Terms needed.

General Terms
Syntagmatic. Comes from syntagma, which is an elementary segmentconstituent within
a text, such as a sentence, phoneme, word, etc. At the lexical level, syntagmatic is the
combination of words according to the rules of syntax. Besides it, syntagmatic relations
are concerned with how units are structured as a whole.
Paradigmatic. Each sign invokes a contrast with other signs that might have used
instead. The speaker chooses which signs go in the sequence.
Two main branches of modern linguistics
Formal linguistics. Seeks to understand linguistic meaning by constructing precise
mathematical models of the principles in which speakers use to define relations between
expressions in a natural language and the world which supports meaningful disclosure.
Functional linguistics. Approaches to the study that see the functions of language and
its elements to be the key to understanding linguistic processes and structures.

Phonetics and phonology

Complementary distribution. Relationship between two different elements of the

same kind. One element is found in one set of environments and the other element is
found in a non-intersecting (complementary) set of environments. Interesting to note
that this characteristic sometimes conveys the idea that two superficially elements are
the same linguistic union at a deeper level.
Free variation. Phenomenon of two sounds appearing in the same environment without
a change in meaning and without being considered incorrectly by native speakers.
Airstream mechanism. Is the method in which airflow is created in the vocal tract.
Along with phonation and articulation, it is one of the three main components of speech
production. There are three types of airstream mechanism: glottalic, pulmonic and velar.
Pulmonic initiation. Initiation by means of the lungs. Pulmonic eggresive are included
in probably the vast majority of human languages.
Glottalic initiation. Glottis. The opening between the vocal folds. This happens when
the airflow starts in the vocal chords.
Implosive.
Minimal pair/suspicious pair.
Stress.
Velaric airstream.
Voice onset time.
Allophone.

Morphology
Allomorph.
Bound morpheme.
Clitic.
Free morpheme.
Derivational morpheme.
Inflix.
Lexical morpheme.
Suppletion.
Morphophonemic rule.
Morphophonemic form.
Zero morpheme.

Lexicon
Acronyming.
Backformation.
Blending.
Borrowing.
Calquing.
Clipping.
Coinage.
Collocations.
Derivation.
Dysphemism.
Extension of meaning.
Lexeme.
Lexicon.
Narrowing of meaning.
Phonoaesthesia.
Postposition/preposition.

Symbols, Writing Conventions, Quotations

H = any particular laryngeal (h1, h2 and h3 stando for real laryngeals)

K = any particular consonant (d, dh, t stand, in contrast, for real consonants)
R = any particular sonant (l, r, etc. stand, in contrast, for real consonants).
V = any particular vowel
# = Beginning or end of a word
## = Beginning or end of a sentence
*mon-u̯o- *kwi, etc. = marks morphological segmenting
*mon.u̯o- *ra.í- etc. = marks syllabic segmenting
ø or z = zero-step, - suffix, -ending
˚ = weak vowel
W = root
S = suffix
E = ending
W (e) = -e- full grade of the root
W (ē) = -ē- lengthened grade of the root
W (o) = -o- full grade of the root
W (ō) = lengthened grade of the root
W (ø) = zero grade of the root
W (˚) = reduced grade of the root with weak vowel

accordingly:
S (e) = -e- full grade of the suffix
E (e) = -e- full grade of the ending
< = derived phonetically from
> = developed phonetically into
= =corresponds to
⇒ = is replaced by
+ for example Hom. + Homer and later
→ = The arrow refers to helpful litrature
/a/ Forward slashes refer to the corresponding phonological value
[ŋ] Brackets refer to the corresponding phonetical value.
<z> Pointed brackets indicate graphemes

Vowels
*i *e *a *o *u
*ī *ē *ā *ō *ū

Semivowels
*i̯ *u̯

Diphthongs
*ei *ai̯ *oi̯
*eu̯ *au̯ *ou̯

Liquids, nasals
*l [*l̥ ] *r [r̥]
*m [*m̥] *n [*n̥]

Continuants
*s

Laryngeals
*h1, *h2 *h3

Dentals
*t *d *dh

Labials
*p *b *bh

Palatals
*k

Places of articulatory gestures (articulators)

Upper lip and upper teeth. Frontal incisors.

