Sievers' Law and the History of Semivowel Syllabicity in Indo-European
This book investigates how semivowels were realized in Indo-European and in early Greek. More specifically, it examines the extent to which Indo-European *i and *y were independent phonemes, in what respects their alternation was predictable, and how this situation changed as Indo-European developed into Greek. The comprehensive and chronologically sensitive nature of this study, together with its careful assessment of what is inherited and what is innovative, enables substantive conclusions to be drawn regarding the behaviour of semivowels at various stages in the history of Greek and in Indo-European itself.
P. J. Barber is a Departmental Lecturer in Comparative Philology at the University of Oxford. His interests include Indo-European, Greek, and Indo-Iranian phonology, Greek verbal semantics, and contemporary syntactic theory.
Author: Peter Barber (Departmental Lecturer in Comparative Philology, at the University of Oxford)
Format: Hardback, 454 pages, 162mm x 236mm, 844 g
Published: 2013, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom
Genre: Ancient History
This book investigates how semivowels were realized in Indo-European and in early Greek. More specifically, it examines the extent to which Indo-European *i and *y were independent phonemes, in what respects their alternation was predictable, and how this situation changed as Indo-European developed into Greek. The comprehensive and chronologically sensitive nature of this study, together with its careful assessment of what is inherited and what is innovative, enables substantive conclusions to be drawn regarding the behaviour of semivowels at various stages in the history of Greek and in Indo-European itself.
P. J. Barber is a Departmental Lecturer in Comparative Philology at the University of Oxford. His interests include Indo-European, Greek, and Indo-Iranian phonology, Greek verbal semantics, and contemporary syntactic theory.