Valian/Etymologies

Here below are given the known etymologies for words in Proto-Tenarian, the reconstructed ancestor of Valian, Elasian, and Lillian. For forms no longer extant in Valian, examples are given from its direct ancestor Old Valian (OV.).

*-a: Va. -a "(OV.) genitive case suffix"; Elas. -o "genitive case suffix"

*-aʔiC: Va. -ä "pronominal genitive-dative case suffix"; Elas. -á "dative case suffix"

*aʔtsa: Va. aas "girl"; Elas. -áz "nouns denoting female referents"

*aʔra: Va. aars "large", Elas. -ár "animate augmentative suffix"

*eʔil: Va. eelas "strong", välya "noble"; El. Élász "wild, fierce".

*-äm(iC): Va. -ä(mmi) "(OV.) instrumental case suffix"; Elas. -em "instrumental case suffix"

*kaʔlʲaśa: Va. kaalas "party, celebration"; Elas. kályaz "dance".

*həˈkärja: Va. kärya "saga"; Elas. ger < *hegerjo "story"

*mir: Va. torm(<*tormi) "father", ; Elas. mir "head"

*mer: Elas. meret "language"; Va. merilinna (archaic) "poet"

*pV(h)ś-¹, maybe *pæśi or *paĭhśi: Elas. pasz "stone"; Va. päht "stone"

*pétaqĭ: Va. pead "sparrow"; Elas. pet "bird"; Lil. pidoig "bird"

*śalima: Va. salma "belief" ; El. szólim "trust"

*śilima: Va. silma "star"; El. szilin "star"

*tieje: Va. tee, older teeye "I"; El. tá "I (dat.)"

*talilet: Va. talle, from earlier tallet "speech"; El. tollet "a proverb"

*tur: El. turáz "maiden", possible compound of *tur + *aʔtsa, Va. torm "father"

*vaha: Va. välya "noble", Va. tavaha "holy"

*-en/-in: Va. -in "denotes plural"; Elas. -en "denotes plural"

*-lja: Va. -lya "indicates negative polarity of verb"; El. -lya "indicates negative polarity of verb"

¹ — The original vowel cannot be reconstructed with safety as Va. shows /æ/ while El. has /a/; historically the equivalent of Va. /æ/ is El. /e/. It does not appear to be a reduced diphthong either as neither language shows a long vowel or diphthong. Furthermore, the Va. reflex shows /ht/ which is believed to usually originate from earlier /kt/-sequences. If the original stem contained /kt/ then the expected Elasian reflex would be **pás, reduced from **paks as clusters of the /kts/-type in Elasian show t-deletion.

If we assume paʔś- as stem, then why doesn't the Elasian reflex surface with /ɑh/ nor Va. with /ɑː/? Instead Va. shows /æht/ which would point at a stem **pähĭt which is problematic as the Elasian reflex would be *pét /peht/ alt. *péit /pehit/ and not pasz /pat͡s/. One suggestion is *pæś- which while solving the problem in Välyatalle does not explain the irregularity in æ > a in Elasian. A possible *paĭhś- is also discounted primarily on grounds that /aĭh/ should reflex as Va. /æː/ and El. /ah/.