Ibero-Hesperic Brainstorming

This is a place to brainstorm about the Durian branch of the Hesperic family. First of all, "Ibero-Hesperic" is a provisional designation. The Durian languages have a great influence of the Basque languages. Proto-Durian was spoken in northern Iberian peninsula around 1400 BC and is probably the language which gave their name to "Picos de Europa".

Geographical range

The Durian languages are limited to the northwestern quarter of the peninsula, bordered to the east by a line running from Santander to Madrid and to the south by the Tajo river. This is where the Old European hydronymy extends on the Iberian Peninsula; also, in the other areas languages from earlier strata - Basque and Iberian, and perhaps also Tartessian (though some scholars consider the latter a Celtic language), are attested.

Etymology of "Picos de Europa"

"Picos de", is clearly a spanish composition, but "Europa", is a conflictive toponym because sure does not refer to the continent. The proposal is *ewɾopa < *(ɦ)uɾupa < *urpa < *xarba wich meaning mountain, like *alpa in Alpianic.

First Step (Proto-Durian)

Actually, the Proto-Hesperic term for 'mountain' is *xarba.

The proto-term *ərpa is own to Proto-"Ibero-Hesperic", with the typical vowel change would be expected for the "Ibero-Hesperic" mother tongue *urpa, just like:

*ə < *xa; as *i < *xi; *u < *xu as opposed to *a < *a; *e < *i; *o < *u, with these changes will end up generating a system of six vowels, the central vowel ə will evolve differently depending on the consonant that influences it, in this case *ul < *l̥ < *əl ; *ur < *r̥ < *ər, in other cases *an < *n̥ < *ən; *am < *m̥ < *əm; in the rest of cases the vowel ə ends up becoming in aspirated a which in many cases is eliminated.

The confusion between the lenis/fortis stop consonants system is common, the changes of *-p- < *-b-; *-t- < *-d-; *-k- < *-g-, in the middle of the stem, but at the beginning of the word the fortis variant is present.

Second Step ("Europan"/Balla?)

The Proto-"Ibero-Hesperic" term for "Mountain" is *urpa, which would pass to an unknown language (presumably Balla, when it reached a greater extent) as *(ɦ)uɾupa, with a simple changes:

Prosthetic consonants are added as follows: *ɦu- < *u-; *ho- < *o-; and *ji- < *i-; *je- < *e-; *ja- < *a-. In this step the vowel ə leads to a or is eliminated.

To simplify the pronunciation of the *-r- with a stop consonant, put a *-u- (considered as little phonemic) between *-rp-, and other groups with stops, what would lead to *-ɾ-, easier to pronounce. This is discussed by many linguists and is unlikely but not impossible, because there is little evidence, perhaps its origin is in the adaptation of the name by Spanish.

Third Step (Spanish)

*ewɾopa (written as Europa) < *eoɾopa < *juɾupa < *(ɦ)uɾupa through assimilation with the name of the continent, it would end up giving "Europa" in Spanish. You can see the changes *e < *j/*i; *o < *w/*u, that would form *eoɾopa and the diptongation of *ew < *eo, and then it would add "Picos de...".

Daughter languages

Now to the two languages (there may be more in the future but currently I have only plans for two), what little already "know".

Corunese

Corunese is an extinct ancient language known from an inscription found at A Coruña, Spain. This is a bilingual: the same text is found in Corunese on one side of a bronze plaque and in Old Albic on the other. Both languages are written in Old Albic letters (The text has not been composed yet). There may be more inscriptions. Perhaps the beginnings of may have converged phonologically towards Basque, with fortis/lenis pairs such as p/b, t/d, k/g, tz/z, ts/s, tx/x, trend are already visible in Corunese.

Balla

Balla is a living language, spoken in a few households, somewhere in Cantabria. The ancient genitive *-s like a new topic marker may have become an ergative suffix in Balla. Balla may have converged phonologically towards Basque, with fortis/lenis pairs such as p/b, t/d, k/g, tz/z, ts/s, tx/x.

Changes from Proto-Hesperic

In Mediterranean Hesperic...

