"Hermann goes even further: complete forms (e.g. *deiwos) cannot be reconstructed at all, only single sounds, and even these are meant as approximations only, not as phonetically completely correct reconstructions."
Oswald John Louis Szemerényi was a Hungarian-British historical linguist and Indo-Europeanist. He is best known as the namesake of Szemerényi's law, a potential early sound law in the Proto-Indo-European language.
Oswald John Louis Szemerényi was a Hungarian-British historical linguist and Indo-Europeanist. He is best known as the namesake of Szemerényi's law, a potential early sound law in the Proto-Indo-European language.
View all quotes by Oswald Szemerényi"O. Szemerényi admits that reconstructions are used to facilitate comparisons, using one word instead of many IE variants, and cites Hermann’s statement that “complete forms (e.g. *deiwos [=S deva-s]) cannot be reconstructed at all, only single sounds, and even these are meant as approximation only”."
Oswald Szemerényi