Proto-Hercynian

Proto-Hercynian is the (intrafictionally) reconstructed common ancestor of the Hercynian languages, which form a branch of the Hesperic language family, a family of diachronic lostlangs designed by Jörg Rhiemeier.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless stops	*p	*t			*k
Voiced stops	*b	*d			*g
Voiceless fricatives	*ph	*th	*s		*kh	*h
Voiced fricatives	*bh	*dh	*z		*gh
Nasals	*m	*n			*ng
Liquids			*l *r
Semivowels	*w			*j

Vowels

	Front		Non-front
	Unround	Round	Unround	Round
Close	*i	*y		*u
Mid	*e			*o
Open			*a

All vowels can be long (written with a circumflex, e.g. â).

Sound changes from Proto-Hesperic

This section gives an overview of the sound changes that occured on the way from Proto-Hesperic to Proto-Hercynian.

Common West Hesperic developments

• Accent retraction to first syllable
• x > 3
• Drummond's Law
• Senantho's Law
• Alfermann's Law
• x > h

Continental West Hesperic developments

• m > n /_#
• ng > n /_#

Further changes shared with Proto-Alpianic

• Laryngeal loss

• V3 > V:
• 3 > 0 /otherwise

• Monophthongizations

• ai, ia > é
• au, ua > ó
• iu > ú
• ui > í
• VV > V: /if both of same quality

• Pre-sonorant vowel lowering

* i > e, u > o before nasals and liquids (affects both long and short vowels)

• Vowel lengthenings and shortenings

• Long vowels are shorted in closed syllables
• Short vowels are lengthened in stressed open syllables

Begemann's Law

• Aspirated stops become voiceless fricatives except in clusters. In clusters, they merge with the neutral stops.
• Voiced stops become voiced fricatives except in clusters. In clusters, they remain voiced stops.
• Neutral stops remain unchanged in all positions.

Development of velarized liquids

• ĺ > lg
• ŕ > rg

Origin of *z

• s > z /R_V (R = n, l, r)
• tj, kj > s
• dj, gj > z

Absorption of postconsonantal semivowels

This change affects short and long vowels accordingly. The vowel length is not changed.

• wa > o /C_
• wi > y /C_
• ja > e /C_
• ju > y /C_