In both "Ibero-Hesperic" and "Italo-Hesperic", the genitive *-s has become a topic marker and vocative case.

Suffix *-ja as feminine marker and the suffix *-wa as masculine marker.

The Proto-Hesperic word for 'me' (objective case) is *mam; in Continental West Hesperic *-n < *-m, so we get exactly the form *man.

The dative of the second-person singular pronoun is *t‘an in Proto-Hesperic, but in Continental West Hesperic, the originally partitive ending *-l acquired the meaning of a dative ending after the original dative had fallen together with the accusative by the aforementioned sound change.

Dative *t‘al for the Mediterranean Hesperic.

Rübenkönig (1989) assumes it to be in origin a past participle in *-at‘, as it is found in other Mediterranean Hesperic languages.

In Ibero-Hesperic... (Kastenholz scheme)

• Small consonant inventories
• No long vowels
• Stress accent
• Topic-prominent noun declension, topic marker from genitive
• Simple verb morphology
• Loss of aspiration
• Drummond's Law
• Senantho's Law
• Alfermann's Law
• Vowel umlauts
• Initial accent

Changes due to the influence of basque...

Phonology

It has a five vowels system /*a *e *i *o *u/, there are also five diphthongs /*aj *ej *oj *uj *aw *ew/. Three/Four pairs of sibilants. Loss of non-sibilant fricatives.

Development of two rhotic consonants, a simple vibrant *ɾ and another multiple *r.

There is no *(-)w- before vowel.

Absence of *-l final.

There is no vibrant *r- at the beginning of the word. Addition of a prosthetic vowel.

Absence of consonant after initial *s-.

Reinforcement of the initial *l-.

Formation of diminutives with *i.

Consonant voicing of initial voiceless.

Palatization of *dj < *dd; *iʎ < *il; *iɲ < *in; *iʃ < *is; *tj < *tt; *itj < *it; *idj < *id; *tʃ < *t(u)l; *x < *k(u)l.

Other posible consonantic changes like *b < *gw; *kk < *k'w; *ss < *ns; *p < *kw; *s < *xs; *-un- < *-mn-; *-Vi > *-Vgi; *-lb- < *-lw-; *-rb- < *-rw-; *ul < *wl; *i < *dj; *-r- < *-rg-

Absence of groups of more than two consonants.

Intervocalic *-n- fall.

There are no syllabic groups formed by a stop consonant + vibrant/lateral + vowel.

The syllabic structure is CVSV , where C is any consonant, S is a sibilant or sonorant and V a vowel or a diphthong.

Betacism *b < *w.

Absence of *f or *v.

Grammar

It marks grammatical relations by adding suffixes to roots. Prefixes are relatively uncommon.

Anteposition of the genitive.

The nouns are marked for definiteness/indefiniteness.

There are four definite determiners: three demonstratives and a definite article in the form of a suffix. They are marked for number (singular or plural). All the other determiners are indefinite and are not marked for number.

Word order, SOV. Modifiers precede the nouns they modify.

Indirect objects are marked by suffixes.

Vigesimal (base 20) numeral system.

Verbs

Most verbs use auxiliaries (be, have, do) which follow the main verb.

Finite verbs generally agree in person and number with their subjects, and their direct and indirect objects if any. Only have Present and Past Simple.

Intransitive verbs are conjugated with the auxiliary verb "be", which also functions as an independent verb.

Transitive verbs are conjugated with the auxiliary "have".

Besides the indicative mood, verbs also have various imperative, subjunctive, potential, conditional and irrealis contrary to fact forms.

Ergativity

They are languages with ergative-absolutive and aglutinative morphological alignment.

Absolutive: Is the grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb. Prefixes are used for this case.

Ergative: It marks the subject of transitive verbs. Suffixes are used for this case. Agreement is usually in this case. Certain past-tense forms are marked by prefixes in this case.

Umlaut

The Proto-Durian Umlaut, originally gave rise to the system of five vowels of the daughter Durian languages.

Radical	a-umlaut	i-umlaut	u-umlaut
*a	*a	*e	*o
*i	*e	*i	*u
*u	*o	*i	*u