Carpathian vocabulary

Carpathian vocabulary, i.e., the vocabulary of the Carpathian language, is primarily of the Indo-European origin, inherited directly from Proto-Indo-European but has changed over the centuries as the language evolved and was influenced by many other language groups, including a substrate of unclear origin. Carpathian contains relatively few loanwords, more or less comparable to its neighbouring languages.

Inherited vocabulary

Carpathian is a relatively conservative language, retaining many Proto-Indo-European roots, although many have undergone semantic drift. Most of its modern vocabulary is native, either inherited directly from Proto-Carpathian or derived later from existing native roots.

Neologisms

New words for new concepts or ideas tend to be composites of other native Carpathian words, rather than loanwords, for example: keliaukītwa “meteorology”, is derived from keliā (“weather”) and aukītwa (“studies”). Sometimes, obsolete or dialectal words are revived or reintroduced into the standard for new concepts. Carpathian uses its developed system of derivational morphology along with compounding to create new words, meaning that borrowing words is not necessary, but it still happens, when a certain concept is well-known and popular abroad, such as internetas “the Internet”. Other words may have native doublets, both of which are used depending on a social group: kompūteras and arpakaistus, helikopteras and twaringas (the latter word is preferred, since the the loanword contains a prohibited cluster "pt"). Older loanwords tend to be quickly adapted to Carpathian phonology: duruka “print” (from German Druck), replaced by native taiškus/taiskus, while the more recent ones preserve the original phonology: aipodas “iPod” (with short "o", even though Eastern Carpathian has no short [o] in native vocabulary). However, certain sounds, such as [f], are not replaced, even though they are not present in the native vocabulary.

Proposed origin	Examples
	semantic area	modern words	derivation
Proto-IE	Anatomy	inzū “tongue”, zanwā “jaw”, hastis “bone”	*dn̥ĝʰuh₂ “tongue”, *ǵénweh₂ “jaw”, *H₂óstis “bone”
	Action	gebetei “to catch”, dōtei “to give”, sektei “to cut off”	*gʰebʰ- “to seize”, *deh₃- “give”, *sek- “to cut off”
Proto-Carpathian	Technology	salnā “salted meat”, mōsla “butter”	*səĺnah “salty”, *mōhźəsla “smeared”