Old Valthungian

Old Valthungian
Walþungiskō Rasta
Pronunciation	[/ˈwal.ðʊŋ.gɪʃ.ka ˈras.ta]
Created by	BenJamin P. Johnson, creator of: Adzaac Brooding Dlatci Grayis Maltcégj Northeadish Valthungian Griutungi Old Valthungian Middle Valthungian
Date	2018
Setting	Northern Italy
Language family	Indo-European Germanic East Germanic Griutungi Old Valthungian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	qgt
BRCL	grey

Old Valthungian represents a period in the development of the Valthungian language lasting from around 800‒1200 a.d. marked mainly by changes to geminates and intervocalic consonants, as well as the introduction of Germanic ī/j-umlaut and some small but important changes to all of the vowels. Though this is a range which experienced many changes, the most representative example of “Old Valthungian” is the language as it is captured in a few surviving texts believed to date to around 950‒975 a.d.

Major Changes from Griutungi (and Earlier) to Old Valthungian

N.B.: This article uses a phonetic feature notation shorthand in which all described features are limited to three characters. Please refer to the legend here.

Variation and Expansion of East Germanic Glide Insertion

Glide Insertion in East Germanic developed differently in Gothic and Griutungi. In Gothic, it applied optionally between two consecutive vowels only after a stressed vowel when one of the vowels was /i(ː)/ (e.g. saian /sɛ̄an/ ‘to sow’ could have a third person singular of either saiiþ /sɛ̄iθ/ or saijiþ /sɛ̄jiθ/. In Griutungi, however, it applies to both front and back glide insertion (/j/ and /w/), is not optional, and applies to any consecutive vowels where one of the vowels is not +low, so both the infinitive and third person singular present indicative of ‘sew’ show glide insertion: sǣjan, sǣjiþ.

This rule remains persistent in the grammar of Griutungi through Old, Middle, and even Modern Valthungian, though the environment of the rule changes slightly as the language changes.

	Ø	→	j	/		V		___	+ V
						-bck
						-low

and

	Ø	→	w	/		V		___	+ V
						+bck
						-low

“A glide (j) is inserted between a non-low front vowel and a following vowel.”

“A glide (w) is inserted between a non-low back vowel and a following vowel.”

To describe it differently, a glide must be inserted between two consecutive vowels, the value of which (front or back) is determined by the value of the first vowel.

Germanic Obstruent Devoicing

Germanic Obstruent Devoicing is a rule inherited from Proto-Germanic which remains persistent in the grammar throughout the transition to East Germanic, Griutungi, Old, Middle, and modern Valthungian.

C

→

-vox

/

___ { # or

-vox

+vox

+obs

+ctn

“A voiced continuant obstruent (i.e. β, ð, or ɣ) becomes devoiced (f, θ, or x, respectively) when word-final or before an unvoiced consonant.”

E.g.:

• giban ‘to give’, but preterit singular gaf.
• rēdan ‘to talk’, but imperative rēþ.

Geminate Simplification I

Cː

→

C

/

___

{ C, #

“A geminate becomes a single consonant when it occurs before another consonant or a word boundary.”

E.g. swimman ‘to swim’, but preterit swam ‘I swam’, swamt ‘you swam’.

Spirantization of Fricatives

This is a change that had likely already started long before the division between Gothic and Griutungi, and probably happened similarly in Gothic as well. In the Griutungi lineage, it occurred in three distinct stages:

Stage I ( < 400 a.d.)

Intervocalic voiced fricatives (i.e. /b/, /d/, and /g/) became spirantized: /β/, /ð/, and /ɣ/. This likely happened quite early, perhaps already by Proto-Germanic times, and was clearly in operation in Gothic as well.

		C		→		+ctn		/	V ___ V
		+vox
		-ctn

“A voiced non-continuant (i.e. stop) consonant becomes continuant (i.e. fricative) when intervocalic.”

In more direct terms:

	b	→	β	/	any vowel } ___ { any vowel
	d	→	ð
	g	→	ɣ

E.g.:

P.Gmc.	Gothic	Griut.	O.Val.	M.Val.	Valth.
*hlaibai /xlɛːβɑi̯/	hlaiba /hlɛːβɑ/	*hlǣba /xlɛːβɑ/	hlaebva /xlɛːβɑ/	þlǣva /θle̞ːvɑ/	þlǣva /θle̞ːvɑ/	‘loaf.dat’
*mōdǣr /moːðɛːr/	*mōdar /moːðɑr/	mōdar /moːðɑr/	mouðar /mou̯ðɑr/	mouður /mɔu̯ðr̩/	mōðra /mau̯ðrɑ/	‘mother’
*ōganą /oːɣɑnɑ̃/	ōgan /oːɣɑn/	*ōgan /oːɣɑn/	*ougan /ou̯ɣɑn/	ougan /ɔu̯ɡn̩/	ōgna /au̯gnɑ/	‘to fear’

Stage II ( ~ 400 a.d.)

