On Indo–European /a/

Abstract

Although the original phonemic vowel pattern of the founding era of Indo–European Linguistics (/a i u/) was largely abandoned by the end of the 19th century, there are good reasons to rethink its recovery and functionality. The main reason that led to the rejection of the presence of /a/ in the original vowel pattern can no longer be maintained today. The so–called “new sound of Indo–European” is indeed too new and too unsound. What we need is a real old Indo–European sound. Old and sound too.