Europic
Europic is a hypothetical language family proposed by Jörg Rhiemeier. It consists of Indo-European and various smaller language groups of Europe. There may have been another branch, East Europic, which exerted a substratum influence on Indo-Iranian (causing the collapse of the PIE vowel system into the 3-vowel system characteristic of this branch).
Proto-Europic was spoken around the year 6000 BC on the northern shore of the Euxine Lake (a freshwater lake in the area of, but somewhat smaller than, the Black Sea). The Proto-Europic homeland was destroyed between 5600 and 5500 BC when the sea level rose enough to breach through the Bosporus and the area was inundated in the catastrophc flooding which formed the Black Sea as we know it. Refugees took the language north, where it evolved into Indo-European, and west, where it evolved into the various West Europic languages (Hesperic, Thalassan, etc.) . The speakers of West Europic were the first Neolithic farmers in central Europe, the bearers of the Linear Pottery culture. Many rivers in central and western Europe bear West Europic names until today.
The Tyrrhenian languages (Etruscan, Rhaetic and Lemnian) are possibly a branch of Europic, but this is uncertain.
Classification
- Europic
- ?Tyrrhenian (Etruscan, Rhaetic, Lemnian)
- Indo-European
- West Europic
- Thalassan (conlang by Rob Haden)
- Hesperic
- unknown language of the "Old European hydronymy"
- Albic (conlang family by Jörg Rhiemeier)
- ?East Europic
Proto-Europic Phonology
The main feature that distinguishes Europic from the other branches of Eurasiatic is its vowel system, which included only three vowels: *a, *i and *u, of which *a was much more frequent than the others. This system is the result of a sound change, the Great Vowel Collapse (GVC), a merger of all Proto-Eurasiatic vowels except *i and *u into *a. Before the GVC, pre-Proto-Europic underwent another change in the vowel system: Resonant-Conditioned Lowering (RCL). Under this rule, high vowels followed by resonants were lowered. The lowered vowels then fell victim to the GVC. This explains the apparent lack of *CeiR- and *CeuR- roots in PIE.
This three-vowel system is attested in the Old European hydronymy and can be reconstructed for pre-ablaut Indo-European. It apparently also remained intact in East Europic long enough to influence the Eastern (Indo-Iranian) subbranch of Indo-European in which PIE *a, *e and *o all merged into *a - it appears as if Eastern IE had undergone the GVC twice.