The same process occurred, but in Stage II the environment changes to include /l/ and /r/ before the stop and any sonorant (i.e. /l/, /r/, /m/, or /n/) after. This likely occurred before or during the time of Griutung proper, and may have happened in a similar environment in Gothic.

C

→

+ctn

/

+son

___

+son

+vox

-nas

-ctn

“A voiced non-continuant (i.e. stop) consonant becomes continuant (i.e. fricative) when preceded by a vowel or a liquid and followed by any sonorant (a vowel, a liquid, or a nasal).”

In more direct terms:

	b	→	β	/	V, l, r } ___ { V, l, r, m, n
	d	→	ð
	g	→	ɣ

Stage III ( ~ 500 a.d.)

In the final stage, which happened significantly after the earlier two (probably not before 900 a.d.), the unvoiced continuants /f/ and /θ/, became voiced in the same environment as stage II.

C

→

+vox

/

+son

___

+son

-vox

-nas

+ctn

(

-bck

)

“An unvoiced non-back continuant (i.e. fricative other than /h/) consonant becomes voiced when preceded by any non-nasal sonorant and followed by any' sonorant.”

In more direct terms:

	f	→	β	/	V, l, r } ___ { V, l, r, m, n
	þ	→	ð

Change of /fl/ to /θl/

This is an expansion of an earlier change in East Germanic in which /fl/ became /θl/ in certain questionable environments which may or may not have included back vowels and velar consonants (there are only a handful of attested words where this change appears in writings of the time). Shortly after the Griutungi split, all remaining word-initial instances of /fl/ became /θl/.

f

→

þ

/

# ___ l

“Word-initial f becomes þ before l.”

Voicing and Devoicing of Consonant Clusters

Voicing of Word-Final /s/ after a Voiced Consonant

Word-final /s/ was voiced after /b/, /d/, and /g/. (And thus I dispense with the mystery of what the phonetic and phonemic value of the /g/ of Gothic dags might have been!)

	s	→	z	/		C		___	#
						+vox
						-ctn

“Word-final s becomes voiced when following a voiced stop.”

In more direct terms:

s

→

z

/

b, d, g }

___

#

Devoicing of Word-Internal Obstruent Clusters

Word-internal obstruent clusters (specifically z followed by a voiced stop consonant) are devoiced.

	z		C		→		-vox		/	V ___ V
			+vox
			-ctn

“A cluster consisting of z followed by a voiced stop becomes unvoiced when intervocalic.”

In more direct terms:

	zb	→	sp	/	any vowel } ___ { any vowel
	zd	→	st
	zg	→	sk

E.g. razda ‘language’ → rasta, azgō ‘ashes’ → askō …aska.

Clisis and Lexicalization

Between 600 and 850 a.d., many word boundaries were blurred in the Old Valthungian language. Several clitics became particles, while other words became inseparable.

Lexicalization of East Germanic Clitics

Several clitics that were common in earlier East Germanic languages became lexicalized, usually optionally. Often, words commonly combined with the clitics existed in two forms, leading to sometimes dramatic sound changes later on, e.g. þōzī ‘they who’ (Gothic þōzei) became optionally þōzī or þōs ī, which after Umlaut became þø̄zī [θøːziː] and þōs ī [θou̯s iː], and eventually modern Valthungian þœ̄ži [θø̞ːʒi] and þōs ī [θau̯s iː].

 -ī# → #ī#
 -u- → #u#
 -uh# → #uh#
 -hun# → #hun#
 #ga- → #ga#

Cliticization of Prepositions, Particles, and Determiners

While these clitics were lexicalizing, other particles – mainly pronouns, prepositions, and determiners – were fusing. Particularly combinations of prepositions followed by articles or pronouns, and dative pronouns followed by accusative pronouns. (More about this later.)

