Proto-Central Pacific language

Proto-Central Pacific (abbreviated as PCP) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Central Pacific languages. It belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian languages.

Proto-Central Pacific
PCP
Reconstruction of	Central Pacific languages
Region	Fiji
Reconstructed ancestors	Proto-Austronesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Oceanic
Lower-order reconstructions	Proto-Polynesian

It was first proposed by George W. Grace in 1959,^[1] who also named the subgroup in 1967.^[2] It was reconstructed by C.F. Hockett in 1976.^[3]

Descendants

Proto-Central Pacific, originally spoken by Lapita settlers in Fiji three millennia ago, separated into a dialect network, consisting of what would become a western dialect (ancestral to Rotuman and western Fijian dialects) and an eastern dialect (ancestral to eastern Fijian dialects and Proto-Polynesian). Later, the dialects that remained in Fiji converged back, eventually becoming more similar, leading to the present-day Fijian language.^[4]

Phonology

The phonology of Proto-Central Pacific, according to Geraghty (1986),^[5] are:

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelar	Glottal
Stop	prenasalized	*ᵐb ⟨*b⟩		*ⁿd ⟨*d⟩, *ⁿdr ⟨*dr⟩		*ᵑg ⟨*q⟩
	voiceless	*p ⟨*p⟩	*t ⟨*t⟩			*k ⟨*k⟩	*kʷ ⟨*kw⟩	*ʔ
Nasal		*m ⟨*m⟩	*n ⟨*n⟩		*ɲ ⟨*ñ⟩	*ŋ ⟨*g⟩	*ŋʷ ⟨*gw⟩
Fricative		*β ⟨*v⟩	*ð ⟨*c⟩	*s ⟨*s⟩	*ɟ ⟨*z⟩	*x ⟨*x⟩
Affricate					*t͡ʃ ⟨*j⟩
Approximant				*l ⟨*l⟩, *r ⟨*r⟩	*j ⟨*y⟩		*w ⟨*w⟩

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	*i ⟨*i⟩, *iː ⟨*ī⟩	*u ⟨*u⟩, *uː ⟨*ū⟩
Close-mid	*e ⟨*e⟩, *eː ⟨*ē⟩	*o ⟨*o⟩, *oː ⟨*ō⟩
Open	*a ⟨*a⟩, *aː ⟨*ā⟩

The orthography used is similar to that of Fijian.

Example sentence

From Kikusawa (2000, 167)^[6]

*Na=ᵑgu

PST=1SG.GEN

tirovi=a

see=3SG

i

PRS

aku

1SG

(ʔi

LOC

na

DET

vale).

house

*Na=ᵑgu tirovi=a i aku (ʔi na vale).

PST=1SG.GEN see=3SG PRS 1SG LOC DET house

'I saw him (in the house).'

References

1. Grace, George W. (1959), "The position of the Polynesian languages within the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family", Memoir 16
2. Grace, George W. (1967), The effect of heterogeneity in the lexicostatistical test list: the case of Rotuman
3. Hockett, C.F. (May 1976), "The Reconstruction of Proto-Central Pacific", Anthropological Linguistics, 18 (5): 187–235
4. Geraghty, Paul (1996), "Some Problems with Proto-Central Pacific", Oceanic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Oceanic Linguistics: 83–91
5. Geraghty, Paul (1986), "The sound system of Proto-Central Pacific", Focal II: Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics: 289–312
6. Kikusawa, Ritsuko (2000), Reconstructing the actancy systems of Proto-Central Pacific and its daughter languages: ergativity, accusativity and their diachronic development