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'''This document describes an obsolete version of the Hesperic family which is currently undergoing a major revision.''' --[[User:WeepingElf|WeepingElf]] ([[User talk:WeepingElf|talk]]) 12:14, 15 January 2024 (PST)
{|border=1 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 width=50% class="bordertable" style="margin: 0 0 1em 1em; background: #f9f9f9; font-size: 95%; float: right;"
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|colspan="2" bgcolor="#CCFF00" align="center" |'''Hesperic'''
|colspan="2" bgcolor="#CCFF00" align="center" |'''Hesperic'''
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|valign="top"|[[Conworld]]:
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|valign="top"|Total speakers:
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|valign="top"|Genealogical classification:
|valign="top"|Genealogical classification:
||see below
||[[Indo-European]]
: '''Hesperic'''
:: see below
|-
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|valign="top"|[[Basic word order]]:
|valign="top"|[[Basic word order]]:
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'''Hesperic''' is a [[language family|family]] of [[diachronic conlang]]s by [[User:WeepingElf|Jörg Rhiemeier]] spoken in the world of the [[League of Lost Languages]]. So far, [[Old Albic]] is the best-elaborated language of the family.
 
'''Hesperic''' is a [[language family|family]] of [[diachronic conlang]]s by [[User:WeepingElf|Jörg Rhiemeier]] spoken in the world of [[Atla]]. This family forms an early diverging branch of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] family, even more archaic than [[Wikipedia:Anatolian languages|Anatolian]]. So far, [[Old Albic]] is the best-elaborated language of the family.


==Sources==
==Sources==


The main natlang sources of inspiration for Hesperic are the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], [[Uralic]] and [[Wikipedia:Kartvelian languages|Kartvelian]] language families. The family is meant as a fictional elaboration of the hypothetical [[Aquan languages|Aquan]] language family, the study of [[Old European languages|Palaeo-European languages]] is relevant to the project, and the author is working the results of his research into the linguistic prehistory of Europe into the Hesperic project.
The Hesperic language family was originally built on an internal reconstruction (by the author himself, but drawing on the ideas of various scholars such as [[Wikipedia:Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze|T. V. Gamkrelidze]], [[Wikipedia:Vyacheslav Ivanov (philologist)|V. V. Ivanov]] and the late, lamented [[Wikipedia:Jens Elmegård Rasmussen|J. E. Rasmussen]]) of an early stage of [[Proto-Indo-European]]; a part of the vocabulary is based on words in Celtic and Germanic languages without good PIE etymologies which may be loanwords from a substratum language. Further inspiration for the building of the family came from the [[Uralic]] and [[Wikipedia:Kartvelian languages|Kartvelian]] language families.
 
Since then, the author has changed his view concerning the degree of relationship between Hesperic and Indo-European, from a sister group of IE as a whole to a branch that forked off at about the same time as Anatolian, and he is currently reworking the fictional history of the family in order to make it fit the new assumptions regarding its origin.


Conlangs of inspirational value are chiefly the [[Quendian]] ([[J. R. R. Tolkien]]), [[Eastern languages (Almea)|Eastern]] ([[Mark Rosenfelder]]) and [[Sunovian]] (Geoff Eddy) families.
Conlangs of inspirational value are chiefly the [[Quendian]] ([[J. R. R. Tolkien]]), [[Eastern languages (Almea)|Eastern]] ([[Mark Rosenfelder]]) and [[Sunovian]] (Geoff Eddy) families which inspired me to build a large, diverse language family.


==Overview (intrafictional)==
==Overview (intrafictional)==


The Hesperic languages are spoken in various [[residual zone]]s in Central and Western Europe, with a total number of speakers not exceeding 50,000 today, though the family once had many more speakers as the extant Hesperic languages are the last remains of a once great language family that was later eclipsed and displaced by [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] (Old Albic alone is estimated to have been spoken by about 2 million people during the apogee of the [[Commonwealth of the Elves]] around 600 BC).  All Hesperic languages are endangered today; none has official status in the country where it is spoken.
The Hesperic languages are spoken in various [[residual zone]]s in Central and Western Europe, with a total number of speakers not exceeding 50,000 today, though the family once had many more speakers ([[Old Albic]] alone is estimated to have been spoken by about 2 million people at its apogee about 600 BC).
 
This family is a branch of Indo-European that separated from the rest of the family early, perhaps around 3500 BC, and is probably associated with the first wave of Indo-European expansion which also resulted in the formation of the Anatolian branch.


The common ancestor of the Hesperic languages, Proto-Hesperic, may have been the language of the [[Wikipedia:Linear Pottery culture|Linear Pottery culture]], the first Neolithic farming culture of Central Europe. However, such identifications of language families with archaeological cultures always have to be taken with a grain of salt, as languages and material cultures often do not match.  The [[Old European hydronymy]] may be Hesperic in origin, but as the original meanings of those names are unknown, such an identification remains speculative.
[[Proto-Hesperic]] would have been spoken about 3000 BC in Central Europe, and thus probably contemporaneous to the Late PIE the standard reconstruction represents (which may have been likewise about 3000 BC, but the dating is controversial). The family also shows similarities to the [[Uralic]] languages, and appears to be something like the "missing link" [[Indo-Uralic|between]] Indo-European and Uralic. Typological similarities also exist to the [[Kartvelian languages]], but this does not appear to reveal a relationship, unless these similarities can be ascribed to a [[Krelian]] substratum.
 
