Flei

The Corded Ware languages in Lõis (temporary name) are a paleo-European (pre-Indo-European) language family spoken in much of Europe. The family's Urheimat is usually regarded to be somewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, where corded ware artifacts have been found. This article will document the Proto-Corded Ware language.

TODO: incorporate Greek substrate?

See also the Baden languages.

Gibberish

Kuttëpëy calkatërru þamexiþe qëpaynë ërawu? Ikwëntimfë saru þallëni walqësami. Eyeta punqisa tënsali arru iyessakacwipu mixtëcrripë. Uþþisu parrë wenkë tërrëmënë ikkartëxu nalkëfalë. Amantulë qarratkëþi faytunþupilë camëxaþë, þiyumpësa tumlekucë maqquþëne nëpiwa! Ispullefë hara fanhussë teyihu?

Phonology

• Stops: p t c k q /p t tʂ~c k q/
• Fricatives: f þ s x h /f θ s ʂ~ɧ h/
• Resonants: m n l rr r w y /m n l r ɹ w j/
• Vowels: a e i u ë /ä e i u ə/

Stress

Proto-Corded Ware had no strong stress.

Phonotactics

Only slightly less restrictive than Tamil; more restrictive than Latin

Proto-CW often added enunciative vowels to words ending in consonants, so for example *isqal 'child (nom.)' often became *isqallë.

Grammar

• SVO or SOV
• Both prefixing and suffixing
• cases and Suffixaufnahme; not Altaic
• stem changes in nouns (like Uralic)
• polypersonal verbs
• aspect rather than tense
• mood inflections for verbs

Pronouns

1st pers. *t, 2nd pers. *p, 3rd pers. *n

Nouns

Corded Ware had suffixes for noun cases; however there was no separate accusative case.

Plurals were often (usually?) marked by stem change.

Declension of *isqal = child

• nominative: isqal(lë), esqal(lë)
• genitive: isqalef, esqalef
• locative
• adessive
• ablative
• allative
• instrumental
• comitative
• essive
• translative
• vocative

Verbs

Verbs had the following template:

object-STEM-aspect-subject-mood

Aspects

• fanhu-0 = '3sg called' (perfective)
• fanhu-rra = '3sg often calls/used to call' (habitual)
• fanhu-kën = '3sg is/was calling' (progressive)

Personal

Subject:

• fanhu-0-t = 'I called'
• fanhu-0-p = '2sg called'
• fanhu-0-0 = '3sg called'
• fanhu-0-ntë = 'we called'
• fanhu-0-mpë = '2pl called'
• fanhu-0-në = 'they called'