Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 96. kötet (1998-1999)
Tanulmányok - Dezső László: Typological Comparison of Root Structuring in Uralic and Early Indo-European. [Az uráli és korai indoeurópai tőstruktúrák tipológiai összevetése] 3
Typological Comparison of Root Structuring in Uralic and Early Indo-European 25 two languages at the stage of proto- and prelanguages can contribute to the study of the earliest language contacts in the area, being the precondition for both establishing lexical parallels and reconstructing macro-units. The unsolved problems of phonology concentrated in vowel system despite its seeming simplicity cause uncertainty in the comparison of etymons, which has an impact on the whole study of the languages in an area. I found difficulties in this respect in examination of the lexical parallels in Uralic and Dravidian and the situation seems to be even more complex and problematic with Indo-European and Uralic because of the profound differences between their vowel and accent systems. 3.2.1. Some Statistical Data of Late Proto-Indo-European Décsy (1991: 21) presented the statistical data of frequency in Pokorny's dictionary: short long sum e(1060) e: (18) 1078 о (406) o: (47) 453 a (336) a: (161) 497 i (120) i: (37) 157 M(123) u: (51) 174 The data show the prevalence of e which was higher in the early protolanguage because о and a often arose as the result of the coloring effect of the laryngeals on e. There was no vowel harmony in late Indo-European. The possibility of high-low harmony in early proto-language will be discussed later. The vowel system of Indo-European underwent important changes which are typologically relevant. 3.2.2. Some Characteristics of Indo-European Vowels The Pre-Indo-European accent was dynamic and movable, phonologically relevant, and it could be placed in different positions in a sequence of morphemes in a word and change in a paradigm. The dynamic accentuation of Indo-European constituted a pole opposed to Uralic fixed accent on the first root vowel. The unaccented vowel was strongly reduced, however, in both proto-languages even if not to the same degree. The system of Indo-European vowels was triangular, beside i and и it had an element denoted by V. The V usually had the timbre of an e-sound, rarely that of a according to reconstruction of the earliest etymons. The three laryngeals colored the timbre of the preceding or following V differently: H\ did not affect it, H2 colored it as a, H3 as о (cf. Gamkrelidze-Ivanov 1984: 158-161). In the zero degree of apophonic variants of CVC structures with résonants (R), y, w, r, I, m, n, become syllabic i, u, f, I, m^ n, more precisely: RVC —> КэС