Alveolar ridge. Behind the upper teeth, a small protuberance that you can feel with the
tip of the tongue.
Front part of the roof of the mouth. A bony structure, that is the hard palate.
Velum. Also known as soft palate, at the end of the mouth.
Uvula. At the end of the soft palate, a small appendage hanging down.

Places of articulatory gestures

Parts of the vocal tract that can be used to form sounds (articulators). Which articulator
is making the gesture?
Labial articulation. Using the lips.
Coronal articulation. Using the tip or blade of the tongue.
Dorsal articulation. Using the back of the tongue.

LABIAL ARTICULATION
Bilabial. Made with the two lips. pie, buy.
Labiodental. Lower lip and upper front teeth. fie, vie

CORONAL ARTICULATION
Dental. Tongue tip or blade and upper front teeth. thigh, thy.
Alveolar. Tongue tip or blade and alveolar ridge. tie, digh, nigh, sigh, lie.
Retroflex. Tongue tip and back of alveolar ridge. some speakers saying rye, row.
Palato-alveolar (post-alveolar). Tongue blade and the back of alveolar ridge. shy, she,
show
Palatal. Front of the tongue and hard palate. skt. sounds such as ja, ca.

DORSAL ARTICULATION
Velar. Back of the tongue and soft palate. end of hack, hag, hang.

Manners of articulation
At most places of articulation, basic ways in which articulatory gestures can be
accomplished. The articulators may close off the oral tract for an instant or a relatively
long period; they may narrow the space considerably; or they may simply modify the
shape of the tract by approaching each other.

Stop. Complete closure of the articulators involved so that the airstream cannot escape
through the mouth. Two possibles way to make a stop consonant.
Oral stop (plosives, occlusive). If one obstructs the mouth and raises the soft-
palate so the airstream cannot go through the nasal tract, pressure in the mouth
will build up. Small burst sound. tie, buy, pie, kye.
Nasal stop. If air is stopped in oral cavity but soft-palate is down so that air can
go through the nose. Sound produced is a nasal stop. sang, my.

Fricative. Close approximation of two articulator so that the airstream is partially

obstructed and turbulent airflow is produced. fie, vie, thigh, thy.

Approximant. Gesture in which one articulator is close to another, but without the
vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced. raw,
we, yacht.

Lateral (approximant) Obstruction of the airstream at a point along the center of the
oral tract. lie, laugh (alveolar-lateral).

Additional consonant gestures.

 Tongue-tip trills. (Roll) Spanish r.
Taps. The tongue makes a single tap against the alveolar ridge. pity, daddy,
matter.
Affricate. Begins as a stop and releases as a fricative. English sounds spelled as
“ch” and “j”
Glottal stop. Words in English that start with a vowel in the spelling. eek, oak,
ark.

Example of a word: the consonant at the beginning of the word sing is a (1) voiceless,
(2) alveolar, (3) central, (4) oral, (5) fricative; the consonant at the end is (1) voiced, (2)
velar, (3) central, (4) nasal, (5) stop.

Mayrhofer 8-30
- La a del sánscrito tiene varios orígenes: corresponde al IE a, e, o, m̥, n̥.
- Old Ind. ā is derived from IE ā, ē, ō, así como de la forma fuerte del sonido
silábico n̥ə.
- Old Ind. ī and ū come from IE ī and ū.
- Old Ind. i (sometimes also ī) also has another origin. If it corresponds to an a in
Western languages, it comes from IE “schwa” (ə), a vowel of indefinite timbre.
- If IE ṛ or ḷ occured before a vowel , Old Ind. ir and ur developed from it.
- The “diphthongs” e and o, still recognizable as within Indic as compounds a+i,
a+u go back in the first place to ai, au which further come from the IE
diphthongs ai, ei, oi, or au, eu, ou.
- Old Ind. ai, au, go back to the IE diphthongs with a long vowel as the first
member āi, ēi, ōi or āu, ēu, ōu; cf. for example the dat. sg. ending of the -ā and –
ī stems, -(āy)ai, -(y)ai.

