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Lifashian: Difference between revisions
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==Vocabulary== | ==Vocabulary== | ||
Through its history at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and the long contact between languages resulting from the millennia through which the Lifashians were always subjects of foreign powers, the vocabulary of Lifashian has been enriched and shaped by the absorption of plenty of loanwords, which certainly dates back to Lifashian prehistory. The vast majority of loanwords, also, are considered to be fully integrated in the language, helped by the fact that all of them (except some proper nouns) are transcribed into the Lifashian script and are adapted to fit native morphology. | Through its history at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and the long contact between languages resulting from the millennia through which the Lifashians were always subjects of foreign powers, the vocabulary of Lifashian has been enriched and shaped by the absorption of plenty of loanwords, which certainly dates back to Lifashian prehistory. The vast majority of loanwords, also, are considered to be fully integrated in the language, helped by the fact that all of them (except some proper nouns) are transcribed into the Lifashian script and are adapted to fit native morphology.<br/>It is also likely that some words in current Lifashian were borrowed from ancient dialects or closely related languages that have not survived, as shown by a few examples of PIE *p in Lifashian.<ref>Word-initial PIE *p generally became Lifashian '''f''' except for a few cases, most of which can be explained by an *r blocking the fricativization (as in many compounds with *per or *peri), the presence of an original cluster (mostly *pl), or recursive assimilation caused by a labiovelar (most notably in ''pembi'' "five", explained through an intermediate form *pénkʷe > **kʷénkʷe which parallels Proto-Italic and Proto-Celtic), but even then there are the clear IE words ''páwé'' "fire" and ''peli'' "under" when the expected outcomes from PIE should have been *fáwé and *feli.</ref> | ||
The share of loanwords is not uniform in the Lifashian vocabulary. First of all, the vast majority of borrowed words in any stage of the language are nouns, and the number of borrowed adjectives with no corresponding noun, while not small on its own, is far smaller. Borrowed verbs are a very small number, and nearly all of them are formed through the suffix ''-íy-'' that also served to form verbs from other parts of speech. Note that in more recent times (from the 18th century onwards), nearly all new verbs that have entered Lifashian are compound verbs, and new compound verbs have also displaced full verbs; the verbal part of compound verbs, which contributes little meaning of its own, is nearly always a native Lifashian (PIE-inherited) root. The only very common Lifashian verbs which are loanwords and do not have the ''-íy-'' suffix are ''gurémi'' (I write) and ''sirémi'' (I like), both loanwords from Armenian. | The share of loanwords is not uniform in the Lifashian vocabulary. First of all, the vast majority of borrowed words in any stage of the language are nouns, and the number of borrowed adjectives with no corresponding noun, while not small on its own, is far smaller. Borrowed verbs are a very small number, and nearly all of them are formed through the suffix ''-íy-'' that also served to form verbs from other parts of speech. Note that in more recent times (from the 18th century onwards), nearly all new verbs that have entered Lifashian are compound verbs, and new compound verbs have also displaced full verbs; the verbal part of compound verbs, which contributes little meaning of its own, is nearly always a native Lifashian (PIE-inherited) root. The only very common Lifashian verbs which are loanwords and do not have the ''-íy-'' suffix are ''gurémi'' (I write) and ''sirémi'' (I like), both loanwords from Armenian. | ||