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Proto-Italic

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Development

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A list of regular phonetic changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Italic follows. Because Latin is the only well-attested Italic language, it forms the main source for the reconstruction of Proto-Italic. It is therefore not always clear whether certain changes apply to all of Italic (a pre-PI change), or only to Latin (a post-PI change), because of lack of conclusive evidence.

Obstruents

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  • Palatovelars merged with plain velars, a change termed centumization.
    • *ḱ > *k
    • *ǵ > *g
    • *ǵʰ > *gʰ
    • Sequences of palatovelars and *w merged with labiovelars: *ḱw, *ǵw, *ǵʰw > *kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ
  • *p...kʷ > *kʷ...kʷ, a change also found in Celtic.
  • Labiovelars lose their labialisation before a consonant: *kʷC, *gʷC, *gʷʰC > *kC, *gC, *gʰC.
  • Obstruent consonants become (unaspirated) voiceless before another voiceless consonant (usually *s or *t).
  • Voiced aspirates become fricatives. Word-initially, they become voiceless, while they are allophonically voiced word-medially. Judging from Oscan evidence, they apparently remained fricatives even after a nasal consonant. In most other Italic languages they developed into stops later in that position.
    • *bʰ > *f (medially *β)[1]
    • *dʰ > *θ (medially *ð)[1]
    • *gʰ > *x (medially *ɣ)[1]
    • *gʷʰ > *xʷ (medially *ɣʷ)[1]
  • *s was also allophonically voiced to *z word-medially.[2][3]
  • *sr, *zr > *θr, *ðr.[clarification needed]
  • *θ, *xʷ > *f. Also found in Venetic vhagsto/hvagsto (compare Latin faciō).[1] The voiced allophones *ð and *ɣʷ remained distinct from *β in Latin and Venetic, but merged in Osco-Umbrian.[4]
  • Final *t became *d [5][6]
  • gy>yy. Latin aiō (I say so), Umbrian aiu from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-ye/o-[6]

Vowels and sonorants

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  • *l̥, *r̥ > *ol, *or [7][6]
  • *m̥, *n̥ > *əm, *ən (see below on "Vowels") [3]
  • *j is lost between vowels. The resulting vowels in hiatus contract into a long vowel if the two vowels are the same.[3]
  • *ew > *ow.[7][8]
  • *o > *a before labials and *l.
  • *-mj- > -*nj- [9]
  • *uHy > *iHy [6]

Laryngeals

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The laryngeals are a class of hypothetical PIE sounds *h₁, *h₂, *h₃ that usually disappeared in late PIE, leaving coloring effects on adjacent vowels. Their disappearance left some distinctive sound combinations in Proto-Italic. In the changes below, the # follows standard practice in denoting a word boundary; that is, # at the beginning denotes word-initial.[10] H denotes any of the three laryngeals.

The simpler Italic developments of laryngeals are shared by many other Indo-European branches:

  • *h₁e > *e, *h₂e > *a, *h₃e > *o [3]
  • *eh₁ > *ē, *eh₂ > *ā, *eh₃ > *ō [8]
  • *H > *a between obstruents. [8]
  • Laryngeals are lost word-initially before a consonant.
  • VH> V

More characteristic of Italic are the interactions of laryngeals with sonorant consonants. Here, R represents a sonorant, and C a consonant.

  • #HRC > #aRC and CHRC > CaRC, but #HRV > #RV [8]
  • CRHC > CRāC, but CRHV > CaRV [8]
  • CiHC and probably CHiC > CīC [8]
  • CuHC > CūC [8]

Morphology

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  • General loss of the dual, with only a few relics remaining.[11][12]
  • Loss of the instrumental case.[11][12]

Post-italic developments

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Latino-Faliscan

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  • Proto-Italic *əm, *ən became en and em,[14]
  • e>o before l-pinguis [15]

Latin

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Main page: User:Ioe_bidome/sandbox § three

Faliscan

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Osco-umbrian

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Oscan and Umbrian are closely related languages, and thus share some changes.

