User:Theradrussian3/sandbox

Roots
Proto-Indo-European roots have the syllable structure (C)CVC(C) , where C is any consonant, and V is any vowel or syllabic consonant. An *s- or laryngeal (H) may precede the initial consonant. Roots which are appear to be VC- are actually HVC- (e.g. *h₁es-, "to be") and roots that appear to be CV- are CVH- (e.g. *steh₂-, "to stand"). In some cases, however, presence of a laryngeal before apparent VC- roots cannot be proven, especially for those with initial *h₁-. PIE most likely could not have *r- alone in the onset of a root's syllable (apparent occurances were *Hr-). Roots which ended in laryngeals are sometimes called disyllabic roots, as descendants in later languages would yield a disyllabic root, such as *ḱerh₂- "to mix", which later became kera in Greek. In PIE itself, though, roots were always monosyllabic. Roots usually followed the sonority hierarchy, thus *ḱret- could possibly be a root, but *ḱetr- could not. There are also restrictions that govern what consonants can occur in a root; a root cannot have two (or more) voiced consonants (e.g. *gerd- is impossible), and root cannot have both unvoiced and aspirated consonants (e.g. *gʰet- is impossible), except for when the root starts with *s- (e.g. *steygʰ-, "to march, to ascend").

Suffixes
Nominal suffixes almost always have the syllable structure -VC- or -CVC-. More complex formations are possible, usually having no (ablauting) vowel (e.g. *-tuh₂t-), but are quite rare. Suffixes with two consonants following the vowel always ended in *-t (e.g. *-ent-, *-went-).

Endings
Nominal case endings almost always have the forms -(C)(V)C or -(C)V, with most of the exceptions occuring in the plural (e.g *óHom). Verb endings usually have the form -(C)CV (e.g. *-mi).

Ablaut
The Indo-European ablaut is a system of apophony (i.e. variations in the vowels of related words, or different inflections of the same word) in the Proto-Indo-European language. This was used in numerous morphological processes, usually being secondary to a word's inflectional ending. It is the most common source of apophony in Indo-European languages today.

Proto-Indo-European vowels had 5 different grades, or forms, they could be in: If a syllable had plain *e, it is termed "e-grade" or "full-grade", and if a syllable had *ē, it is termed "lengthened e-grade"; likewise if a syllable had *o, it is termed "o-grade", and if a syllable had *ō, it is termed "lengthened o-grade". When a syllable had no vowel at all, it is termed "zero-grade" (sometimes written "∅-grade"). The vowels *u and *i do not alternate in this way, and thus are often referred to as "non-ablauting" or "not ablauting", sometimes even not being referred to as vowels at all.