Hesperic: Difference between revisions

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'''Hesperic''' is a family of [[diachronic conlang]]s by [[User:WeepingElf|Jörg Rhiemeier]] spoken in the world of the [[League of Lost Languages]].
'''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, only one Hesperic language, [[Old Albic]], has been worked out in detail.


==The idea behind Hesperic==
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).  Their common ancestor, Proto-Hesperic, may have been the language of the [[Wikipedia:Linear Pottery culture|Linear Pottery culture]], the first Neolithic farming culture of Central Europe.  The common ancestor of the West Hesperic branch (see below) may have been the language of the [[Wikipedia:Beaker culture|Beaker culture]].


The idea behind the Hesperic family is that the spread of agriculture in Neolithic central Europe was connected with the spread of a language family related to [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]].  Most archaeologists assume that the spread of agriculture in Central Europe was ''demic'', i. e. connected with substantial migrations of farming people into areas previously occupied by hunter-gatherer populations which were absorbed into the new society.  This would also mean that new languages arrived in the area.  The Proto-Hesperic language would have been the language of the [[Wikipedia:Linear Pottery culture|Linear Pottery culture]].
Hesperic is a [[Mitian]] language family, and appears to be related to the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] family.


===A Black Sea Flood?===
==Classification==


A controversial matter among geologists and archaeologists is the '[[Wikipedia:Black Sea deluge theory|Black Sea Flood]]', which according to Walter Pitman and William Ryan happened about 8,000 years ago when the rising ocean reached the level of the Bosporus strait and the Black Sea, formerly a freshwater lake, became connected to the Mediterranean Sea.  If this flood happened, [[Europic|Proto-Europic]], the common ancestor of Indo-European, Hesperic and [[Danubian]], could have been spoken in some of the area inundated in this event.
The classification given here is preliminary, and many designations provisional, as most of the Hesperic langages are still unexplored.


===The Starčevo culture===
'''Hesperic'''
 
* West Hesperic
The [[Wikipedia:Starčevo culture|Starčevo culture]] of the Balkan peninsula may have been the people who spoke [[Europic|Proto-Europic]] about 8,000 years ago.  This was one of the first Neolithic cultures of Europe; from there, the Neolithic cultural package spread northwest into Central Europe and northeast into the Pontic steppe.
:* [[Albic]]
 
::* [[Old Albic]]
===The Linear Pottery, Funnel Beaker and Bell Beaker cultures===
:* Continental West Hesperic
 
::* Gallo-Hesperic
The first Neolithic farmers of central Europe, the [[Wikipedia:Linear Pottery culture|Linear Pottery culture]], would have been the first speakers of Hesperic languages.  They occupied an area which stretched from eastern France to western Ukraine.  The [[Wikipedia:Funnel Beaker culture|Funnel Beaker]] and [[Wikipedia:Beaker culture|Bell Beaker]] cultures are Late Neolithic cultures which probably emerged from the Linear Pottery culture, spreading into southern Scandinavia and western Europe, respectively.
::* Alpianic
The Bell Beaker culture would spread Hesperic languages to the western France, the British Isles, the Iberian peninsula and Italy.  It is likely that the displacement of the Mesolithic languages was not complete but some of those languages survived.  (At any rate, [[Basque]] and probably also [[Wikipedia:Etruscan language|Etruscan]] are not Hesperic.)
::* Mediterranean Hesperic
 
:::* Ibero-Hesperic
===The demise of the Hesperic family===
:::* Italo-Hesperic
 
::::* [[Attidian]]
The Hesperic family reached its climax in the Early Bronze Age, when Hesperic languages were spoken in an area encompassing most of western and central Europe - about 2.5 million square kilometres inhabited by perhaps 5 million people (at that time a great number) - making Hesperic one of the great language families of Earth.  Then, it was gradually obliterated by [[Indo-European languages]] which moved into central Europe from the east.  By the year 500 BC, the whole formerly Hesperic-speaking area was occupied by Indo-European languages, though some isolated pockets of Hesperic languages may have survived longer, but eventually disappeared as well.  Only traces of the Hesperic languages remained, such as loanwords in the Indo-European languages in central and western Europe, and a number of geographical names, especially [[Old European hydronymy|river names]].
* North Hesperic
 
* East Hesperic
==The Hesperic languages==
:* Balto-Hesperic
 
:* Carpathian Hesperic
So far, the author is concentrating on one member of the Hesperic family, [[Old Albic]].  He has plans for about 20 further Hesperic languages.  A brief vignette of one of them is [[Attidian]], the language of a single (bilingual) inscription.


[[Category:LLL]]
[[Category:LLL]]

Revision as of 04:35, 11 December 2011

Hesperic
Spoken in: Europe
Timeline/Universe: League of Lost Languages
Total speakers: ca. 50,000
Genealogical classification: 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 the League of Lost Languages. So far, only one Hesperic language, Old Albic, has been worked out in detail.

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 as the extant Hesperic languages are the last remains of a once great language family that was later eclipsed and displaced by 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). Their common ancestor, Proto-Hesperic, may have been the language of the Linear Pottery culture, the first Neolithic farming culture of Central Europe. The common ancestor of the West Hesperic branch (see below) may have been the language of the Beaker culture.

Hesperic is a Mitian language family, and appears to be related to the Indo-European family.

Classification

The classification given here is preliminary, and many designations provisional, as most of the Hesperic langages are still unexplored.

Hesperic

  • West Hesperic
  • Continental West Hesperic
  • Gallo-Hesperic
  • Alpianic
  • Mediterranean Hesperic
  • Ibero-Hesperic
  • Italo-Hesperic
  • North Hesperic
  • East Hesperic
  • Balto-Hesperic
  • Carpathian Hesperic
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