Proto-Romance language

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Proto-Romance is the comparatively reconstructed ancestor of all Romance languages. It reflects a late variety of spoken Latin prior to regional fragmentation.[1]

Phonology[]

Vowels[]

Monophthongs[]

Front Central Back
Close i u
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a
  • Vowels are lengthened allophonically in stressed open syllables.[2][i]
  • In unstressed position the open-mid vowels merge with their close-mid counterparts.[3]
  • In intertonic (unstressed word-internal) position, close vowels merge with their near-close counterparts.[4]
  • /i u/ become [j w] between a consonant and following vowel. [j] then triggers palatalization.[5]

Diphthong[]

The only phonemic diphthong in Proto-Romance is /au̯/; it can be found in both stressed and unstressed position.[6]

Consonants[]

Labial Coronal Velar Palatal
Nasal m n
Occlusive p b t d k g j
Fricative f β s
Labialized kʷ
Vibrant r
Lateral l
  • The sequence /gn/ was realized as [ɣn].[7]
  • When palatalized /t k n l/ become [tsʲ c ɲ ʎ].[8]
  • Intervocalic [c ɲ ʎ] regularly geminate.[9] [tsʲ] does so irregularly.[10]
  • /j/ is realized as perhaps [ɟ] word-initially and [ɟ] or [ʝ~ɟɟ] intervocalically.[11]
  • Intervocalic /-di-/ and /-gi-/ do not occur, having previously merged with /j/.[12]
  • /kʷ/ does not occur before back vowels, having previously delabialized to /k/.[13]
  • Word-initial /sC/ undergoes prothesis, as in /stáre/ [ɪstáːɾe], unless preceded by a vowel.[14]
  • Some evidence suggests a bilabial /ɸ/, but most scholars prefer to reconstruct a labiodental /f/.[15]
  • /b d g/ possibly have the fricative realizations [β ð ɣ] in intervocalic position and after /r/ or /l/.[16]
  • /ll/ possibly has a retroflex realization, i.e. [ɭɭ].[17][ii]
  • /s/ possibly has a retracted realization, i.e. [s̠].[18]

Morphology[]

Nouns[]

Proto-Romance nouns have three cases: a nominative, an accusative, and a combined genitive-dative.[19][iii]

Class I II III m. III f.
Number sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl.
Nominative kápra kápras kaβállʊs kaβálli páter pátres~pátri máter mátres
Accusative kaβállu kaβállos pátre pátres
Gen-Dat. kápre kápris kaβállo kaβállis pátri pátris mátri mátris
Translation goat horse father mother

Several Class III nouns have inflexions that differ by syllable count or stress position.[20]

Number singular
Nominative ɔ́mo pástor sɔ́ror
Accusative ɔ́mɪne pastóre soróre
Gen-Dat. ɔ́mɪni pastóri soróri
Translation man pastor sister

Some nouns are pluralized with -a or -ora, these having originally been neuter in Classical Latin. Though their singular is grammatically masculine, their plural is treated as feminine.[21]

Class II III
Number sg. pl. sg. pl.
Nominative brákju brákja tɛ́mpʊs tɛ́mpora
Accusative
Gen-Dat. brákjo brákjis tɛ́mpori tɛ́mporis
Translation arm time

Such nouns, due to their plurals, are often reanalyzed as collective feminine nouns.[22]

Number sg. pl. sg. pl.
Original noun fɔ́lju fɔ́lja lɪ́gnu lɪ́gna
Fem. variant fɔ́lja fɔ́ljas lɪ́gna lɪ́gnas
Translation leaf firewood

Adjectives[]

Positive[]

The inflexions are broadly similar to those of nouns.[23]

Class I/II III
Gender m. f. m. f.
Number sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl.
Nominative bɔ́nʊs bɔ́ni bɔ́na bɔ́nas βɪ́rdɪs βɪ́rdes~βɪ́rdi βɪ́rdɪs βɪ́rdes
Accusative bɔ́nu bɔ́nos βɪ́rde βɪ́rdes βɪ́rde
Gen-Dat. bɔ́no bɔ́nis bɔ́ne bɔ́nis βɪ́rdi βɪ́rdis βɪ́rdi βɪ́rdis
Translation good green

Comparative[]

Proto-Romance has inherited the comparative suffix -jor from Latin, but it only uses it for a limited number of adjectives.[24][iv]

