Proto-Cardial
Proto-Cardial is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Cardial languages. It is estimated to have been spoken around 6.200 BC, and it's asociated to Cardium pottery.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sibilant | Lateral | |||||||
| Nasals | *m | *n | *ŋ | |||||
| Stops | Ejective | *p' | *t' | *k' | *q' | |||
| Voiceless | *p | *t | *k | *q | *ʔ | |||
| Voiced | *b | *d | *g | *ɢ | ||||
| Affricates | Ejective | *ts' | *tʃ' | |||||
| Voiceless | *ts | *tʃ | *tɬ | |||||
| Voiced | *dz | *dʒ | ||||||
| Fricatives | *s ~ *z? | *ʃ ~ *ʒ? | *x | *χ | *h | |||
| Liquid | *l | *r | *ɬ | *ɫ | ||||
Maybe *ɫ ~ *lʲ were allophones.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *i | *ɨ | *u |
| Mid | *e | *ə | *o |
| Low | *æ | *ɐ | *a |
The vowel system shows serious difficulties to be reconstructed, this is compounded by the lack of data and extreme vocalic changes in the daughter languages. Many authors have proposed a system of three central vowels that affect the consonants and that alternate between them in patterns of allophony and ablaut, this centralized system is very important to understand the stress.
| Centralized System | Palatized | Central | Labialized |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *ʲɨ /i/ | *ɨ | *ʷɨ /u/ |
| Mid | *ʲə /e/ | *ə | *ʷə /o/ |
| Low | *ʲɐ /æ/ | *ɐ | *ʷɐ /a/ |
Stress
The reconstructed stress patterns is very simple and it is based on the system of centralized vowels as follows, "ə" and "ɨ" allow stress in the last syllable, while "ɐ" does not allow it, so "ɐ" always appears stressed in the penultimate syllable.
In daughter languages the "ɐ" stressed in the penultimate syllable losts the stress and...:
- disappears in southern Italy and Iberian peninsula.
- geminates the posterior consonant in the Mediterranean islands and northern Africa.
- evolves to "ɐʔ" in Alps.
- the vowel lengthens gaining strength and weakening the vowels of the last syllabe until they disappear in higher stages, in Tartessian.
- the rest of the daughter families maintain the archaic stress pattern.
Evolution of phonology
Stops and aspirates
Proto-Southern: The cyclic theory is given in several Cardial languages, consists of an exchange of ejectives by voiceless and vice versa. The development of aspirates is: *h > ʔ; *x > h; *χ > h.
Proto-Northern: All voiced evolved to aspirated voiced and ejectives evolved to voiced to take his place, except uvulars and glottal that evolved as follows: *ɢ > ʁ; *q’ > χ; *q > k; *ʔ > ɦ. Aspirates "h", "x" and "χ" are preserved.
Sibilants and affricates
Proto-Southern: The affricates fulfill the cyclic theory, the biconsonantal groups as *SC > CS become as affricated, after fulfilling the cyclic theory. The palatized sibilants evolved to *zʲ > ʑ; *sʲ > ɕ.
Proto-Northern: Palatization in this phonemes is completely losts, just like *t'S- > Sk-; *-t'S- > -S- only in affricate possition. All the affricates become as follows *CS > SC. All sibilants merged with *s.
Nasals and liquids
Proto-Southern: The only change produced is on a labialized nasal, *ŋʷ > m. The liquids remain intact.
Proto-Northern: There is only a change on nasals, *ŋ > nn. The changes on liquids are also minimal, *tɬ- > s-; *-tɬ- > -ɬt-.
Vowels
Proto-Western: It is presupposed of this vowel system to be the original of the group, and it is reconstructed for an urheimat in southern Italy, which would eventually extend to the Mediterranean islands and northern Africa.
| Front (Palatized) | Central | Back (Labialized) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *ʲɨ ~ *i | *ɨ | *ʷɨ ~ *u |
| Mid | *ʲə ~ *e | *ə | *ʷə ~ *o |
| Low | *ʲɐ ~ *æ | *ɐ | *ʷɐ ~ *a |
Proto-Eastern: It seems that the vowel changes are subsequent to the colonization of southern Italy, and seem to be shared by the entire Balkan area.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *i > e > 0 | *ɨ > o | *u > e |
| Mid | *ə > o | *u > e | |
| Low | *e > 0 | *a | *o > u > e |
- Proto-Southern: Only found in Epirus, it is a strange case, it seems to be a serious innovation because southern Italy did not suffer these vowel changes.
