Finian
| Finian | |
|---|---|
| Created by | – |
| Era | attested 4th–2nd century BCE |
Indo-European
| |
Early form | Finian(?)
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | qfn |
Finian was a Lúsanic language spoken in northern Europe from the fourth century until the second century BCE when remains of it disappear. It was apparently recognised by Dhannic speakers as a related language albeit very different. Attested by fifty or so inscriptions, mostly of a votive kind, the known corpus of the language remains small.
General characteristics
While quite similar to the Dhannic languages in many aspects, there are still very striking differences. One of the most noticeable is the shifting of the unvoiced plosive series into fricatives. Cf. the reconstructed Proto-Lúsanic *pen-ja-r-os with Finian finyarar ('that which is of the bog', 'bog-y', Dhannuán cognate penniaros). This shifting appears to have caused a chain reaction, similar to the one occurring in Germanic languages known as Grimm's law. In Finian, the voiced plosive series devoices producing new unvoiced plosives thus filling in the "hole" left by the original unvoiced plosive series.
- b → p → f (through intermediary ɸ)
- d → t → s (through intermediary θ?)
- g → k → h (through intermediary x)