Number singular
Gender m./f. neut.
Nominative mɛ́ljor mɛ́ljʊs
Accusative meljóre
Translation better

Otherwise, the typical way to form a comparative is to add either plus or mais (meaning 'more') to a positive adjective.[25]

Superlative[]

With the exception of a few fossilized forms such as pɛ́ssɪmʊs, meaning 'worst', superlatives are formed by the addition of an intensifying adverb or prefix (mʊ́ltu, bɛ́ne, per-, tras-, etc.) to a positive adjective. Comparative forms may also be made superlative by the addition of a demonstrative adjective.[26]

Possessive[]

Shown here in the feminine singular. Many of these have 'weak' atonic variants.[27]

1st person 2nd person 3rd person Interrogative
singular mɛ́a~ma tʊ́a~ta sʊ́a~sa kʊ́ja
plural nɔ́stra βɔ́stra

Pronouns[]

Personal[]

There appear to be considerable variations in inflexion.[28]

Person I II III f. III m.
Number sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl.
Nominative ɛ́go nós tú βós ɪlla ɪllas ɪlle~ɪlli
Accusative mé~méne té~téne ɪllu ɪllos
Gen-Dat. mí~mɪ́βɪ nóβɪs tí~tɪ́βɪ βóβɪs ɪlli~ɪllɛ́i ɪllis~ɪllóru ɪlli~ɪllúi ɪllis~ɪllóru

Relative[]

No singular-plural distinction appears to exist.[29]

Gender m./f. neut.
Nominative kʷí kɔ́d
Accusative kʷɛ́n
Gen-Dat. kúi

The interrogative pronouns are the same, except that the neuter nominative and accusative form is /kʷɪ́d/.

Verbs[]

Proto Romance verbs belong to three main classes, each of which is characterized by a different thematic vowel. Their conjugations are built on three stems and involve various combinations of mood, aspect, and tense.[30]

Present indicative[]

The paradigm is approximately as follows.[31][v]

Verb class 1st person 2nd person 3rd person Translation
sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl.
I kánto kantámʊs kántas kantátɪs kántat kántant sing
II dɔ́rmo~dɔ́rmjo dormímʊs dɔ́rmɪs dɔrmítɪs dɔ́rmɪt dɔ́rmʊnt~dɔ́rment sleep
III.a βɪ́jo βɪdémʊs βɪ́des βɪdétɪs βɪ́det βɪ́jʊnt~βɪ́dʊnt~βɪ́dent see
III.b βɛ́ndo βɛ́ndɪmʊs βɛ́ndɪs βɛ́ndɪtɪs βɛ́ndɪt βɛ́ndʊnt~βɛ́ndent sell
Irregular sʊ́n sʊ́mʊs~sémʊs ɛ́s ɛ́stɪs~sétɪs~sʊ́tɪs ɛ́st sʊ́nt be
áβjo~ájo aβémʊs áes~ás aβétɪs áet~át áu̯nt~áent~ánt have
dáo dámʊs dás dátɪs dát dáu̯nt~dáent~dánt give
βádo~βáo ímʊs[32] βáɪs~βás ítɪs[32] βáɪt~βát βáu̯nt~βáent~βánt go

Participles[]

Present participles have an active sense and inflect like class III adjectives, while past participles have a passive sense and inflect like class I/II adjectives.[33]

Class Present Translation Perfect Translation
I amánte adoring amáta adored
II finɛ́nte finishing finíta finished
III aβɛ́nte having aβúta had

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Lengthened /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are possibly realized as [eɛ] and [oɔ] if the following syllable contains a high vowel such as [i] or [u] (Ferguson 1976: §7).
  2. ^ For a discussion on outcomes of /ll/ in Romance, refer to Zampaulo (2019: 71–77).
  3. ^ De Dardel & Gaeng (1992: 104) differ from Lausberg (1973) on the following points: 1) they believe that the gen-dat. case was limited to animate nouns, 2) they reconstruct a universal gen-dat. plural ending -óru, 3) they reconstruct a class I nominative feminine plural -e (albeit in competition with -as, cf. De Dardel & Wüest 1993: 57). They are in agreement with Lausberg regarding the remaining inflexions.
  4. ^ All comparatives inflected the same way. Further examples are pɛ́jor, májor, mɪ́nor, fɔ́rtjor, and gɛ́ntjor; meaning 'worse', 'greater', 'lesser', 'stronger', and 'nobler' (Hall 1983: 32, 120).
  5. ^ Since Van Den Bussche does not mention essere 'to be' in his critique of Hall (1983), the conjugations shown below for that verb have been copied over unchanged from the latter.

