Proto-Dené-Caucasian language

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Proto-Dené-Caucasian is the reconstructed hypothetical common ancestor of the Basque, North Caucasian, Burushaski, Sino-Tibetan, Na-Dené and maybe also other languages. The Dené-Caucasian proto-language is reconstructed as having a rich consonantal inventory.

Contents 1 Consonants 2 Vowels 3 The Proto-Dené-Caucasian root 3.1 Root Structure 3.2 Prosodical features 4 Regular Correspondences 4.1 Suprasegmental 4.2 Segmental 4.2.1 Consonants 4.2.1.1 §1 Labials

[edit] Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar or dental		Alveolopalatal	Postalveolar	Velar		Uvular	Epiglottal	Glottal
			central	lateral			central	lateral
Plosives	aspirated¹	p /p/	t /t/				k /k/		q /q/	ʡ /ʡ/	ʔ /ʔ/
	ejective	ṗ /pʼ/	ṭ /tʼ/				ḳ /kʼ/		q̇ /qʼ/
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/				g /ɡ/		G /ɢ/
Affricates	voiceless		c /t͡s/	ƛ /t͡ɬ/	ć /t͡ɕ/	č /t͡ʃ/
	ejective		c̣ /t͡sʼ/	ƛ̣ /t͡ɬʼ/	ć̣ /tɕʼ/	č̣ /t͡ʃʼ/
	voiced		ʒ /d͡z/	Ł /d͡ɮ/	ʒ́ /d͡ʑ/	ǯ /d͡ʒ/
Fricatives	voiceless		s /s/	λ /ɬ/	ś /ɕ/	š /ʃ/	x /x/		χ /χ/	ħ /ʜ/	h /h/
	voiced		z [z]²	L [ɮ]²	ź [ʑ]²	ž [ʒ]²	γ [ɣ]²		ʁ /ʁ/²	ʕ /ʢ/	ɦ /ɦ/
Nasals		m /m/	n /n/		ń /nʲ/		ŋ /ŋ/
Trills			r /r/		ŕ /rʲ/
Approximants		w /w/		l /l/	j /j/			ɫ /ʟ/

• ¹ As in today's Caucasian languages, all plosives (except /ʡ/ and /ʔ/) were seemingly either voiced, ejective, or aspirated. Whether this was also the case for the affricates remains to be investigated. Because aspiration alone was not phonemic, it is not shown in the phonemic transcription of Proto-Dené-Caucasian, Caucasian languages, or Na-Dené languages in this article.
• ² These sounds were probably not separate phonemes, but allophones of their voiceless counterparts.

[edit] Vowels

The reconstruction of vowels is rather tentative. Long vowels, corresponding to the short ones, are also reconstructed, but it is as yet uncertain whether the distinction was phonological or not. It was, however, crucial for phonological developements in the daughter languages.

	Front	Central	Back
	unrounded		rounded
Close	i /i/	ɨ /ɨ/	u /u/
Mid	e /e/	ə /ə/	o /o/
Near-open	ä /æ/
Open	a /a/

[edit] The Proto-Dené-Caucasian root

[edit] Root Structure

The most basic root structure in Proto-Dené-Caucasian is reconstructed as follows:

• Nominal and verbal roots:
  
  • */C₁VC₂V/
    
  • */C₁VC₂VC₃V/
• Verbal and adjectival roots may be preceded by class prefixes and have the following structure (/=/ denotes the position of a class marker):
  
  • */=VC₁V/
    
  • */=VC₁VC₂/
    
• Pronominal roots may be monosyllabic:
  
  • */CV/

[edit] Prosodical features

The evidence from Sino-Tibetan, Yenisian and North Caucasian appears to support the existence of dynamic accent (marked with an acute above the vowel):

• Stress on the penultimate syllable:
  • */C₁V́C₂V/
    
  • */C₁VC₂V́C₃V/
    

• Stress on the final syllable:
  • */C₁VC₂V́/
    
  • */C₁VC₂VC₃V́/
    

[edit] Regular Correspondences

[edit] Suprasegmental

PDC	PNC	PY
CV́ːCVː	CːVːCːVː	CVːCVː
	CːVːCVː
	CVːCːVː
CV́ːCV	CːVːCːV	CVʔCV
	CːVːCV
	CVːCːV
CV́CVː	CːVCːVː	CVʔCVː
	CːVCVː
	CVCːVː
CV́CV	CːVCːV	CVʔCV
	CːVCV
	CVCːV
CVːCV́ː	CVːCVː	CVːCVː
CVːCV́	CVːCV	CVCV
CVCV́ː	CVCVː	CVCVː
CVCV́	CVCV	CVCV

...to be completed soon...

[edit] Segmental

[edit] Consonants

[edit] §1 Labials

PDC	Basque	Caucasian	Burushaski	Sino-Tibetan	Yeniseian
p	p	p	pʰ-	pʰ- / bʱ-	p
			p	-p
b	b	b	b	p- / b- / pʰ-	p
				-p
pʼ	b-	b-	p	p- / b-	b
	p	pʼ		-p