Labialization
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Proto italic gʷ, gʷ became b, p in Osco-Umbrian, reminiscent of the k/p split between Goidelic (Irish, etc) and Cymric (Welsh, etc). piře, pirse "what"; Oscan pídum vs Latin quid.[16][17]

Initial stress and syncope
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At some point early in the history of all Indo-European Italic languages, the accent seems to have shifted to the initial syllable of words as a stress accent, since non-initial syllables are regularly lost or weakened. Since the same pattern occurs in the history of Etruscan, this must be assumed to be an areal feature. (By the time of classical Latin, the accent had shifted in that language to more of an Ancient Greek pattern--on the third syllable from the end (antepenult) unless the last syllable was long, in which case it fell on the second to last syllable (the penult).) [18] The degree to which these shifts can be connected to similar shifts to initial stress in Celtic and Germanic is unclear; for discussion see J. Salmons' Accentual Change and Language Contact. [19]

Examples: Loss of unstressed short -e-: *onse "shoulder" < *omesei, compare Latin umerus; destre "on the right" < *deksiterer; ostendu "present" (imperative) < *obs-tendetōd, compare Latin ostendito.[20]

fricatives
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/ɣʷ/, /ð/, and /β/ all became /f/ (probably [v].[21]

Oscan

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Vowels

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Vowels are regularly lengthened before ns and nct (in the latter of which the n is lost) and possibly before nf and nx as well[22] Anaptyxis, the development of a vowel between a liquid or nasal and another consonant, preceding or following, occurs frequently in Oscan; if the other (non-liquid/nasal) consonant precedes, the new vowel is the same as the preceding vowel. If the other consonant follows, the new vowel is the same as the following vowel.[23]

Short a remains in most positions.[24][17] Long ā remains in an initial or medial position. Final ā starts to sound similar to [ɔː] so that it is written ú or, rarely, u.[25][17]

Short e "generally remains unchanged;" before a labial in a medial syllable, it becomes u or i, and before another vowel, e raises to higher-mid [ẹ], written í.[26][17] Long ē similarly raises to higher-mid [ẹ], the sound of written í or íí.[27][17]

Short i becomes written í.[28][17] Long ī is spelt with i but where written with doubling it is as ií. This may have been something like /i:e/, but it was probably spelled differently to avoid conflict with íí. [29][17]

Short o remains mostly unchanged, written ú;[30][17] before a final -m, o becomes more like u.[31] Long ō becomes denoted by u or uu.[32][17]

Short u generally remains unchanged; after t, d, n, the sound becomes that of iu.[33][17] Long ū generally remains unchanged; it changed to an ī sound in monosyllables, and may have changed to an ī sound for final syllables.[34][17]

The sounds of diphthongs remain unchanged.[35]

Consonants

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In Oscan, s between vowels did not undergo rhotacism as it did in Latin and Umbrian; but it was voiced, becoming the sound /z/. However, between vowels, the original cluster rs developed either to a simple r with lengthening on the preceding vowel, or to a long rr (as in Latin), and at the end of a word, original rs becomes r just as in Latin. Unlike in Latin, the s is not dropped, either Oscan or Umbrian, from the consonant clusters sm, sn, sl: Umbrian `sesna "dinner," Oscan kersnu vs Latin cēna.[36]

Proto-Italic kt and pt became xt and ft[17]

Umbrian

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Compared to its highly conservative sister language Oscan, Umbrian exhibits a number of innovations, some of them shared by its neighbor to the west, Latin. (Below, following convention, bold text for Umbrian and Oscan indicates words written in the native, Etruscan derived script, while italics represents words written in Latin-derived script.)

Treatment of original diphthongs
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All diphthongs are simplified (a process only partly seen in Latin, and only very rarely in Oscan). So Proto-Italic *ai and *ei become Umbrian low ē: kvestur : Oscan kvaísstur, Latin quaestor 'official in charge of public revenue and expenditure'; prever 'single' : Oscan preivatud, Latin prīvus; furthermore, Proto-Italic *oi, *ou and *au become ō (written u in the native script) in initial syllables: unu 'one' : Old Latin oinus; ute 'or' : Oscan auti, Latin aut; tuta 'city' : Oscan touto.[34]

Palatalization of velars
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Velars are palatalized and spirantized before front vowels and the front glide /j/ to probably a palatalized sibilant (perhaps the postalveolar /ʃ/), written ç, ś or simply s. (A similar change happened later in most Romance languages.) For example: Umbrian śesna 'dinner' : Oscan kersnu, Latin cēna; Umbrian façiu 'I do, I make' : Latin faciō. [37]

Rhotacism
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Like Latin, but unlike Oscan, intervocalic -s- rhotacized to -r- in Umbrian. In late forms of the language, final -s also becomes -r (a change not seen in Latin). For example, the genitive plural ending of -ā stems: Umbrian -arum, Latin -arum vs Oscan -asúm (compare Sanskrit -āsām). [38]