Today, however, all Hesperic languages have to be considered endangered, and none has official status in the country or countries where it is spoken.


==Classification==
==Classification==
The classification given here is preliminary, and many designations (in ''italics'') provisional, as most of the Hesperic languages are still unexplored.


'''Hesperic'''
'''Hesperic'''
* West Hesperic
* North Hesperic
:* [[Albic]]
:* [[Albic]]
::* [[Old Albic]]
::* [[Old Albic]]†
:* Continental West Hesperic
:::* [[Middle Albic]]†
::* ''Gallo-Hesperic''
::* [[South Albic]]
::* [[Alpianic]]
:::* Low Elvish
:::* [[Proto-Alpianic]]
::::* [[Avalonian]]
::* Mediterranean Hesperic
::::* [[Sinjenich]]
:::* ''Ibero-Hesperic''
:::* [[Macaronesian]]
:::* ''Italo-Hesperic''
::::* [[Azorese]]
::::* [[Attidian]]
::::* [[Madeirese]]
* Viddan (''incertae sedis'')
::::* [[Sea Elvish]]
* East Hesperic
::* Neck Albic
:* [[Marissan]]
::* [[Arwinish]]
:* [[Duniscian]]
::* [[Ivernic]]
:* [[Hercynian]]
:* [[Alpianic]]
* South Hesperic
:* [[Puranian]]
:* [[Durian]]
:* [[Padivian]]
 


Viddan shows a mixture of western and eastern traits, and its affiliation is unclear.
===Influence of Standard Average European===


===The "Kastenholz scheme"===
The Hesperic languages have been influenced to various degrees by the [[Wikipedia:Standard Average European|Standard Average European]] linguistic area.  The influence of this Sprachbund is strongest in Alpianic and weakest in Albic.


The ''Kastenholz scheme'' (named after a fictional linguist) groups the eight branches of Hesperic in a 3x3 grid (with one empty cell):
==Main sound correspondences==


{|class="wikitable"
{|class="wikitable"
|-
|-
!  
! [[Proto-Hesperic|PH]]
! West
! [[Albic]]
! Central
! [[Hercynian|Herc.]]
! East
! [[Alpianic|Alp.]]
! [[Puranian|Pur.]]
! [[Durian]]
! [[Padivian|Pad.]]
! [[Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]
|-
| ph || ph || p/f || pf/f || f || p || f || p
|-
| th || th || t/θ || ts/s || t || t || f || t
|-
| kh || kh || k/x || kx/x || k || k || h || k
|-
| p || p || p || ph || p || p || p || b
|-
| t || t || t || th || t || t || t || d
|-
| k || k || k || kh || k || k || k || g
|-
| b || b || b/v || p || b || b || b || bh
|-
| d || d || d/ð || t || d || d || d || dh
|-
| g || g || g/ɣ || k || g || g || g || gh
|-
| s || s || s || h || s || s || s || s
|-
| x || ʕ/h || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || h || h2/h3
|-
| h || ʕ/h || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || h1
|-
| m || m || m || m || m || m || m || m
|-
| n || n || n || n || n || n || n || n
|-
| l || l || l || l || l || l || l || l
|-
| r || r || r || r || r || r || r || r
|-
| w || w || w || f || v || v || v || w
|-
| j || j || j || j || j || j || j || y
|-
| u || u || u || u || u || u || u || eu/ou/u
|-
|-
! North
| i || i || i || i || i || i || i || ei/oi/i
| Albic
| Viddan
| Marissan
|-
|-
! Central
| a || a || a || a || a || a || a || e/o/0
| Gallo-H.
| Alpianic
| Duniscian
|-
|-
! South
| Ibero-H.
| Italo-H.
|  
|}
|}
This chart corresponds to four major isogloss bundles, two running north-south and two running east-west, characterized as below.
====Northern zone====
* Moderate to large consonant inventories
* Long and short vowels
* Pitch accent with two contrasting intonations (thrusting and slipping tone) on long vowels
* Preservation of all five Proto-Hesperic primary cases
* Richly developed secondary cases
* Complex verb morphology with two sets of personal endings
====Central zone====
* Moderate consonant inventories
* Long and short vowels
* Stress accent
* Four-case system
* Moderately complex verb morphology
====Southern zone====
* Small consonant inventories
* No long vowels
* Stress accent
* Topic-prominent noun declension, topic marker from genitive
* Simple verb morphology
====Western slice====
* Loss of aspiration (only partially in Albic)
* [[Drummond's Law]]
* Vowel umlauts
* Initial accent (lost in parts of Albic)
====Central slice====
* Spirantization of aspirates (also in parts of Albic)
* Drummond's Law (uvularization in Viddan)
* Monophtongization of diphthongs (also in parts of Albic)
* Initial accent
====Eastern slice====
* Loss of aspiration
* Gemination of consonants followed by laryngeals
* Palatalizations
* Penultimate accent
===Influence of Standard Average European===
The Hesperic languages have been influenced to various degrees by the [[Wikipedia:Standard Average European|Standard Average European]] linguistic area.  The influence of this Sprachbund is strongest in Alpianic and weakest in Albic.
==External relationships==
Hesperic shows all the hallmarks of a [[Mitian]] language family.  Typologically the Hesperic languages show affinity to the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], [[Uralic]] and [[Wikipedia:Kartvelian languages|Kartvelian]] languages.  The phonology is most similar to Indo-European, the morphology to Uralic and the syntax to Kartvelian.
The most likely closest kin of Hesperic is Indo-European, with which Hesperic shares more than 100 lexical cognates.  Also, internal reconstruction in Proto-Indo-European leads to a stage that shows a substantial affinity to Hesperic.  The morphological affinity to Uralic is best explained as a shared retention from [[Indo-Uralic]], while Indo-European has innovated.  The similarities to Karvelian, which seem also to hold for an earlier stage of Proto-Indo-European, are probably due to contact.


