Reconstructing Proto-Indo-European sounds

One way we know this method is valid is that sometimes, unexpected discoveries confirm what began as surmises.

A. Languages have preferences in terms of how syllables are built. In Japanese, the only consonant that can occur at the end of a word is n. Otherwise, all words end in a vowel—arigatō, sushi, kamikaze, and so on. In Chinese, most words have just one syllable. In Proto-Indo-European, most words reconstructed have one vowel sandwiched between two consonants, such as the *b^her-, “to bear”, or *med-, “to measure.”

B. But then there are Proto-Indo-European roots where instead of a final consonant, there is a first consonant, then a long vowel. A long vowel is marked with a macron: *dō- “to give,” *pā- “to protect.”

C. In the late 1800s, pioneering linguist Ferdinand de Saussure proposed that these words used to follow the normal consonant-vowel-consonant pattern, but that the vowels were now, as it were, stretching into a spot where there had once been a consonant.

Saussure assumed that the consonants must have been breathy ones pronounced back in the throat (such as h), given that sounds like this often make a vowel before them longer in languages around the world.

D. De Saussure’s theory was rejected because there was no concrete evidence that these sounds had existed. But early in the 20^th century, ancient tablets written in cuneiform script were found in Turkey, dating as far back as the 1700s B.C. Many of them were written in what turned out to be an extinct Indo-European language, now called Hittite. Hittite has a consonant sound, written as an h, in some of the places where de Saussure guessed it would be.

E. Thus, today, Proto-Indo-European is assumed to have had these sounds, called laryngeals, although no living language preserves them.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

المجمع العلمي للقرآن الكريم يصدر الكتاب الثاني من سلسلة يخشى

قسم الشعائر يكرّم أصحاب المواكب المشاركة في إحياء ذكرى شهادة السيدة الزهراء (عليها السلام)

جامعة العميد تستقبل طلبة المراحل الأولى المقبولين ضمن كلياتها للعام الدراسي الجديد

سماحة السيد الصافي يكرّم طلبة حفظ القرآن الكريم المتفوّقين ويؤكّد دور التدبّر في الهداية والتكامل

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

طبيب يكشف تأثير برودة الشتاء على النوم

دون أن تعلم.. 10 عادات يومية تسرع شيخوخة جسمك

تقرير: النيكوتين خطر على القلب مهما كانت الطريقة

أيهما أفضل لصحتك.. زبدة الفول السوداني أم النوتيلا؟

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

السعودية تدشن أكبر نظام لتخزين الكهرباء بالبطاريات في العالم !

بأمر تنفيذي.. ترامب يؤكد هدف عودة الأميركيين إلى القمر في عام 2028

بعيدا عن البشر.. "قتال جوي في الفضاء" بين أميركا والصين

كشف مذهل في قاع "برمودا" !

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Problems with the dictionary view

The dictionary view

Dictionaries versus encyclopaedias

The encyclopaedic view of meaning

Embodiment and conceptual structure summary

Schematic systems

Semantic structure

Conceptual structure

Image schemas and abstract thought

Properties of image schemas

What is an image schema?

Image schemas