- The stops of the velar series k, kh, g, gh go back to two types of IE consonants:
to IE velar k-sounds to which k, g, etc. also correspond to in Lat. and Gr. and on

the other hand to the “labiovelars” like .

- Old Ind. ṅ is –like ñ- usually only a phonetic variant of the phoneme n in the
environment of velars and palatals respectively.
- The palatals c and j go back, on the one hand, to the same IE consonants as k
and g, if they stood before IE palatal vowels (e, i):
-

- Some of the cerebral stops occur in words in Middle Indic origin (naṭ, bhaṭṭa)
and of Non-aryan origin; others have arisen legitimately in Old Ind. sound
groups.
- Old Ind. -ṇ- arose from original n i indirectly or directly preceded by ṛ, ṛṛ, r, or
ṣ.
- Dentals come from IE t, d and from dh; n is to be derived from the generally
preserved IE n.
- Old Ind. I p and b come from IE p, b; bh from IE bh; m from IE m, which is
generally preserved.
 - Old Ind. y and v continue IE and . both occur as continuations of r and l
have apparently merged with those which changed changed both liquids into r or
both l.
- Old Ind. ś goes back to IE palatal k’, which is continued in Latin as c, in Greek
as K, (centum languages). On the other hand, satem languages change k’ into
sibilants or spirants.
- Old Ind. ṣ has arisen from older s., which stood after Old Ind. i, ī, u, ū, ṛ, ṛṛ or k.
- Old Ind. s= IE s.
- Old Ind. h has various origins. On the one hand, it comes from the voiced
aspirates of the IE aspirate series.
- To the visarga -ḥ corresponds a final –s or –r
- Anusvara occurs for a nasal which happened to stand before an Old Ind. s, ṣ, ś or
h.
- Bartholomae’s law of aspirates whereby voiced aspirates (eg. bh, dh)+voiceless
stops (e.g., g, t) go to the order voiced stops+voiced aspirates. Since Old Ind. h
goes back to gh, , as well as to , various results meeting Old Ind. –h,
+voiceless stops are found, depending in the previous stage of the Old Ind.
sound.
- Grassman’s Law of dissimilation of Aspirates, whereby an indirect sucession of
two aspirates resulted in a loss of aspiration of the first sound.

Edgerton hasta §33

§8. The IE system consisted almost wholly of stops.

Guttural. Colective of palatals, velars and labiovelars.

§9. Voiceless aspirates ph, th, etc. are indistinguishable from the voiceless non-aspirates
in all other languages than Indo-Iranian, except Greek.

§10.
Grimm’s law (first Germanic sound shift/Rask’s rule). Regular correspondences
between early Germanic stops and fricatives and stops of other centum Indo-European
languages.
Verner’s law. Due to irreegularities in the development of some sounds governed by
Grimm’s law, Verner observed that the apparently unexpected voicing of voiceless
stops occured if they were non-word initial and if the vowel preceding them carried no
stress in PIE. By Verner’s law, Proto-Germanic became voiced when the
preceding syllable was not accented in IE.

§14. IE p = Skt. p
IE septṃ= Skt. sapta
§15. IE b= Skt. b
IE root bel, bol = Skt. bala

§16. IE bh= Skt. bh

IE bhū (grade zero to bhewə) “become, to be”= Skt. aor. 3ª. sing. a-bhū-t

§17. IE t= Skt. t
IE tri- nom. pl. treyes (three)= Skt. tri- trayas
§18. IE th= Skt. th
2 sg. prf. ending of IE –tha = Skt. tha

§19. IE d= Skt. d
IE dekṃ “ten”= Skt. daśa

§20. IE dh= Skt. dh

IE dhūmo (smoke)= Skt. dhūma

§23. IE k=Skt. ś
IE kṃtom = Skt. śatam

§25. IE g= Skt. j
IE genə, zero grade.gṇ (larga)= Skt. jana.

