In Lehmann's recent article on the Proto-Indo-European resonants in Germanic (Lg. 31.355–66), he adduces some evidence pointing to the retention, in Germanic, of the allophonic distribution posited for liquids and nasals in Proto-Indo-European (§4.1, §4.3). In this connection he discusses certain metrical features which require that the nasals, in some cases, be considered syllabic. In addition, some forms containing nasals are discussed in terms of strictly structural criteria. Involved are the graphs um, un (ul, ur), these being the Germanic reflexes of the Indo-European syllabic resonants. It is commonly considered that the u, in these cases, developed as a prop-vowel when the nasal or liquid (in zero grade) no longer functioned as a syllabic. It is further usually considered that by the time of the earliest Germanic texts this u, originally automatic in the neighborhood of nasals and liquids (in zero grade), had become phonemic, merging with the reflex of IE u.