Changes to Geminate Consonants

Between 500‒650 a.d. all of the geminate consonants inherited from Griutungi were condensed to a single consonant. This also put an end to a persistent rule inherited from Proto-Germanic whereby geminate consonants collapsed before and obstruent or a word-boundary, there being no more geminate consonants to encounter such an environment.

Changes to Geminate Obstruents

In geminate obstruents – that is, geminate stops and fricatives – the first obstruent of the pair is lenited to /h/. (Later, in a separate process of h-deletion, these are eliminated completely.)

		CC		→	hC
		-son

To put it more simply:

pp → hp
tt → ht
kk → hk
bb → hb
dd → hd
gg → hg*
ff → hf
þþ → hþ
ss → hs

Changes to Geminate Sonorants

In geminate sonorants – that is, geminate nasals and liquids – the first sonorant of the pair becomes -son, -vox and -ctn; that is, it is replaced by an unvoiced stop (in the same place of articulation).

Stage I

		CC		→		C		C
		+son				-son
						-vox
						-ctn

To put it more simply:

mm → pm
nn → tn
rr → tr
ll → tl

Stage II

Much later, perhaps as late as 750 or 800 a.d., pm shifts to tm, but only in words which had previously contained geminate mm

pm → tm

Vowel Changes

Lengthening of Word-Final Stressed Vowels

Vowel lengthening applies mainly to monosyllabic function words such as articles, pronouns, and prepositions.

		V		→		+lng		/	___ #
		+str
		-lng

“Stressed short vowels become long when word-final.”

E.g. bi, þu, sa → bī, þū, sā

Lengthening of /ij/

All instances of ij become lengthened. (More accurately, ij becomes ī, and then the persistent glide-insertion rule immediately restores j before a following vowel, but it's simpler to just say that ij becomes īj.)

i

→

ī

/

___ j

“Short i is lengthened before j.”

Reversal of High Diphthong Altitude Trajectory

The high rising diphthong iu becomes a falling diphthong and is reanalyzed as a glide.

iu

→

ju

Umlaut

Ī/J-Umlaut (hereafter referred to merely as “Umlaut,” as no other types of Umlaut occur in the diachrony of the Valthungian language) occurs fairly early in comparison to some of the other Germanic languages, though it has some particular quirks that other Germanic languages lacked.

		V		→		-bck		/	___	C…*{ī,j
		+str			*Where … can only cross one syllable boundary.
		+bck

“A stressed back vowel becomes fronted when ī or j occurs in the following syllable.”

This rule remains productive in the grammar at least through the change of iu to ju, because short i does not trigger umlaut. However, the vowel in ju from earlier iu is not subject to umlaut.

Change of Word-Initial /j/ to /g/

This is sometimes considered a part of Verschärfung, but I'm placing it here because it must necessarily occur contemporaneously with the iu → ju change above. More specifically, there are a small number of words which begin with the sequence ⟨jiu-⟩, and this sequence as a whole becomes ⟨gju-⟩.

j

→

g

/

# ___ iu

Rhotacism Launch

The phoneme /z/ begins the same process towards rhotacism seen in the other Germanic languages. This change occurs in all environments.

z

→

ʐ

Expansion of East Germanic Verschärfung

There are actually several changes which occurred at different time periods which have been assembled here under the banner of “Verschärfung”. All of these changes deal with the way glide consonants change in intervocalic environments between the Gothic and Old Valthungian Periods.

Change of /w/ to /wg/

	w	→	wg	/	V	___		V
								-str

Change of /j/ to /gj/

	j	→	gj	/	V	___		V
								-str

Change of /h/ to /gw/

	h	→	gw	/	V	___		V
								-str

Change of /hw/ to /gw/

(Much later...)

	hw	→	gw	/	a(ː)	___		V
								-str

Breaking of Long Diphthongs

The “long diphthongs” which can be the result of Verschärfung undergo breaking and the two vowels are separated by a glide: /w/ if the first vowel is +bck and /j/ if the first vowel is -bck.

V̄V

→

V̄

{ j,w }

V

Deletion of Final Unstressed /a/

Unstressed word-final a is deleted after m, n, and t; however, it is retained by analogy in inflections, such as the ending of the first person singular present indicative, or the dative singular of many masculine and neuter nouns. Ultimately, this mainly leads to the shortening of some prepositions and change of the neuter -ata ending to -at.

	a	→	Ø	/		C		or  t }	___ #
						+nas

“Unstressed a is deleted word-finally after a nasal consonant or t.”

Phonology of Old Valthungian ca. 950 a.d.

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