Indo-European Consonant Ablaut

Variations such as Skt. bru-t Av. mru- "speak" have long been of concern to Indo-Europeanists, as have like alternants in Afroasiatic. Recent work in the latter field suggests that some of these variants can be attributed to prehistoric affixes. Given a base form such as **d-r, found in Gk. (Hes.) dr-ops "man", one may have a nasal infix, as in a-ndr-bs "of a man", and/or an aspirate affix, as in a-nthr-opos "man". The aspirate is neutral as to voice, so d or t plus H yields th, an example with t being Gk. pater "father", pentherós "father-in-law". Comparison with Afroasiatic has also shown that many IE w' s are from proto **b, so that one has a series of forms such as: *reu-"rip up", *rebh- "violent", *remb- "hack" from proto **r-b. Other alternations suggest a glottal (or pharyngal) affix, with sets of variants such as: w ~ b (< b + ?) - bh ~ mb, p ~ b (< p + ?) ~ bh ~ mb. This results in a considerable reduction in the number of reconstructable roots and demonstrates the secondary nature of all aspirates, as well as of many nasals and certain other consonants.