[[Category:Hesperic|*]]
[[Category:Hesperic|*]]
[[Category:Atla]]
[[Category:LLL]]
[[Category:LLL]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Diachronic conlangs]]
[[Category:Diachronic conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European conlangs]]
[[Category:Artlangs]]
[[Category:Artlangs]]

Latest revision as of 12:14, 15 January 2024

This document describes an obsolete version of the Hesperic family which is currently undergoing a major revision. --WeepingElf (talk) 12:14, 15 January 2024 (PST)

Hesperic
Spoken in: Europe
Conworld: Atla
Total speakers: ca. 50,000
Genealogical classification: Indo-European
Hesperic
see below
Basic word order: varies
Morphological type: varies
Morphosyntactic alignment: varies
Created by:
Jörg Rhiemeier 2000-


Hesperic is a family of diachronic conlangs by Jörg Rhiemeier spoken in the world of Atla. This family forms an early diverging branch of the Indo-European family, even more archaic than Anatolian. So far, Old Albic is the best-elaborated language of the family.

Sources

The Hesperic language family was originally built on an internal reconstruction (by the author himself, but drawing on the ideas of various scholars such as T. V. Gamkrelidze, V. V. Ivanov and the late, lamented J. E. Rasmussen) of an early stage of Proto-Indo-European; a part of the vocabulary is based on words in Celtic and Germanic languages without good PIE etymologies which may be loanwords from a substratum language. Further inspiration for the building of the family came from the Uralic and Kartvelian language families.

Since then, the author has changed his view concerning the degree of relationship between Hesperic and Indo-European, from a sister group of IE as a whole to a branch that forked off at about the same time as Anatolian, and he is currently reworking the fictional history of the family in order to make it fit the new assumptions regarding its origin.

Conlangs of inspirational value are chiefly the Quendian (J. R. R. Tolkien), Eastern (Mark Rosenfelder) and Sunovian (Geoff Eddy) families which inspired me to build a large, diverse language family.

Overview (intrafictional)

The Hesperic languages are spoken in various residual zones in Central and Western Europe, with a total number of speakers not exceeding 50,000 today, though the family once had many more speakers (Old Albic alone is estimated to have been spoken by about 2 million people at its apogee about 600 BC).

This family is a branch of Indo-European that separated from the rest of the family early, perhaps around 3500 BC, and is probably associated with the first wave of Indo-European expansion which also resulted in the formation of the Anatolian branch.

Proto-Hesperic would have been spoken about 3000 BC in Central Europe, and thus probably contemporaneous to the Late PIE the standard reconstruction represents (which may have been likewise about 3000 BC, but the dating is controversial). The family also shows similarities to the Uralic languages, and appears to be something like the "missing link" between Indo-European and Uralic. Typological similarities also exist to the Kartvelian languages, but this does not appear to reveal a relationship, unless these similarities can be ascribed to a Krelian substratum.

Today, however, all Hesperic languages have to be considered endangered, and none has official status in the country or countries where it is spoken.

Classification

Hesperic

  • North Hesperic
  • Low Elvish
  • South Hesperic


Influence of Standard Average European

The Hesperic languages have been influenced to various degrees by the Standard Average European linguistic area. The influence of this Sprachbund is strongest in Alpianic and weakest in Albic.

Main sound correspondences

PH Albic Herc. Alp. Pur. Durian Pad. PIE
ph ph p/f pf/f f p f p
th th t/θ ts/s t t f t
kh kh k/x kx/x k k h k
p p p ph p p p b
t t t th t t t d
k k k kh k k k g
b b b/v p b b b bh
d d d/ð t d d d dh
g g g/ɣ k g g g gh
s s s h s s s s
x ʕ/h 0 0 0 0 h h2/h3
h ʕ/h 0 0 0 0 0 h1
m m m m m m m m
n n n n n n n n
l l l l l l l l
r r r r r r r r
w w w f v v v w
j j j j j j j y
u u u u u u u eu/ou/u
i i i i i i i ei/oi/i
a a a a a a a e/o/0
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