Proto-Hesperic (2018)
Proto-Hesperic is a Macro-Indo-European diachronic conlang by Jörg Rhiemeier that is currently under construction, and represents the reconstructed common ancestor of the Hesperic language family. It is a lostlang and forms a part of the League of Lost Languages. Proto-Hesperic is a head-final agglutinating active-stative language related to Proto-Indo-European, assumed to have been spoken in Central Europe around 4000 BC; it also resembles Proto-Uralic in its morphology, and seems to form a kind of "missing link" between the two families. The vocabulary is in part based on Proto-Indo-European, in part on words with uncertain etymologies in Celtic and Germanic that may be loanwords from lost substratum languages; there are also some original creations in the vocabulary (intrafictionally, borrowed from Tommian languages) and a few words from argots such as Shelta or Rotwelsch.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspirated stops | *ph | *th | *kh | |
| Neutral stops | (*p) | *t | *k | |
| Voiced stops | *b | *d | *g | |
| Fricatives | *s | *x | ||
| Nasals | *m | *n | ||
| Liquids | *l *r | |||
| Semivowels | *w | *j |
Notes
- All phonemes can be assumed to have the IPA values. The most uncertainty is with *x, which could have been anything from velar to glottal; however, it probably was not simply /h/, as stops followed by *x show different developments than aspirated stops (see Drummond's Law on this matter).
- The phoneme *p (neutral labial stop) is marginal and may not have existed. All Hesperic words with this sound have limited distribution and may have been borrowed.
- Aspirated and voiced stops do not co-occur in a true Proto-Hesperic root; exceptions occur only in a few words with limited distribution that probably were borrowed from other languages. Neutral stops may co-occur with either.
- No two neutral stops may occur in the same Proto-Hesperic root, and they do not occur in affixes. Again, exceptions have limited distribution and are probably borrowed.
- Because of these constraints, it has been suggested that the neutral stops once were ejectives (compare the glottalic theory in Indo-European), but as no Hesperic language actually shows such ejectives, this is doubtful. It should also be considered that in the Kartvelian languages often cited by supporters of the glottalic theory, no such constraints exist (e.g., Georgian k'op'e 'ladle' has two ejectives in the root, one of them labial). The constraints postulated by the glottalists do exist, however, in Akkadian, which disallows two "emphatic" consonants in a root and also lacks a labial "emphatic" stop (see Geers' Law). Yet, it may indeed be the case that the neutral stops evolved from some highly marked type of articulation, but it is pretty certain that at the time of breakup, they just were ordinary stops that were neither voiced nor aspirated.
- The language may have also had a labialized velar series (*kh° *k° *g° *x°), but these probably just were plain velars followed by *w.
- Likewise there may have also been a labialized coronal series (*th° *t° *d° *s°), but that is even less likely than the labialized velar series. They probably were just plain coronals followed by *w.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *i | *u | |
| Low | *a |
Notes
- The diphthongs *ai and *au exist, but are perhaps better considered vowel-semivowel groups *aj and *aw instead, as they show the same distribution as vowel-liquid groups.
- The high vowels *i and *u do not occur in roots or affixes in which a nasal, liquid or semivowel follows the vowel (across morpheme boundaries, such combinations may exist). Exceptions may occur in words of limited distribution that are probably borrowed from non-Hesperic languages.
- There are no vowel-initial lexical roots; all roots begin with a consonant. The demonstrative *a (source of the West Hesperic definite article) is an exception.
Syllables
The maximal syllable structure is sCRVRC, wherein C is any consonant and R a nasal, liquid or semivowel.
Accent
Accent in Proto-Hesperic appears to have been non-distinctive. Evidence from some daughter languages indicate a stress accent on the penultimate syllable.
Morphology
Proto-Hesperic shows an agglutinating morphology. The language is mostly suffixing.
Nouns
Nouns fall into two classes: animate and inanimate. The animate class consists of words for people, animals, plants, social groups, supernatural entities, natural forces and a few others. All other nouns are inanimate. Animate nouns are inflected for three numbers (singular, dual, plural) and five cases (agentive, objective, genitive, partitive, dative). The number markers have two allomorphs each: *-x and *-s in final position, and *-w and *-j before a case ending. The objective case ending *-m is used only in the singular.
Inanimate nouns are indeclinable; their single form is syntactically objective singular.
There is no distinction between masculine or feminine genders, but animate nouns referring to single persons or animals may receive the suffixes *-wa 'male' or *-ja 'female'.
Declension of an animate noun
Example: *xnara 'man'
| Case | Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentive | *xnara | *xnarax | *xnaras |
| Objective | *xnaram | *xnarax | *xnaras |
| Genitive | *xnarasa | *xnarawsa | *xnarajsa |
| Partitive | *xnarala | *xnarawla | *xnarajla |
| Dative | *xnarana | *xnarawna | *xnarajna |
When the noun ends in the vowel *-i or *-u, this is changed into *-a before the *-w and *-j allomorphs of the dual and plural markers. Example (*disi 'wife'):
| Case | Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentive | *disi | *disix | *disis |
| Objective | *disim | *disix | *disis |
| Genitive | *disisa | *disawsa | *disajsa |
| Partitive | *disila | *disawla | *disajla |
| Dative | *disina | *disawna | *disajna |
Adjectives
Adjectives inflect similarly to nouns if the noun they modify is animate; however, the dual marker is always *-w and the plural marker always *-j, even if no case ending follows. This is certainly due to the adjective forming a close phonological unit with the following noun, as in *makxaj xnaras 'great men (agt./obj.)'.
