Bźatga/History

History

• Monophthongisation of diphthongs
  • ai > ɛː; ei > eː; oi > oː; eu, ou > ɔː, au > aː
• Reduction of pretonic & final vowels
  • short vowels lowered
  • long vowels shortened
• Lenition of intervocalic stops, m & s
  • voiceless stops p, t, k > voiced b, d, g
  • voiced stops b, d, g > voiced fricatives v, ð (later z), ɣ
  • m > ṽ
  • s > h
• Compensatory Lengthening of vowels before nC
  • a > ā; e > ɛː; i > ī; o > ɔː; u > ū
  • the change indicates that short e was /ɛ/ and short o was /ɔ/. The short high vowels i and u may similarly have been lowered to /ɪ/ and /ʊ/.
• Diphthonisation before CC or C + back vowel/a
  • ɛː > ia
  • ē > ie
• Vocalisation of ɣ and -h-
  • ɣ > w after o(ː), ɔː, u(ː)
  • ɣ > j after other vowels
  • medial -h- (from s) becomes j before front vowels (i, e etc), w before u and is lost before a, o.
    • esa, eso > iːa, iːo
    • ese, esi > ɛːe, ɛːi
  • final -h- (from s) is lost
• Merger of v, ṽ and w
  • the quality of the new sound is unclear, but it is represented here by β
  • vocalisation of βC > uC
  • metathesis of Cβ as uC
• Metathesis of VrC > rVC
  • new mr- > br-, nr- > dr-
• Loss of vowel quantity
  • all long vowels become short, creating a 10 vowel system.
  • aː, ɛː, ɔː merge with their short counterparts, a, ɛ, ɔ
  • eː, oː create new short vowels e, o
  • iː, uː create new short vowels i, u alongside existing ɪ, ʊ
  • the new vowel system:

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i u ɪ ʊ e o ə ɛ ɔ a
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

• Merger of near-high vowels
  • ɪ > e and ʊ > o
  • the sequence ɪjV becomes ijV (later ia)
• Iotisation
  • semi-vowel j merges with adjacent consonant
  • tj, kj > ć; dj, gj > ģ; s > ś; z > ź; l > ĺ; n > ń; r > ŕ
  • does not affect bilabials p, b, m
  • βj remains word-initially but becomes j medially.
  • note that iotisation continues to work as a productive sound change.
• Merger of semivowels
  • sequences ij, ji, uv, vu merge into a single vowel i or u
  • iV > jV, causing iotisation to the preceding consonant
  • ovi > oi
• Syncope
  • intervocalic, internal vowels are lost except where this would cause an impossible consonant cluster.
• Palatalisation
  • consonants preceding i are palatalised
  • t, d > ts, dz
  • n, l, r > ń, ĺ, ŕ

Examples

Brythonic	wesanteinos	brigantiːnos
Monopthongisation	wesanteːnos	brigantiːnos
Vowel reduction	wesanteːnəs	brigantiːnəs
Lenition	wehanteːnəs	briɣantiːnəs
Comp. Lengthening	wehaːteːnəs	briɣaːtiːnəs
Diphthonisation	wehaːtienəs
Vocalisation of ɣ, h	wiːaːtienə	brijaːtiːnə
Merger of v, ṽ, w	βiːaːtienə
Methathesis of r
Loss of vowel quantity	βiatienə	brijatinə
Merger of high vowels
Iotisation	βiaćenə
Merger of semivowels	βjaćenə	bŕatinə
Syncope	βjaćnə	bŕatnə
Palatalisation
Bźatga	vjaćna	bźatna

Vowels

PC	Brythonic	+ Length	General	Initial	-w, -lC, -bC	-jC	j-	w-
a	a	a	a	a	au	aCʲ	ja	va
ā
ā	ā	ā
au
ai	ɛː	ia1 ɛː2	ʲa	ja	jau	eCʲ	je	vja
e	e	e	e	ve
e
ei	ē	ie1 ē2	ʲe	je	ʲeu	iCʲ	vje
ê	eu	i	vê
i	i	i
ī	i	i	ju	vi
ī	ī
o	o	o	o	o	ou	oCʲ	jo	vo
ɔː
eu	ɔː	ɔː
ou
oi	ō	ō	ô	vo	uCʲ	jô	vô
u	u	u
ū	u	u	u	ju	u
ū	ū	u

1. before a back vowel in next syllable
2. before a front vowel in next syllable

Consonants

PC	Initial	+j	+i	Medial	+j	+i	Geminate
p (kʷ)	p	pj		b	bj		p
t	t	ć	ŝ	d	ģ	ẑ	t
k	c	ć		g	ģ		c
b (gʷ)	b	bj		v	j		b
d	d	ģ	ẑ	z	ź		d
g	g	ģ		j/v	j		g
m	m	mj		v	j		m
n	n	ń	ń	n	ń	ń	n
l	l	ĺ	ĺ	l	ĺ	ĺ	l
r	r	ź	ź	r	ź / ŕ	ź / ŕ	r
s	s	ś	ś	-	j		s
j	j-, -
w	v, -		v	j

Consonant Clusters

	Inital	Medial
tl	ĺ	zl
tn		zn
tr	tr	dr
tri, trj	ć	ģ
kl	ĺ	ĺ
kn	ń	ń
kr	cr	gr
ks		ś
kt		ć
dl	ĺ	zl
dm		zv
dn		zn
dr	dr	zr
gl	ĺ	ĺ
gn	ń	ń
gr	gr	ź
lp, lt, lk		up, ut, uc
lb, ld, lg		v, l, v
mp, nt, nk	~p, ~t, ~k
mb, nd, ng	~b, ~d, ~g
rp, rt, rk	rVp, rVt, rVk
rb, rd, rg	rVv, rVz, rVv
sɸ, sw	zv	v
st	śt	s
sti, stj	ść	ś
stl, str	sl, sr	sl, sr
sk	śc	śc
ski, skj	ść	ść
skl, skr	sl, sr	sl, sr
sm, sn	zn	_m, _n
smi, sni	źńi
sl, sr	zl, zr	_l, _r
sli, sri	źĺi, źi