and subsequently it was confirmed by Johann Tischler. The dissertation studies unexplored properties of PIE *ḫ and demonstrates that it had a voiceless (PIE *h) and a voiced (PIE *ɦ) variant with glottal fricative articulation. PIE *ḫ appears with PIE *a in diphonemic PIE *ḫa and *aḫ.
The solution to the laryngeal problem allows for a clarification of the relationship between PIE *h/ɦ and the rest of the phoneme inventory. This analysis results in the primary phoneme inventory for Proto-Indo-European consisting of PIE *a/ā? *e/ē *h/ɦ *i/y *k/g *l/L *m/M *n/N *o/ō *p/b *r/R *s/z *t/d *u/w.
The inventory is minimal: it cannot be reduced and it is sufficient to generate attested IE forms. Accordingly, the import of System PIE for Indo-European linguistics is comparable to mastery of the building blocks of DNA. In addition, the dissertation modernizes the IE sound laws in terms of PIE *h/ɦ. Due to the advanced stage of IE linguistics, no entirely new sound laws are presented, because the yet remaining problems of the traditional sound laws reflect the absence of the comparative interpretation of the Old Anatolian laryngeal.
The scientific framework is the comparative method of reconstruction, recognized as a branch of natural science already by August Schleicher. The dissertation contributes to the development of the field by explicating the method by means of predicate calculus, including a formulation of Schleicher s intuitive description of the decision method for IE etymology. As such, System PIE can be digitalized i.e. turned into a programming language that can generate IE data from reconstructions.
The most reliable etymological and standard dictionaries are used as the material. While these sources present the data and etymological suggestions, no full comparative conclusions have yet been drawn. As a contribution to this area of the field, the dissertation presents hundreds of new etymologies, which serve as examples of the Proto-Indo-European Lexicon, a digital etymological dictionary of IE languages that will be published at http://pielexicon.hum.helsinki.fi
Original language | English |
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Place of Publication | Helsinki |
Publisher | |
Print ISBNs | 978-952-10-9303-6 |
Electronic ISBNs | 978-952-10-9304-3 |
Publication status | Published - 22 Nov 2013 |
MoE publication type | G4 Doctoral dissertation (monograph) |
Fields of Science
- 6121 Languages
- Linguistics
- proto-language
- Indo-European
- reconstruction
- phonology
- Sound laws
- etymology
- phonemes