Revision of the authors Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2010.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Andrew Miles Byrd -- 1 An Overview of the Indo-European Sound System / Andrew Miles Byrd -- 2 Phonological Theory and Past Views of the Indo-European Syllable / Andrew Miles Byrd -- 3 The Maximum Syllable Template / Andrew Miles Byrd -- 4 Schindler’s Exceptions and the Phonology-Morphology Interface / Andrew Miles Byrd -- 5 Motivating Sievers’ Law / Andrew Miles Byrd -- 6 Motivating Pinault’s Law / Andrew Miles Byrd -- 7 The Indo-European Syllable: A Review / Andrew Miles Byrd -- Appendices / Andrew Miles Byrd -- References / Andrew Miles Byrd.

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In The Indo-European Syllable Andrew Miles Byrd investigates the process of syllabification within Proto-Indo-European (PIE), revealing connections to a number of seemingly unrelated phonological processes in the proto-language. Drawing from insights in linguistic typology and synchronic theory, he makes two significant advances in our understanding of PIE phonology. First, by analyzing securely reconstructable consonant clusters at word’s edge, he devises a methodology which allows us to predict which types of consonant clusters could occur word-medially in PIE. Thus, a number of previously disconnected phonological rules can now be understood as being part of a conspiracy motivated by violations in syllable structure. Second, he uncovers evidence of morphological influence within the syllable, created by processes such as quantitative ablaut. These advances allow us to view PIE as a synchronic grammar, one which can be described by -- and contribute to -- modern linguistic theory.