Of Schwa Secundum

[alice]

Did this ever amount to anything? Prokosch mentions it a lot, but all I can find out is that it was something postulated to break up awkward consonnat clusters.

[WeepingElf]

Did this ever amount to anything? Prokosch mentions it a lot, but all I can find out is that it was something postulated to break up awkward consonnat clusters.

I don't know. Some handbooks (e.g., Fortson) don't even mention it at all, so it is probably just an outdated hypothesis.

[Nortaneous]

I don't think it's outdated. Gasiorowski appeals to schwa secundum to explain Latin quattuor < *kʷətwṓr (similarly quadru- < *kʷətwr̥- or *kʷətru-); this could possibly also be used for Albanian katër, since PIE *e regularly becomes je ~ ie, although I don't know off the top of my head how stress developed in Albanian.

[WeepingElf]

I have to correct myself: Fortson does mention it, though only briefly (giving the *k^wtwor- example), and does not discuss it any further.

[Nortaneous]

OTOH, this claims that schwa secundum has been eliminated.

Checking Orel, it seems that, although IE *e sometimes > ja ~ a, this can't be the case for "four" - *e > ja is sporadic and possibly irregular, but ja > a after c ç q gj Cl Cr and before PAlb. *ts *dz *nt *nd *mb... except this presumably predates the fronting of the palatovelars to alveolar affricates (if that's what they ever were - I don't know why he reconstructs them except as the most likely intermediate), because *ja is maintained (i.e. not > a) before *Ḱs > PAlb. *TS.

It's arguably simpler to call it irregular reduction, although we technically could reconstruct a rare *ə giving Lat. and Alb. a. Are there other cases?

(Orel also reconstructs PIE *ə, but this seems to actually be a syllabic laryngeal.)

[WeepingElf]

(Orel also reconstructs PIE *ə, but this seems to actually be a syllabic laryngeal.)

That schwa has been reconstructed much earlier than schwa secundum, and is the reason why the latter is called "schwa secundum".

[Nortaneous]

Trying to finally slog through Malzahn 2010...

Finally, PIE schwa secundum also resulted in that [Early Proto-Tocharian non-palatalizing] *ä, to judge from *kätna- = Gk. skidna- from PIE *(s)kₔdneH-.