If the adjective is used as a head of an animate noun phrase, it is inflected like a noun.
Degrees of comparison are marked by suffixes:
- Comparative *-isa
- Superlative *-istha
- Equative *-iskha
In these suffixes, the *i replaces the final vowel of the adjective, e.g. *makxa 'great' → *makxisa 'greater'.
Adverbs are derived from adjectives by suffixing *-s.
Pronouns
Pronouns exist in animate and inanimate forms (except, of course, 1st and 2nd person); they inflect like nouns.
Personal pronouns
The personal pronouns are inflected for number and case like animate noun, but the declension is somewhat different from the nominal declension:
- The dual and plural markers are always *-w and *-j, even in the agentive case, due to the proclitic properties of the pronouns.
- The objective case suffix is *-ma, and is also used in the dual and plural, e.g. *majma 'us'.
The pronouns in their agentive forms are:
- 1st person (exclusive): singular *mi, dual *maw, plural *maj
- 1st person (inclusive): dual *waw, plural *waj
- 2nd person: singular *thi, dual *thaw, plural *thaj
- 3rd person: singular *sa, dual *saw, plural *saj
To these forms, case markers are added as appropriate.
The inanimate pronoun is *thatha.
Reflexive pronouns
These are derived from the above by suffixing *-wa (before the number suffix). The *i in the 1st and 2nd person singular forms changes into *a; e.g. *mawa 'myself'.
Demonstrative pronouns
There are three degrees of deixis:
- Proximal (near speaker): *xa
- Medial (near hearer): *thxa
- Distal (far from both): *a
Interrogative pronouns
- Animate *khwa
- Inanimate *mana
Verbs
Verbs inflect for tense, mood and the person and number of the subject and, if transitive, the direct object.
There are two main classes of verbs: active verbs, which denote actions performed by the subject and may be transitive or intransitive; and stative verbs, which denote states or events happening to the non-acting subject and are always intransitive. These two classes use different personal suffixes, and mark their subjects with different cases. Active verbs require an animate subject in the agentive case; stative verbs require an animate subject in the objective case or an inanimate subject.
Tense and mood
The tense and mood suffixes are:
- Past *-na
- Future *-wa
- Subjunctive *-ja
The present indicative is unmarked. These suffixes are placed immediately after the verb stem and precede the personal suffixes. The subjunctive mood is not compatible with past and future tenses.
Personal suffixes
There are two sets of personal suffixes. The agentive suffixes are used for subjects of active verbs; the objective suffixes are used for direct objects of transitive verbs and for subjects of stative verbs. In a transitive verb, the objective suffix precedes the agentive suffix, e.g. *wali-tha-ma 'I love you'.
| Agentive | Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | *-ma | *-max | *-mas |
| 2nd person | *-tha | *-thax | *-thas |
| 3rd person | *-sa | *-sax | *-sas |
| Objective | Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | *-xa | *-xax | *-xas |
| 2nd person | *-thxa | *-thxax | *-thxas |
| 3rd person | *-a | *-ax | *-as |
A 3rd person objective suffix agrees with the number of the respective argument only if the argument is animate. With inanimate arguments, the 3rd person singular form *-a is always used.
When an agentive suffix follows an objective dual or plural suffix, the dual marker in the objective suffix changes from *-x to *-w and the plural marker from *-s to *-j. Example: *walithxajma 'I love you all'.
Syntax
(to be done)
Developments in daughter languages
The two main branches of Hesperic are characterized by shared developments.
West Hesperic
The West Hesperic languages underwent three characteristic changes:
- Drummond's Law (velarization of consonants followed by *x, which deletes)
- Senantho's Law (in stop+stop clusters, the second stop becomes a semivowel)
- Alfermann's Law (reorganization of number marking)
Furthermore, all West Hesperic languages except Albic merge all three word-final nasals as *-n (possibly nasalization of the final vowel). This change led to the merger of the old objective and dative cases, and the old partitive case became a new dative.
East Hesperic
The East Hesperic languages underwent three characteristic changes:
- Palatalization of stops before *i and *j: velars become postalveolar affricates, dentals become alveolar afficates.
- Stop+stop clusters are simplified by dropping the first stop.
- Semivowels are lost after consonants.
Lexicon
Abbreviations:
adj. adjective. adv. adverb. na. animate noun. ni. inanimate noun. va. active verb. vf. fluid verb. vi. inactive verb. vt. transitive verb.
(EH) East Hesperic. (WH) West Hesperic.
The Physical World
Earth
- *dgama na. earth.
- *dvana ni. hill, mountain.
- *khara ni. stone.
- *xarba (WH) ni. mountain.
Water
- *saiwa na. sea.
- *xala na. water.
- *watana ni. liquid.
- *xakwa na. river.
