Proto-Algic language
Reconstructed ancestor of the Algic languages From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Proto-Algic (sometimes abbreviated PAc) is the proto-language from which the Algic languages (Wiyot language, Yurok language, and Proto-Algonquian) are descended. It is estimated to have been spoken about 7,000 years ago somewhere in the American Northwest, possibly around the Columbia Plateau.[1][2][3][4][5] It is an example of a second-level proto-language (a proto-language whose reconstruction depends on data from another proto-language, namely its descendant language Proto-Algonquian) which is widely agreed to have existed.[2] Its main researcher was Paul Proulx.[6]
| Proto-Algic | |
|---|---|
| PAc | |
| Reconstruction of | Algic languages |
| Region | Columbia Plateau? |
| Era | ca. 5000 BCE |
| Lower-order reconstructions | |
Vowels
Proto-Algic had four basic vowels, which could be either long or short:
- long: *i·, *e·, *a·, *o·
- short: *i, *e, *a, *o
Consonants
Summarize
Perspective
Proto-Algic had the following consonants:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | plain | labialized | |||||
| Stop | plain | *p | *t | *k | *kʷ | *ʔ | ||
| aspirated | *pʰ | *tʰ | *kʰ | *kʷʰ | ||||
| glottalized | *pʼ | *tʼ | *kʼ | *kʷʼ | ||||
| Affricate | plain | *c /t͡s/ | *č /t͡ʃ/ | |||||
| aspirated | *cʰ /t͡sʰ/ | *čʰ /t͡ʃʰ/ | ||||||
| glottalized | *cʼ /t͡sʼ/ | *čʼ /t͡ʃʼ/ | ||||||
| Fricative | *s | *ɬ1 | *š /ʃ/ | *h | ||||
| Nasal | plain | *m | *n | |||||
| glottalized | *mʼ | *nʼ | ||||||
| Liquid | plain | *r | *l | |||||
| glottalized | *rʼ | *lʼ | ||||||
| Semivowel | plain | *y /j/ | *w | |||||
| glottalized | *yʼ /jʼ/ | *wʼ | ||||||
- 1 The identity of this consonant is not entirely certain; in Proto-Algonquian, it is sometimes alternatively reconstructed as *θ /θ/.
It is unknown if *č /tʃ/ was an independent phoneme or only an allophone of *c and/or *t in Proto-Algic (as in Proto-Algonquian). In 1992, Paul Proulx theorized that Proto-Algic also possessed a phoneme *gʷ, which became *w in Proto-Algonquian and g in Wiyot and Yurok.
All stops and affricates in the above chart have aspirated counterparts, and all consonants, except fricatives, have glottalized ones. Proto-Algonquian significantly reduced this system by eliminating all glottalized and aspirated phonemes.[7]
See also
References
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