Treatment of *d and *t
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Original word final *t merges with final *d. Final t from apocope is not affected.[39] While initial *d- is preserved (spelled t in the native alphabet), earlier intervocalic *-d- (and sometimes *-l-) show up in the native alphabet as a character generally transliterated as ř, but as the sequence rs in Umbrian texts using the Latin alphabet. The exact pronunciation is unknown: piře, pirse "what" vs. Oscan pídum, Latin quid.[40] Final d is dropped: Umbrian dede vs Oscan deded vs Latin dedit (inflection of dō "give")[41]

Vowels
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Proto-italic *ū became /i/, sim (accusative singular) <PI *sūm "pig" [42]

Verbs

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Proto-Italic

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  • The Proto-Indo-European injunctive disappeared. Its functions were taken by the optative and present indicative.[43]
  • The indicative lost final /i/ (final /t/ had become /d/ earlier so secondary endings remained separate).[44]
  • The augment was lost.[45]

Latin-faliscan

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Osco-Umbrian

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  • The subjunctive was lost "completely".[46]

Oscan

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Umbrian

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Nominals

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Proto-Italic

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  • The Instrumental case merges into the ablative case. [47]
  • General loss of the dual, with only a few relics remaining.[11]
  • Loss of the instrumental case.[11]

Latin-faliscan

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  • Genitive singular *-osjo, still attested in the Lapis Satricanus as popliosio valesiosio, is replaced by -ī
  • The locative merges into the ablative. It survives in a few adverbs.[47]

Osco-Umbrian

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Oscan

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Umbrian

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Faliscan Grammar

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Nominals

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Nouns

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First declension paradigm[48]
Singular Plural
Nominative -a or -ā -ai
Vocative
Accusative -ām -ās
Genitive -as or -ai -āsom
Dative -ai ?
Ablative -ā(d) ?

Notes:

  • Ablative singular /-ād/ would have been remodeled on second declension /-ōd/.[49] The final /d/ would later have been lost, giving the form /-ā/.[49]
  • Old nominative plural /-ās/ would have been replaced by /-ai/ in proto-Latin.[49]
Second declension paradigm[50]
Singular Plural
Masculine Neuter Masculine Neuter
Nominative -os -om -e /ẹ̄/ -a
Vocative -e
Accusative -om -ōs
Genitive - -om
Dative -oi -īs
Ablative -ōd ?
Locative Gen. Dat.

Notes:

  • Old proto-italic nominative plural/-ōs/ was replaced with /-oi/ in proto-Italic. This /oi/ later became /-ī/ in latin and -e in Faliscan.[51]

Pronouns

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The attested pronouns are:

  • Personal pronouns:
    • First person singular nominative: eqo/eco/eko /egō/[52]
    • First person singular accusative: med /mēd/ or met /mēt/[53]
    • Second person singular nominative: ues [54]

Demonstrative pronouns are indirectly preserved in the forms hec/fec "here", from locative /hei-ke/, and hoied/foied from either fossilized ablative/hōd diēd/ or compound /hodiēd.[55]

Verbs

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The imperfect, pluperfect, and future perfect tenses and passive voice are not attested.[56] Moods other than the indicative are only attested in early Faliscan.[56] Secondary endings are attested for early Faliscan only.[57]

Indicative mood
Singular Plural
First person Second person Third person First person Second person Third person
Present primary[a] -o /-ō/[58]; -m[b][58] -t[58] -nt[58]
Present secondary[c][d] unattested -s[57] -d[57] unattested -te[57] -(n)d[57]
Imperative[c] n/a unattested n/a -te[57] unattested
Future Imperative[c] n/a -tod /-tōd/[59] unattested n/a -tod /-tōd/[59] unattested
Perfect -ai[60] unattested -ed; -et /ẹ̄t/[60] unattested -o-nd[60]
Future[e] -fō[61] unattested unattested
  1. ^ Attested in middle and late Faliscan only
  2. ^ Athematic ending
  3. ^ a b c Attested in early Faliscan only
  4. ^ Attested as a subjunctive only
  5. ^ Attested in middle Faliscan only

