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03 Transcription Policy: PIE

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Paul Heggarty edited this page Apr 9, 2020 · 7 revisions

Transcription Policy: Proto-Indo-European

See also the general page on Transcription and Transliteration Policy.

For the transcription of Proto-Indo-European reconstructed forms, IE-CoR generally follows the system used in LIV², with the major exception that superscripts used for labiovelars are based on the symbol w rather than u̯. That is, they use the (i.e. ‘hard-coded superscript’) character ʷ, as in *gʷem- '(wohin)gehen, kommen' or *gʷʰen- 'schlagen'. Do not use any superscript version of u̯.

Note that as with all such ‘superscript’ or ‘subscript’ characters, these have to be entered with the dedicated unicode characters into which superscript is ‘hard-coded’. No superscript ‘formatting’ should or even can be used in CoBL/IE-CoR: see below for the exact unicode characters in each case. You should be able to copy them from here, if necessary, and paste into the CoBL website online.

These are the following general conventions:

  • For palatovelars use the dedicated unicode character combining inverted breve ̑ (U+0311), i.e. *k̑, *g̑, *g̑ʰ.
  • For labiovelars use the dedicated unicode character superscript ʷ (U+02B7), i.e. *kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ
  • For (voiced-)aspirated consonants use the dedicated unicode character superscript ʰ (U+02B0), i.e. *bʰ, *dʰ, *g̑ʰ, *gʰ, *gʷʰ
  • For laryngeals use the dedicated unicode characters ₁ (U+2081) ₂ (U+2082) ₃ (U+2083) for subscript numbers, i.e. *h₁, *h₂, *h₃. When the precise identity of the reconstructed laryngeal is unknown, use capital H. If the candidate unknown laryngeal can be narrowed down to two of the three, still use *H, and the specific information may be related in the etymological notes field in the database.

In general, PIE Reconstructions are do be done phonologically as far as it is possible to do so. Effectively this means to avoid introducing reconstructed */a/ and */o/ unless you are fairly confident that this was the actual identity of a morphophonologically ablauting vowel. Avoid introducing allophonic 'vowel-colouring' effects from laryngeals into the reconstructions, for example:

  • *h₂ég̑-e-ti ‘(s)he drives’ (present) not *h₂ág̑-e-ti
  • *h₁e-déh₃-t ‘(s)he gave’ (aorist) not *h₁e-dóh₃-t
  • *h₁le-h₁lóu̯dʰ-h₂e ‘I am gone’ (perfect) not *h₁le-h₁lóu̯dʰ-h₂a

An important exception to this rule pertains to the liquids, nasals, and glides: In many cases the syllabicity of the liquids, nasals, and glides were morphophonologically determined. Because syllabification is relevant phonological information, please notate them using the respective combining diacritics:

  • For syllabic liquids and nasals used the dedicated unicode combining ring below ̥ (U+0325), i.e *r̥, *l̥, *m̥, *n̥.
  • For notation of non-syllabic glides use the dedicated unicode combining breve below ̯ (U+032F), i.e. *i̯, *u̯.

E.g. *k̑léu̯os ń̥dʰgʷʰtom 'imperishable fame' (> Ved. śrávo ’kṣitam, Gk. κλέος ἄφθιτον), not *k̑léuos ńdʰgʷʰitom.

Finally, insofar it is possible to ascertain the position of the PIE accent, include this information by using a combining acute accent over the accented syllable peak. If the position of the accent is unknown, this information may be omitted.

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