Proto-Macaronesian

Proto-Macaronesian

Created by	Karous
Date	2022
Era	6th century BC to 2nd century AD
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Continental Celtic Proto-Macaronesian
Early form	Proto-Celtic
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Proto-Macaronesian is the ancestor of all languages of the Macaronesian branch of the Celtic family of languages. Proto-Macaronesian is believed to have diverged from dialects of Proto-Celtic spoken in the Iberian Peninsula with the arrival of Celtic peoples on the island of Ejel approximately in the 6th century BC. Proto-Macaronesian remained isolated on Ejel until the migration of Celtic peoples to the other chains of Macaronesia in the 2nd Century, upon which the language diversified into the three distinct branches of Macaronesian found today.

Proto-Macaronesian shows areal exchange with the Berber languages, presumably spoken in Macaronesia by small populations and through trade with the Guanches of the Canary Islands. Such features include inflected prepositions, VSO word order, pronomial clitic forms, and the presence of an Aorist and Perfect aspect in verbal conjugation.