Historical Morph & Phonology A

Question 1

A: how do we know what the PIE stops were?: points

Answer 1

Intro 2
Comparative Method 2
Comparative Analysis 3
Grimm & Verner 2

Question 2

A: how do we know what the PIE stops were?: Intro 2

Answer 2

• Multifaceted endeavour that relies on meticulous synthesis of ling. evidence + methodologies from historical ling
• Despite absense of written records, scholars utilise comparative reconstruction + principles of phonological analysis to unravel the phonetic structure of PIE

Question 3

A: how do we know what the PIE stops were?: Comparative method 2

Answer 3

• leveraging linguistic data from descendant langs to infer the phonological features of PIE
• E.g. Sanskrit + Ancient Greek + other PIE = vital evidence: reveals patterns of consonantal correspondences that aid in reconstructing stop systems

Question 4

A: how do we know what the PIE stops were?: comparative analysis (reveals) 3

Answer 4

• PIE likely featured a series of voiceless & voiced stops across different points of articulation
• Sanskrit’s retention of voiceless, unaspirated stops (/p/, /t/, /k/) alongside voiced counterparts (/b/, /d/, /g/) align with similar observations with Ancient Greek
  = Supports reconstruction of PIE stops

Question 5

A: how do we know what the PIE stops were?: Grimm & Verner 2

Answer 5

G - Delineates systematic shifts, such as transformation of voiceless stops to voiceless fricatives & devoicing of voiced stops to voiceless
V - (conditional sound change documented in Proto-Germanic) = explains the voicing of voiceless stops in specific phonological contexts