Sievers' Law and the History of Semivowel Syllabicity in Indo-European and Ancient Greek

Download or read book Sievers' Law and the History of Semivowel Syllabicity in Indo-European and Ancient Greek written by P. J. Barber and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an investigation of how semivowels were realised 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 nature of this study, its chronological sensitivity, and 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.