Author: Glen Gordon (http://paleoglot.blogspot.com/)
Email: glengordon01@yahoo.com
Last updated: June 26, 2008

The purpose of this pdf is to attempt to outline what grammatical changes, sound changes, and prehistoric events
took place to shape the eventual language known to linguists as Proto-Indo-European (PIE) which has been
dated to approximately 4000 BCE and was probably centered in the region of modernday Ukraine. I don ot
consider this a final theory or the only possible answer to the question of Pre-PIE stages. However, my desire
here is to inform and inspire others to look at this intriguing problem for themselves as well. Linguistics lags
behind another, comparatively more \u201ctangible\u201d science dealing with the past, namely archaeology. By
contributing online and by encouraging hundreds of other busy minds to share their knowledge and ideas as
well, I believe that much progress can be made to finally piece together the linguistic past further back than a
mere 6000 years or so.

The premise behind my model presented below is that Indo-European is a close sister group to Aegean to which Etruscan, Lemnian, Rhaetic, Eteo-Cypriot, Eteo-Cretan and Minoan belong. In particular, I believe that a parent language dated to about 7000 BCE at the latest which we may nameProt o- I ndo- Ae ge an may be reconstructed

(*kah\u02b7ane 'dog'). From there, Pre-Proto-Indo-European would have slowly evolved away from the core and settled in the area of the Danube and Balkans, developing its own idiosyncracies for the next 3000 years. As of the date above, I currently believe that the following changes have taken place in the stages prior to commonly reconstructed Proto-Indo-European:

Quasi-Penultimate Accent Rule (QAR)
Word-final Rhotacization (*-n# > *-r#)
Mediofinal Lenition of Glottal Stop (*-\u0294- >*-h-)
Lenition of Ejectives to Creaky Stops (*k\u2019/*t\u2019 >\ue000g\ue001 /\ue000d\ue001)

Last Contact with Proto-Semitic
Dephonemicization of Labialized Dentals (*s\u02b7/*t\u02b7/\ue000d\ue001\ue002/*\ue003\u02b7 >*sw/*t w/\ue000d\ue001\ue004/*\ue003w)
Schwa Reduction (unaccented*\u0259 >*\u1d4a by default)

The optional regressive shift of accent is due to the development of rising tone caused by
voiceless syllable-coda laryngeals which we may presume eventually steals the primary
accent away from the original syllable. Following this change in tone, voicing and omission
of the laryngeal occurs.

(e.g. [*p\u00e1rx\u1d4a'n\u00e0s\u1d4a] > [*'p\u00e1rx\u1d4anas\u1d4a] > [*'p\u00e0r\u1d4anas\u1d4a])
Laryngeal Vocalization (*-h- >*-e-,*-x- >*-a-,*-h\u02b7- >*-w-)
Laryngealization of Geminates (*-ss- >*-z-,*-tt- >\ue000\ue013 d\ue001 \ue013)

Syncope
Phonemicization of Vocalic Length (*\u0113,*\ue015)
Phonemicization of Uvular Stops (*q,*\u0262,*\u0262\u02b0)
Phonemicization of Word-final*-z#
Uvularization of*x to*\u03c7 (Velar-Laryngeal Series Realignment)

Nominative Misanalysis
Development of Adjectival Case System
Acrostatic Regularization

Szemerenyi's Law (Loss of word-final*-z)
Sibilant Merger (*-z >*-s)
1ps pron.nom.*mei is replaced by\ue000\ue005 \u00e9g\ue001 \ue00f\ue018 (> PIE*h\u2081 \ue019 \ue01a\ue008 h\u2082).
Vowel Shift (*a >*\ue008)