Notes

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references

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  1. ^ a b c d e Meiser 2017, p. 744.
  2. ^ a b Silvestri 1998, p. 326.
  3. ^ a b c d Meiser 2017, p. 747.
  4. ^ Meiser 2017, p. 744, 745.
  5. ^ Sihler 1995, p. 228.
  6. ^ a b c d Meiser 2017, p. 745.
  7. ^ a b Silvestri 1998, p. 325.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Meiser 2017, p. 746.
  9. ^ Sihler 1995, pp. 205–206.
  10. ^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 58–61.
  11. ^ a b c d Silvestri 1998, p. 332.
  12. ^ a b Meiser 2017, p. 752.
  13. ^ Meiser 2017, p. 748.
  14. ^ Bakkum 2009, p. 70.
  15. ^ Bakkum 2009, p. 76.
  16. ^ Poultney 1959, p. 65.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Meiser 2017, p. 749.
  18. ^ Buck 1904, p. 101.
  19. ^ Salmons, Joseph (1992), Accentual Change and Language Contact, Stanford University Press
  20. ^ Poultney 1959, p. 45.
  21. ^ Meiser 2017, p. 744-745.
  22. ^ Buck 1904, p. 47.
  23. ^ Buck 1904, p. 50.
  24. ^ Buck 1904, pp. 29–30.
  25. ^ Buck 1904, p. 30.
  26. ^ Buck 1904, p. 31-32.
  27. ^ Buck 1904, p. 33.
  28. ^ Buck 1904, p. 34.
  29. ^ Buck 1904, pp. 35–6 "This spelling ií may possibly indicate a nuance of pronunciation something like īe, but more probably it is purely a matter of orthography, ii being avoided on account of its other uses."
  30. ^ Buck 1904, p. 36.
  31. ^ Buck 1904, p. 37.
  32. ^ Buck 1904, p. 38.
  33. ^ Buck 1904, p. 40.
  34. ^ a b Buck 1904, p. 41.
  35. ^ Buck 1904, p. 18.
  36. ^ Buck 1904, p. 73-76.
  37. ^ Buck 1904, pp. 89–91.
  38. ^ Buck 1904, p. 74.
  39. ^ Buck 1904, p. 80.
  40. ^ Buck 1904, p. 82.
  41. ^ Buck 1904, p. 84.
  42. ^ sihler 1995, p. 48.
  43. ^ Rix 2002, p. 2.
  44. ^ Rix 2002, pp. 2–3.
  45. ^ Rix 2002, p. 3.
  46. ^ Rix 2002, p. 12.
  47. ^ a b Sihler 1995, pp. 252–253.
  48. ^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 118–124.
  49. ^ a b c Bakkum 2009, p. 124.
  50. ^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 124–38.
  51. ^ Bakkum 2009, p. 128.
  52. ^ Bakkum 2009, p. 148, 184.
  53. ^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 148–50, 190–1.
  54. ^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 150–151.
  55. ^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 151–152.
  56. ^ a b Bakkum 2009, p. 156.
  57. ^ a b c d e f Bakkum 2009, p. 158.
  58. ^ a b c d Bakkum 2009, pp. 157–8.
  59. ^ a b Bakkum 2009, p. 159.
  60. ^ a b c Bakkum 2009, pp. 159–161.
  61. ^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 157.

sources

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  • Sihler, Andrew L. (1995), New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508345-8
  • Bakkum, Gabriël C.L.M. (2009), The Latin Dialect of the Ager Faliscus: 150 Years of Scholarship:Part I, Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, ISBN 978-90-5629-562-2
  • Bossong, Georg (2017). "The Evolution of Italic". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 2. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1.
  • Meiser, Gerhard (2017). "The Phonology of Italic". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 2. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1.
  • Vine, Brent (2017). "The Morphology of Italic". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 2. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1.
  • de Vaan, Michiel (2008). Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages. Brill. ISBN 9789004167971.
  • Silvestri, Domenico (1998), "The Italic Languages", in Ramat, Anna Giacalone; Ramat, Paolo (eds.), The Indo-European languages, Taylor & Francis Group, pp. 322–344
  • Rix, Helmut (2002). "Towards a reconstruction of Proto-Italic" (PDF). Program in Indo-European Studies. UCLA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 November 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  • Buck, Carl Darling (1904). A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian: with a Collection of Inscriptions and a Glossary. Boston: Ginn & Company. OCLC 1045590290.
  • Jasanoff, Jay (2010). The Origin of the Latin Gerund and Gerundive: A New Proposal (PDF). UCLA. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  • Westin Tikkanen, Karin (2011). A Sabellian case grammar. Handbuch der italischen Dialekte. Heidelberg: Winter. ISBN 978-3-8253-5952-2.
  • Poultney, James Wilson (1959). The Bronze Tables of Iguvium. Baltimore: American Philological Association. ISBN 0891307451.
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