Proto-Indo-European language

: PIE redirects here. See Pie (disambiguation) for other uses of PIE.

Phonology

Proto-Indo-European is conjectured to have used the following phonemes:

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Consonants

The table gives the most common notation in modern publications. Variant transcriptions are given below. Raised {{PIE|?}} stands for aspiration. According to the glottalic theory, the "voiced unaspirated stops" of the system as described above were phonetically ejectives, and the "voiced aspirated stops" were phonetically unaspirated.

Related Topics:
Aspiration - Glottalic theory - Ejectives

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• The existence of voiceless aspirate stops in the proto-language ({{PIE|p?, t?, ??, k?, k??}}) is disputed.
• Proto-Celtic, Proto-Balto-Slavic, Albanian, and Proto-Iranian merged the voiced aspirated series {{PIE|b?, d?, ??, g?, g??}} with the plain voiced series {{PIE|b, d, ?, g, g?}}.
• Proto-Germanic underwent Grimm's law, changing voiceless stops into fricatives, devoicing unaspirated voiced stops, and de-aspirating voiced aspirates.
• Grassmann's law ({{PIE|T?-T?}} > {{PIE|T-T?}}, e.g. {{PIE|d?i-d?eh?-}} > {{PIE|di-d?eh?-}}) and Bartholomae's law ({{PIE|T?T}} > {{PIE|TT?}}, e.g. {{PIE|bud?-to-}} > {{PIE|bud-d?o-}}) describe the behaviour of aspirates in particular contexts in some early daughter languages.

Labials

Coronals/Dentals

The standard reconstruction identified three coronal/dental stops: {{PIE|t, d, d?}}. They are symbolically grouped with the cover symbol T.

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Some theorists conclude that consonant clusters of the form TK would undergo a metathesis in the proto-language, resulting in {{PIE|Kþ}}, compare Hittite dagan "earth" with Greek khth?n "earth", from {{PIE|??ð?m}}, from earlier {{PIE|*d???oms}}, Hittite hartagas "monster", Greek arktos "bear" from {{PIE|hrkþos}} from earlier {{PIE|hrtgos}}. Both metathetized and unmetathetized forms survive in different ablaut grades of the root {{PIE|d?ég??}} "burn" (cognate to dagaz, day) in Sanskrit, {{IAST|dáhati}} "is being burnt" < {{PIE|d?ég??-e-}} and {{IAST|k???yat}} "burns" < {{PIE|d?g??-éh1-}}.

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Dorsals

Direct comparison, informed by the Centum-Satem isogloss yields the reconstruction of three rows of dorsal consonants in PIE.

Related Topics:
Centum-Satem isogloss - Dorsal consonant

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• Palatovelars, {{PIE|?, ?, ??}} (also transcribed {{PIE|k', g', g'?}} or {{PIE|k?, g?, g??}} or {{PIE|k?, ?, ??)}}. These were {{IPA|}}- or {{IPA|}}-like sounds which underwent a characteristic change in the Satem languages; they were possibly palatalized velars ({{IPA|}}, {{IPA|}}) in Proto-Indo-European.
• Pure velars, {{PIE|k, g, g?}}.
• Labiovelars, {{PIE|k?, g?, g??}} (also transcribed {{PIE|k^u?, g^u?, g^u?h}}). Raised {{PIE|?}} stands for labialization, or lip-rounding accompanying the articulation of velar sounds ({{IPA|}} is a sound similar to English qu in queen).

The centum group of languages merged the palatovelars {{PIE|?, ?, ??}} with the plain velars {{PIE|k, g, g?}} while the satem group of languages merged the labiovelars {{PIE|k?, g?, g??}} with the plain velars {{PIE|k, g, g?}}.

Related Topics:
Centum - Satem

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The existence of the plain velars as phonemes separate from the palatovelars and labiovelars has been disputed. In most circumstances they appear to be allophones resulting from the neutralization of the other two series in particular phonetic circumstances. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what the circumstances of the allophony are, although it is generally accepted that neutralization occurred after {{PIE|s}} and {{PIE|u}}, and often before {{PIE|r}}. Most PIE linguists believe that all three series were distinct by late Proto-Indo-European, although a minority, including Frederik Kortlandt, believe that the plain velar series was a later development of certain satem languages; this view was originally articuled by Antoine Meillet in 1894. Those who support the view of the threefold distinction in PIE cite evidence from Albanian (Holger Pedersen, KZ 36 (1900), 277ff.; Norbert Jokl, Mél. Pedersen (1937) 127 ff.) and Armenian (Vittore Pisani, Ricerche Linguistiche 1 (1950) 165ff.) that they treated plain velars differently from the labiovelars in at least some circumstances, as well as the fact that Luwian apparently has distinct reflexes of all three series: *{{PIE|?}} > z (probably {{IPA|}}; *{{PIE|k}} > k; *{{PIE|k?}} > ku (probably {{IPA|}}) (Craig Melchert, Studies in Memory of Warren Cowgill (1987) 182?204). Kortlandt, however, disputes the significance of this evidence https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/retrieve/2529/344_017.pdf. Ultimately, this dispute may be unresolvable -- analogical developments tend to quickly obscure the original distribution of allophonic variants that have been phonemicized, and the time frame is too great and the evidence too meager to make definite conclusions as to when exactly this phonemicization happened.

Related Topics:
Allophone - Frederik Kortlandt - Antoine Meillet - Albanian - Armenian - Luwian

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Fricatives

Laryngeals

The symbols {{PIE|h?, h?, h?}} stand for three hypothetical "laryngeal" phonemes. In non-laryngealistic theories, the corresponding phoneme is sometimes called schwa indogermanicum and transcribed {{PIE|?}}.

Related Topics:
Laryngeal - Schwa

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Nasals and Liquids

Semivowels

Vowels

• Short vowels {{PIE|a, e, o}}
• Long vowels {{PIE|?, ?, ?}}; a colon (:) is sometimes employed to indicate vowel length instead of the macron sign (a:, e:, o:).
• Diphthongs {{PIE|ai, au, ?i, ?u, ei, eu, ?i, ?u, oi, ou, ?i, ?u}}
• vocalic allophones of consonantal phonemes: {{PIE|u, i, r?, l?, m?, n?}}.

Other long vowels may have appeared already in the proto-language by compensatory lengthening: {{PIE|?, ?, r??, l??, m??, n??}}.

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It is often suggested that all {{PIE|a}} sounds (short and long) were earlier derived from an {{PIE|e}} preceded or followed by {{PIE|h?}}, but Mayrhofer (1986: 170 ff.) has argued that PIE did in fact have {{PIE|a}} and {{PIE|?}} phonemes independent of {{PIE|h?}}.

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