| Palatized | Central | Labialized | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *o | *ʷa > 0 | |
| Mid | *e | *ʷa > 0 | |
| Low | *ʲa > 0 | *a | *ʷe > 0 |
- Proto-Northern: The urheimat is presupossed to be in Slovenia, this system gave rise to the whole northern group.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *ai > ʲi > i | *ø > e | *au > ʷu > e |
| Mid | *ə > o ~ u | *au > ʷu > e | |
| Low | *ei > ʲi > i | *a | *eu > ʷu > e |
Morphology
Pronouns
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Exclusive | *ʔɐgɐ ~ *ʔɐkɐ | *ŋɐ |
| Inclusive | - | *bɐ | |
| 2nd person | Colloquial | *t'u | *χa |
| Respectful | *si | *χæ | |
| 3rd person | *sɐ | *sɐ? | |
| Demonstrative | Proximal | *ʔi | *hi |
| Medial-proximal | *ʔe | *he | |
| Medial-distal | *ʔu | *hu | |
| Distal | *ʔa | *ha | |
| Indeterminate | *t'ɐ | *t'ɐ? | |
| Interrogative/relative | Thing (What) | *mɐ | *mɐ? |
| Person (Who) | *ŋɨʃɐ | *ŋɨʃɐ? | |
Demarcators
Articles
Postopositions
Declension
Verbal paradigm and Classes of respect
Four classes of respect are reconstructed for the proto-cardial. Epirus is the only language that all classes of respect are given.
Polysynthetic order
Casual
Only present in the eastern group.
| Subject | Direct Object | VERB STEM | Indirect Object | Tense |
Polite
The verbal stem suffers an ablaut of Type IIb.
| Direct Object | Indirect Object | Subject | VERB STEM | Past | SECONDARY STEM | Non-past |
Formal
The verbal stem suffers an ablaut of Type IIa. Does not permit demarcators.
| Subject | VERB STEM | Object | Past |
Honorific
Only present in the Southern group. The verbal stem suffers an ablaut of Type I. Does not permit demarcators.
| Object | VERB STEM | Subject |
Ablaut
| Ablaut | Usage | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Type I | Honorific | ||
| Type II | A | Formal | |
| B | Polite | ||
Tense
Pronominal mark
The daughter languages develop new pronouns to mark four genders, inanimate and animate (neuter, masculine and femenine).
Mark of subject
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Exclusive | *-kɐ- | *-k'ɐ- |
| Inclusive | - | *-bɐ- | |
| 2nd person | *-t'ə- | *-sə- | |
| 3rd person | Animate | *-ʃɨ- | *-ʃɨ- |
| Inanimate | *-ŋɨ- | *-ŋɨ- | |
| Indeterminate | *-mɨ- | *-mɨ- | |
Mark of object
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Exclusive | *-gɐ- | *-ŋɐ- |
| Inclusive | - | *-mɐ- | |
| 2nd person | *-χə- | *-χə- | |
| 3rd person | Animate | *-sɨ- | *-sɨ- |
| Inanimate | *-ʔɨ- | *-hɨ- | |
| Indeterminate | *-t'ɨ- | *-t'ɨ- | |
Declension of Marks
| Scheme of declension | Subject | Direct Object | Indirect Object | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casual | Transitive | Nominative | Accusative | Dative |
| Intransitive | Nominative | - | - | |
| Polite | Transitive | Ergative | Accusative | Genitive |
| Intransitive | Intransitive | - | - | |
| Formal | Transitive | Agentive | Objetive | Objetive |
| Intransitive | Agentive | - | - | |
| Honorific | Transitive | Direct | Direct | Direct |
| Intransitive | Direct | - | - | |
| ɐ | ə | ɨ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | |||
| Ergative | |||
| Intransitive | |||
| Agentive | |||
| Direct | |||
| Accusative | |||
| Objetive | |||
| Dative | |||
| Genitive |
