Ibero-Hesperic Brainstorming

This is a place to brainstorm about the Ibero-Hesperic branch of the Hesperic family.

General Introduction

First of all, "Ibero-Hesperic" is a provisional designation.

The "Ibero-Hesperic" languages have a great influence of the Basque languages.

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

Etymology of "Picos de Europa"

Proto-Ibero-Hesperic was spoken in northern Iberian peninsula around 1400 BC and is probably the language which gave their name to "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 *(j)ulopa < *Ulpa wich probably meaning mountain, like *Alpa in Alps.

Daughter languages

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, final */m/ gave /n/, 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.

A 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...

Loss of aspiration

Drummond's Law

Senantho's Law

Vowel umlauts

Initial accent

Small consonant inventories

No long vowels

Stress accent

Topic-prominent noun declension, topic marker from genitive

Simple verb morphology

Changes due to the influence of basque...

Phonology

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.

Absence of consonant after initial s.

Absence of groups of more than two consonants.

There are no syllabic groups formed by a oclusive 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.

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: 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.