    He leaves blank the 1.PL and 2.PL conjugations of vadere 'go' because there was suppletion with forms of ire, as shown more explicitly by Maiden (1995).

References[]

  1. ^ Dworkin 2016: 13
  2. ^ Loporcaro 2015; Leppänen & Alho 2018
  3. ^ Ferguson 1976: 78; Gouvert 2015: 73–76
  4. ^ Gouvert 2015: 78–81
  5. ^ Lausberg 1970: §251; Gouvert 2015: 83
  6. ^ Ferguson 1976: 84
  7. ^ Chambon 2013
  8. ^ Gouvert 2015: 86, 92, 111, 115; Zampaulo 2019: 97–98
  9. ^ Lausberg 1970: §§463–464, 468–469; Gouvert 2015: 95, 111, 115
  10. ^ Lausberg 1970: §454; Wilkinson 1976: 11–14
  11. ^ Gouvert 2015: 83–91; Zampaulo 2019: 83–88
  12. ^ Gouvert 2015: 43; Zampaulo 2019: 87
  13. ^ Grandgent 1907: §254; Lausberg 1970: §344
  14. ^ Lloyd 1987: 148–150; Gouvert 2015: 125–126
  15. ^ Lloyd 1987: 80; Gouvert 2016: 28
  16. ^ Gouvert 2016: 48
  17. ^ Gouvert 2015: 15
  18. ^ Lloyd 1987: 80–81; Zampaulo 2019: 93
  19. ^ Lausberg 1973: 29, 32, 66–67
  20. ^ Lausberg 1973: 69, 74, 78; Hall 1983: 28
  21. ^ Lausberg 1973: 47; Hall 1983: 23–4, 29–30
  22. ^ Alkire & Rosen 2010: 193–194
  23. ^ Lausberg 1973: 108–109, 119-122
  24. ^ Lausberg 1983: 129–131; Maltby 2016: 340
  25. ^ Lausberg 1973: 126–127; Maltby 2016: 340–346
  26. ^ Lausberg 1973: §§686–687; Bauer 2016: 340, 359
  27. ^ Lausberg 1973: §§754–755; Lyons 1986: 20–24
  28. ^ Hall 1983: 39; De Dardel & Wüest 1993: 39–43, 57
  29. ^ Elcock 1960: 95–96
  30. ^ Hall 1983: 47–50
  31. ^ Van Den Bussche 1985: §§2.3–2.3.2
  32. ^ Jump up to: a b Maiden 1995: 135
  33. ^ Hall 1983: 122–3

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  • Alkire, Ti & Rosen, Carol (2010). Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press. ASIN B003VS0CSS.
  • Bauer, Brigitte (2016). "The development of the comparative in Latin texts". In Adams, J.N. & Vincent, Nigel (eds.). Early and Late Latin: Continuity or Change?. Cambridge University Press. pp. 313–339. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316450826.015. ISBN 9781316450826.
  • Chambon, Jean-Pierre. 2013. Notes sur un problème de la reconstruction phonétique et phonologique du protoroman: Le groupe */gn/. Bulletin de la Société de linguistique de Paris. CVIII, 273–282.
  • De Dardel, R. & Gaeng, P. A. (1992). "La declinaison nominale du latin non classique: Essai d'une methode de synthese". Probus (in French). 4 (2): 91–125. doi:10.1515/prbs.1992.4.2.91.
  • De Dardel, R. & Wüest, Jakob (1993). "Les systèmes casuels du protoroman: Les deux cycles de simplification". Vox Romanica (52): 25–65.
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  • Leppänen, V., & Alho, T. 2018. On the mergers of Latin close-mid vowels. Transactions of the Philological Society 116. 460–483.
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  • Van Den Bussche, H. (1985). "Proto-Romance Inflectional Morphology. Review of Proto-Romance Morphology by Robert Hall". Lingua. 66 (2–3): 225–260. doi:10.1016/S0024-3841(85)90336-5.
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