Proto-Algic language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Proto-Algic |
|
|---|---|
| PAc | |
| Reconstruction of | Algic languages |
| Region | Columbia Plateau? |
| Era | ca. 5000 BCE |
| Lower-order reconstructions | |
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. 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. Its main researcher was Paul Proulx.
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
Proto-Algic had the following consonants:
| labial | alveolar | alveolar affricate & sibilant |
postalveolar affricate/ palatal |
velar | labiovelar | glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stop / plosive | p | t | c /t͡s/ | č /t͡ʃ/ | k | kʷ | ʔ | |
| aspirated stop / plosive | pʰ | tʰ | cʰ /t͡sʰ/ | čʰ /t͡ʃʰ/ | kʰ | kʷʰ | ||
| glottalized stop / plosive | pʼ | tʼ | cʼ /t͡sʼ/ | čʼ /t͡ʃʼ/ | kʼ | kʼʷ | ||
| fricative | ɬ /ɬ/ 1 | s | š /ʃ/ | h | ||||
| nasal | m | n | ||||||
| glottalized nasal | mʼ | nʼ | ||||||
| lateral, rhotic | r, l | |||||||
| glottalized lateral, glottalized rhotic | rʼ, lʼ | |||||||
| semivowel | y /j/ | w | ||||||
| glottalized semivowel | yʼ /jʼ/ | w' | ||||||
- 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.
See also
