Note 193 — Chapter IV · PHONOLOGY AND SEMATOLOGY. (continued 2)

To Brugman belongs the credit of first demonstrating the existence of these three distinct vowel-sounds in the Parent-Aryan (Kuhn’s “Zeitschrift,” 1877). Brugman has been criticized by Collitz in Bezzenberger’s “Beiträge zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen,” ii. 4 (1878), who maintains that the three primitive sounds were really ĕ, ŏ, ă, and not the indeterminate a¹, a², a³. On the other hand, an able article by De Saussure in the “Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris,” iii. 5 (1878), accepts Brugman’s nomenclature, while criticizing and modifying some of his conclusions. His a, Brugman’s a¹, became e in West Aryan, and is never weakened into i or u in Sanskrit. His a² (also Brugman’s) is the West Aryan o², and in Sanskrit is lengthened in an open syllable (e.g. jajâna = γέγονε). In Latin ŏ often became ĕ, as in genu (Greek γόνυ, Sansk. jânu). Different from this o² is another o¹, standing in the same relation to a that o² does in Latin to e, and answering to a Sanskrit i or î. Besides this short o¹ is also a long ō, which appears also as ā, and corresponds with Sansk. â. De Saussure further points out that velar k in Sanskrit is palatalized (becomes ch) when followed by a (= ĕ) and a² (= ŏ).