Salmoneus wrote: ↑03 Jul 2018 00:50
WeepingElf wrote: ↑02 Jul 2018 22:06
Salmoneus wrote: ↑02 Jul 2018 20:48
Why turn ablaut into tonal ablaut?
Why not?
Well, it seems like taking a language and removing what makes it what it is. It also seems like randomly picking two things to swap, even though they've got nothing to do with one another other than the word 'ablaut'.
And how? Wouldn't it be more interesting to keep ablaut, but add tone the normal way?
The idea is that PIE *e gives high tone, and PIE *o low tone. There will be further factors that contribute to tone, so there won't be a simple high/low 2-tone system, but various contour tones as in Chinese languages. Isn't this
more interesting than keeping ablaut as it is and adding tone the "normal" way?
Well, you may think so, of course. Personally no, I don't think so. I'd rather have ablaut AND tone, rather than just tone. Besides, PIE has so many resources with which to create a whole range of tones, including tonal ablaut. You've got mobile pitch, you've got three stop series, you've got laryngeals, you've got vowel length, you've got complex syllables. Why spend the resource of vowel quality as well?
Also: has that ever happened, anywhere, that tones arise from front vs back vowels?
Well, tastes differ. I thought that turning PIE ablaut into tone ablaut was a nice idea. You are invited to do a Chinese-like IE language according to your preferences.
What I have so far is this - only a prototype, not the final product:
In the following, acute accent marks high tone, grave accent low tone.
*e > á
*a, *o > à
*ei > é
*ai, *oi > è
*eu > ó
*au, *ou > ò
I am not sure about zero grades, yet.
Labiovelars and Cw clusters transfer labiality to following vowels, e.g.
*kwoi >
kø̀ (dative postposition). Likewise, palatovelars and Cy clusters transfer palatality to following vowels, e.g.
*dyeu- >
dǿ 'sky'. As the examples show, this may lead to front rounded vowels.
The numerals 1-10:
èn 1
dò 2
čé 3
kót 4
páng 5
sók 6
sáp 7
àk 8
nón 9
dák 10
And a little sentence:
Má tá kø̀ ló.
1SG 2SG DAT love
'I love you.'
Etymologies:
*me te kwoi leubh-
(The dative postposition is also used to mark animate direct object, as in Spanish or Bengali, the latter using a cognate morpheme.)