Proto-Indo-European phonology

Proto-Indo-European phonology is the reconstructed sound system of the ancestor language of the Indo-European languages, including its consonants, vowels, syllabic resonants, and accent.

Proto-Indo-European laryngeal theory: A theory that reconstructs one or more consonants, called laryngeals, in Proto-Indo-European. Laryngeals explain vowel-coloring patterns and lengthened vowels in daughter languages.
Comparative method: A method for reconstructing ancestral languages by comparing systematic correspondences among related languages. It supplies the core procedure for reconstructing Proto-Indo-European phonemes.
Proto-Indo-European consonant system: The reconstructed inventory and contrasts of consonants in Proto-Indo-European. It isolates the consonant inventory from vowels and accent.
August Schleicher: A nineteenth-century German linguist who developed influential methods for reconstructing Proto-Indo-European. His reconstructions helped establish comparative phonology as a systematic discipline.
Proto-Indo-European ablaut: A morphological alternation among vowel grades, especially e-grade, o-grade, and zero-grade, in Proto-Indo-European. Ablaut reveals how vowels alternated across forms, including forms with no vowel.
Grimm's law: A set of regular consonant shifts from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Its patterned changes expose contrasts in the reconstructed stop system.
Proto-Indo-European vowel system: The reconstructed vowel phonemes and their distribution in Proto-Indo-European. It focuses on the debated status and behavior of the language’s vowels.
Ferdinand de Saussure: A Swiss linguist whose work proposed abstract sound elements in Indo-European roots later connected with laryngeals. His analysis anticipated part of the laryngeal reconstruction.
Proto-Indo-European accent: A reconstructed system of lexical stress whose position could vary within a word and distinguish forms. Accent was a suprasegmental part of the sound system, not a fixed stress rule.
Grassmann's law: A dissimilation rule in Sanskrit and Ancient Greek that deaspirates one of two aspirated stops in a word. The rule helps explain correspondences involving reconstructed voiced aspirates.

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