§26. IE gh= Skt. h

IE root ghey, zero grade ghi (cold, snow; generally with m-affixes. Maybe m part of the
root) Normal grade Skt. heman (winter). Zero grade: hima.

§27. IE velars and labiovelars appear in Skt. as k, g, gh. But when followed by an Indo-
European vowel or semivowel (e, ē, i, ī, y) they are changed to Skt. palatals (c, j, h)

§28. IE k=Skt. k, c
IE krewəs=Skt. kraviṣ (meat, raw flesh)

§29. IE g=Skt. g, j
IE awg (be strong) awges- strength=Skt. ug-ra (strong, fierce)

§30. IE gh=Skt. gh, h

IE root dhrewgh (dhrowgh), zero grade dhrugh “injure” Skt. druh-yati “injures”.

§31. IE kw=Skt. k, c
IE kwo=Skt. ka, cid.

§32. IE gw =Skt. g, j
IE gwōw “cow”=Skt. gāu-

Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics

Szemerényi

Phonology Reconstruction

4.1.1 a Changes for –as

*agō “I drive” Skt. ajāmi
*agoros “pasture, field” Skt. ajras
*ghans- “goose” Skt. haṃsa

4.1.2 ā Remains the same

*swādu “sweet” Skt. svādu
*bhāghu “arm” Skt. bāhu
*mātēr “mother” Skt. mātar-
*bhrātēr “brother” Skt. bhrātar

4.1.3 e Changes for -a

*bher- “carry” Skt. bharāmi
*esti “is” Skt. asti
*genos “race, family” Skt. janas-
*nebhos, nebhelā “cloud, sky” Skt. nabhas-

4.1.4 ē Changes for -ā

*rēg-s “king” Skt. rājā
*dhē “put, do, make” Skt. dhā
*plē “full” Skt. prā-tas

4.1.5 o Changes for -a

*oktō “eight” Skt. aṣṭā
*owis “sheep” Skt. avis
*potis “lord, master” Skt. patis

4.1.6 ō Changes for –ā

*gnō “know” Skt. jñāta-
*dō “give” dā
*ōku “quick” Skt. āsu

4.1.7 i Remains the same

*wid “know” Skt. vid
*widhewā “widow” Skt. vidhavā
*misdho “pay” Skt. mīḍha- (mīḷha)

4.1.8 ī Remains the same

*gwīwos “alive” Skt. jīva
*wīs “strength” Skt. vīr
*pī “to drink” Skt. pīta

4.1.9 u Remains the same

*yugom “yoke” Skt. yugam
*rudhros “red” Skt. rudhira
*medhu “honey” Skt. madhu

4.1.10 ū Remains the same

*mūs “mouse” Skt. mūṣ-
*bhrū- “brow” Skt. bhrū
*ūdher “udder” Skt. ūdhar

4.1.11 Schwa
An additional vowel is inferred from clear morphological correspondences such as
Skt. sthi-ta “standing”
Skt. a-di-ta
Since neither IE i nor a can account for these correspondences (see book for Greek part
of above 40 p. ), it is usually assumed that an Indo-European murmured vowel (perhaps
similar to the sound of a in Eng. alone, sofa) must be posited. This vowel is called
schwa, a term borrowed from Hebrew grammar (swā ‘emptiness‘ for the murmured
vowel between consonants) and is usually denoted by an inverted e (ə)

Diphthongs

4.2.1 ai Changes to ē
*aidh “burn” Skt. ēdha- “tinder”

4.2.2 ei Changes to ē
*deiwos “god” Skt. dēvas

4.2.3 oi
*woida “I know” Skt. véda

4.2.4 au
*aug- “to increase”