Proto-Algic language
Proto-Algic (sometimes abbreviated PAc) is the proto-language from which the Algic languages (Wiyot language, Yurok language, and Proto-Algonquian) are descended. It is estimated to have been spoken about 7,000 years ago somewhere in the American Northwest, probably around the Columbia Plateau.[1][2][3][4] It is an example of a second-level proto-language (a proto-language whose reconstruction depends on data from another proto-language, namely its daughter language Proto-Algonquian) which is widely agreed to have existed.[2] Its chief researcher is Paul Proulx.
Contents
Vowels
Proto-Algic had four basic vowels, which could be either long or short:
- long: *i·, *e·, *a·, *o·
- short: *i, *e, *a, *o
Consonants
Proto-Algic had the following consonants:
| labial | alveolar | postalveolar | postalveolar affricate/ palatal |
velar | labiovelar | glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stop / plosive | p | t | c | č | k | kʷ | ʔ | |
| aspirated stop / plosive | pʰ | tʰ | cʰ | čʰ | kʰ | kʷʰ | ||
| glottalized stop / plosive | pʼ | tʼ | cʼ | čʼ | kʼ | kʼʷ | ||
| fricative | ɬ /ɬ/ 1 | s | š /ʃ/ | h | ||||
| nasal | m | n | ||||||
| glottalized nasal | mʼ | nʼ | ||||||
| lateral, rhotic | r, l | |||||||
| glottalized lateral, glottalized rhotic | rʼ, lʼ | |||||||
| semivowel | w | y /j/ | ||||||
| glottalized semivowel | w' | yʼ /jʼ/ | ||||||
- 1 The identity of this consonant is not entirely certain; in Proto-Algonquian, is sometimes alternatively reconstructed as θ /θ/.
It is unclear if č /tʃ/ was an independent phoneme or only an allophone of c and/or t in Proto-Algic (as in Proto-Algonquian). In 1992, Paul Proulx theorized that Proto-Algic also possessed a phoneme gʷ, which became *w in Proto-Algonquian and g in Wiyot and Yurok.
All stops and affricates in the above chart have aspirated counterparts, and all consonants, except fricatives, have glottalized ones. Proto-Algonquian significantly reduced this system by eliminating all glottalized and aspirated phonemes.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ Peter Bakker, Diachrony and typology in the history of Cree, in Diachronic and typological perspectives on verbs
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Paul Proulx, Proto-Algic I: Phonological Sketch, in the International Journal of American Linguistics, volume 50, number 2 (April 1984)
- ↑ Paul Proulx, Algic Color Terms, in Anthropological Linguistics, volume 30, number 2 (Summer 1988)
- ↑ Paul Proulx, Proto-Algic IV: Nouns, in Studies in Native American Languages VII, volume 17, number 2 (1992)
- ↑ Paul Proulx, Proto-Algic I: Phonological Sketch, in the International Journal of American Linguistics, volume 50, number 2 (April 1984)
- Baldi, Philip, Linguistic Change and Reconstruction Methodology (ISBN 311088609X, 1990)
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