Thread:User talk:CodeCat/Proto-Indo-European/reply (11)

They are pronounced just like you might expect, as l, r, m and n, except that they are held as if they form a syllable. It's hard to explain, but Czech and other Slavic languages have a syllabic/vowel-like r too. Strč prst skrz krk is a Czech phrase that contains a syllabic r four times, the article has an audio file so you can listen.

I don't think we need four levels of templates, as nobody speaks PIE at a near-native level (assuming we even know what it would be like). Even three might be pushing it. Let's focus on the first two for now, and we can add a third when there is a need for it.

I'm not really comfortable with using a word for 'human' to mean 'person' or even 'user'. It seems very kludgey. I would rather use another word if we can find one.

I did find a reference to the root *paw- in Ringe's book (which I consider reliable), but I wonder about the form *pawós that you used. Presumably it is the origin of Germanic *fawaz, but how do you know it is *fawós and no *fáwos, since the Germanic form doesn't distinguish this?

Finally, although *wóyde does mean "know", it doesn't seem like the proper way to refer to knowing a language, in hindsight. The root *weyd- literally means "to see", and *wóyde is the perfect aspect of that, hence meaning "has seen" and by extension "knows (of/about)". My guess is that the root *ǵnéh₃- is more fitting for this kind of knowing. We can also try to use a root meaning "speak", like the form *wékʷti "speaks" I mentioned above.

Just as a note, distinguishing different kinds of knowing in this way is not at all rare. Even Dutch (one of the closest relatives of English) distinguishes: In Dutch, weten would sound very strange when used for a language, it would sound like saying "I'm aware that (this language) exists".
 * weten "to know (a fact), to be aware of" from the root *weyd-
 * kennen "to know, to recognise" from the root *ǵnéh₃- (somehow).