Proto-Alpianic
| Proto-Alpianic | |
| Spoken in: | Switzerland, ca. 1000 BC |
| Conworld: | League of Lost Languages |
| Total speakers: | extinct (reconstructed) |
| Genealogical classification: | Hesperic
|
| Basic word order: | V2; SOV in subclauses |
| Morphological type: | fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | accusative |
| Created by: | |
| Jörg Rhiemeier | 2013 |
Proto-Alpianic is the common ancestor of the Alpianic branch of the Hesperic language family in the League of Lost Languages. It is currently being created by Jörg Rhiemeier.
Proto-Alpianic probably was spoken in central Switzerland around 1000 BC. The language is about as closely related to Old Albic as Greek is to Latin.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Laryngeal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral stops | *p | *t | *k | |
| Aspirated stops | *ph | *th | *kh | |
| Affricates | *pf | *ts | *kx | |
| Fricatives | *f | *s | *x | *h |
| Nasals | *m | *n | *ń | |
| Laterals | *l | *ĺ | ||
| Rhotics | *r | *ŕ | ||
| Semivowel | *j |
The dorsal nasal *ń almost certainly was a velar nasal [ŋ]. The phoneme *ĺ probably was a velarized alveolar lateral [ɫ], the phoneme *ŕ a uvular trill [ʀ].
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *i î | *u û | |
| Mid | *e ê ẽ | *o ô õ | |
| Low | *a â ã |
The circumflex accent marks a long vowel; nasal vowels (with tilde) are always short.
Syllable structure
The maximum syllable structure is (s)C(R)V(L) with the following values:
- C is any consonant.
- R is any nasal, liquid or *j; if present, C must be an obstruent.
- V is any vowel.
- L is any nasal or liquid, or gemination of the following consonant. May not be present in a syllable with a long or nasal vowel, and not in final syllables.
Accent
The accent, which probably was stress, falls on the first syllable of the word.
Morphology
Proto-Alpianic is a fusional-synthetic language. The morphosyntactic alignment is nominative-accusative, though predicate nouns are, unlike most European languages, in the accusative rather than the nominative case.
Nouns
Nouns are divided into three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter; to a large part arbitrary but the neuter gender contains only inanimate nouns) and are inflected for two numbers (singular, plural) and four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative). There are several declension classes that inflect differently; these cut across the genders, but neuters always decline differently from non-neuters of the same declension class: the accusative is always the same as the nominative and the dative the same as the genitive, and the plural is formed differently.
A-stems, masculine
With rare exceptions, masculine nouns are a-stems.
Example: *phassa 'person'
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | *phassa | *phassi |
| Genitive | *phasse | *phassie |
| Dative | *phasso | *phassio |
| Accusative | *phassã | *phassẽ |
A-stems, neuter
Neuter a-stems are not as predominant as masculine a-stems, but still frequent as many basic vocabulary items fall into this class.
Example: *kxara 'stone'
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom.-acc. | *kxara | *kxaro |
| Gen.-dat. | *kxaro | *kxaralo |
I-stems, feminine
With rare exceptions, feminine nouns are i-stems.
Example: *saria 'woman'
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | *saria | *sari |
| Genitive | *sarie | *sarie |
| Dative | *sario | *sario |
| Accusative | *sariã | *sariẽ |
I-stems, neuter
Example: *pãti 'ribbon'
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom.-acc. | *pãti | *pãtio |
| Gen.-dat. | *pãtio | *pãtialo |
U-stems, non-neuter
Non-neuter u-stems are rare.
Example: *kańua 'mountain imp'
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | *kańua | *kańui |
| Genitive | *kańue | *kańue |
| Dative | *kańuo | *kańuo |
| Accusative | *kańuã | *kańuẽ |
U-stems, neuter
This is also a small class.
Example: *khanu 'joint'
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom.-acc. | *khanu | *khanuo |
| Gen.-dat. | *khanuo | *khanualo |
Consonant stems, neuter
This is a fairly large class; there are no non-neuter consonant stems. It is in this class hard to predict the other forms from knowing the nominative-accusative singular, hence the genitive-dative singular is also given in the dictionary.
Example: *saĺio 'wing'
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom.-acc. | *saĺio | *saĺialo |
| Gen.-dat. | *saĺialo | *saĺialalo |
Example: *thupe 'gift'
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom.-acc. | *thupe | *thupaso |
| Gen.-dat. | *thupaso | *thupasalo |
Adjectives
Adjectives agree with their head nouns in gender, number and case. They also have the category of degree of comparison: positive (unmarked), comparative and superlative.
There are four declension classes.
First declension
This is a large class, containing all adjectives with a monosyllabic stem. These adjectives decline like a-stems in the masculine and neuter, and like i-stems in the feminine.
Example: *makha 'great, big'
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | *makha | *makhi | *makhia | *makhi | *makha | *makho |
| Genitive | *makhe | *makhie | *makhie | *makhie | *makho | *makhalo |
| Dative | *makho | *makhio | *makhio | *makhio | *makho | *makhalo |
| Accusative | *makhã | *makhẽ | *makhiã | *makhiẽ | *makha | *makho |
Second declension
This is another large class, consisting of adjectives with a stem of more than one syllable. The difference from the first declension is that the neuters are declined like consonant stems.
Example: *urtiana 'bloody'
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | *urtiana | *urtiani | *urtiania | *urtiani | *urtiã | *urtiano |
| Genitive | *urtiane | *urtianie | *urtianie | *urtianie | *urtiano | *urtianalo |
| Dative | *urtiano | *urtianio | *urtianio | *urtianio | *urtiano | *urtianalo |
| Accusative | *urtianã | *urtianẽ | *urtianiã | *urtianiẽ | *urtiã | *urtiano |
Third declension
A fairly large class. These are i-stems in all genders. The masculine and feminine forms are the same.
Example: *maltsia 'sweet'
| Masc/Fem. | Neuter | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | *maltsia | *maltsi | *maltsi | *maltsio |
| Genitive | *maltsie | *maltsie | *maltsio | *maltsialo |
| Dative | *maltsio | *maltsio | *maltsio | *maltsialo |
| Accusative | *maltsiã | *maltsiẽ | *maltsi | *maltsio |
Fourth declension
A small group. These decline as u-stems in all genders. Masculine and feminine forms are the same.
Example: nartua 'right (direction)'
| Masc/Fem. | Neuter | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | *nartua | *nartui | *nartu | *nartuo |
| Genitive | *nartue | *nartue | *nartuo | *nartualo |
| Dative | *nartuo | *nartuo | *nartuo | *nartualo |
| Accusative | *nartuã | *nartuẽ | *nartu | *nartuo |
