Bźatga/History

History

Proto-Celtic to Common Brittonic (to 1st Century AD)

• Short vowels remain in stressed syllables: a, e, i, o, u
• Long vowels and diphthongs in stressed syllables:

Proto-Celtic	Common Brittonic
ā, au	aː
ai	ɛː
ei	eː
eu, ou	ɔː
ī	iː
oi	oː
ū	uː

• Reduction of pretonic & final vowels
  • short vowels lowered: o > ɔ (merges with a), i > e, u > o
  • long vowels shortened
• Lenition of intervocalic stops, m & s
  • voiceless stops p, t, k > voiced b, d, g
  • voiced stops b, d, g > voiced fricatives v, ð (later z), ɣ
  • m > ṽ
  • s > h
  • st > ss

Proto-Bźatga (1st to 8th Centuries)

Defined as the period after Bźatga split from Common Brittonic, before it was written.

• Compensatory Lengthening of vowels before nC
  • a > ā; e > ɛː; i > eː; o > ɔː; u > oː
• Diphthonisation before CC or C + non-high vowel
  • ɛː > ea > ia
  • eː > ie
  • ɔː > oa > ua
  • oː > uo
• Vocalisation of ɣ
  • Intervocalic ɣ > w after o(ː), ɔː, u(ː)
  • Intervocalic ɣ > j after other vowels
  • ɣC > jC (note ɣj already j)
  • Cɣ > Cw, Cj depending on the quality of the preceding vowel
• Vocalisation of -h-
  • medial -h- (from s) becomes j before front vowels (i, e etc), w before u and is lost before a, o.
    • esa, eso > iːa, iːo
    • ese, esi > ɛːje, ɛːji
  • final -h- (from s) is lost
• Merger of v, ṽ and w
  • v (from PrC. b), ṽ (from PrC. m) and w (from PrC. w, g, h) merge into a single sound, probably the bilabial fricative β
  • metathesis of Cβ as uC
  • vocalisation of βC > uC

Old Bźatga (8th to 12th centuries)

Defined as the period from the first written records to the phonemicisation of iotisation.

• Metathesis of VrC > rVC
  • new mr- > br-, nr- > dr-
• Loss of vowel quantity
  • all long vowels become short, creating an 8 vowel system.
  • aː, ɛː, ɔː merge with their short counterparts, a, ɛ, ɔ
  • eː, oː create new short vowels e, o, merging with existing ɪ, ʊ as ê, ô (note ɪjV, uβV become ijV, uβV.
  • iː, uː create new short vowels i, u
  • the new vowel system:

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i u e o ə ɛ ɔ a
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

• Iotisation
  • semi-vowel j merges with adjacent consonant
  • tj, kj > ć; dj, gj > ģ; s > ś; z > ź; l > ĺ; n > ń; r > ŕ
  • does not affect bilabials p, b, m
  • βj remains word-initially but becomes j medially.
  • note that iotisation continues to work as a productive sound change.
• Merger of semivowels
  • sequences ij, ji, uβ, βu merge into a single vowel i or u
  • iV > jV, causing iotisation to the preceding consonant
  • oβi > oi

Middle Bźatga (12th to 16th centuries)

Defined as the period in which syncope phonemicised iotised consonants to the period of renewed contact with the outside world.

• Syncope
  • intervocalic, internal vowels are lost except where this would cause an impossible consonant cluster.
• Palatalisation
  • consonants preceding i are palatalised
  • t, d > ts, dz
  • n, l, r > ń, ĺ, ŕ

Modern Bźatga (16th century to Present)

Following the Middle Bźatga period, phonology has remained fairly stable but there has been a significant amount of analogical levelling in the inflectional paradigms, along with a considerable growth in borrowed words, particularly of a scientific and technological nature. The modern period also saw the replacement of the archaic, formal written language with a vernacular form and the creation of the modern spelling system.

Examples

Brythonic	wesanteinos	brigantiːnos
Monopthongisation	wesanteːnos	brigantiːnos
Vowel reduction	wesanteːnəs	brigantiːnəs
Lenition	wehanteːnəs	briɣantiːnəs
Comp. Lengthening	wehaːteːnəs	briɣaːtiːnəs
Diphthonisation	wehaːtienəs
Vocalisation of ɣ, h	wiːaːtienə	brijaːtiːnə
Merger of v, ṽ, w	βiːaːtienə
Methathesis of r
Loss of vowel quantity	βiatienə	brijatinə
Merger of high vowels
Iotisation	βiaćenə
Merger of semivowels	βjaćenə	bŕatinə
Syncope	βjaćnə	bŕatnə
Palatalisation
Bźatga	vjaćna	bźatna

Vowels

PC	Brythonic	+ Length	General	Initial	-w, -lC, -bC	-jC	j-	w-
a	a	a	a	a	au	aCʲ	ja	va
ā
ā	ā	ā
au
ai	ɛː	ia1 ɛː2	ʲa	ja	jau	eCʲ	je	vja
e	e	e	e	ve
e
ei	ē	ie1 ē2	ʲe	je	ʲeu	iCʲ	vje
ê	eu	i	vê
i	i	i
ī	i	i	ju	vi
ī	ī
o	o	o	o	o	ou	oCʲ	jo	vo
ɔː
eu	ɔː	ɔː
ou
oi	ō	ō	ô	vo	uCʲ	jô	vô
u	u	u
ū	u	u	u	ju	u
ū	ū	u

1. before a back vowel in next syllable
2. before a front vowel in next syllable

Consonants

PC	Initial	+j	+i	Medial	+j	+i	Geminate
p (kʷ)	p	pj		b	bj		p
t	t	ć	ŝ	d	ģ	ẑ	t
k	c	ć		g	ģ		c
b (gʷ)	b	bj		v	j		b
d	d	ģ	ẑ	z	ź		d
g	g	ģ		j/v	j		g
m	m	mj		v	j		m
n	n	ń	ń	n	ń	ń	n
l	l	ĺ	ĺ	l	ĺ	ĺ	l
r	r	ź	ź	r	ź / ŕ	ź / ŕ	r
s	s	ś	ś	-	j		s
j	j-, -
w	v, -		v	j

Consonant Clusters

	Inital	Medial
tl	ĺ	zl
tn		zn
tr	tr	dr
tri, trj	ć	ģ
kl	ĺ	ĺ
kn	ń	ń
kr	cr	gr
ks		ś
kt		ć
dl	ĺ	zl
dm		zv
dn		zn
dr	dr	zr
gl	ĺ	ĺ
gn	ń	ń
gr	gr	ź
lp, lt, lk		up, ut, uc
lb, ld, lg		v, l, v
mp, nt, nk	~p, ~t, ~k
mb, nd, ng	~b, ~d, ~g
rp, rt, rk	rVp, rVt, rVk
rb, rd, rg	rVv, rVz, rVv
sɸ, sw	zv	v
st	śt	s
sti, stj	ść	ś
stl, str	sl, sr	sl, sr
sk	śc	śc
ski, skj	ść	ść
skl, skr	sl, sr	sl, sr
sm, sn	zn	_m, _n
smi, sni	źńi
sl, sr	zl, zr	_l, _r
sli, sri	źĺi, źi