Proto-Carpathian

Proto-Carpathian is the common ancestor of the Carpathian languages. Proto-Carpathian is not attested in any texts, but has been reconstructed by linguists. It is itself descended ultimately from Proto-Oronaic or possibly from an intermediate stage, called Proto-Alpathian.

Stages

Usually three stages of Proto-Carpathian are distinguished:

1. Early Proto-Carpathian, the language after its split from Proto-Oronaic. The Alpian languages are sometimes considered closest external relatives to the Carpathian languages, so this stage can also be called Proto-Alpathian. However, the reconstruction state appears to be very similar to Proto-Oronaic.
2. Middle Proto-Carpathian, an earlier stage in the development on Carpathian, when the language had developed its most characteristic differences from other Oronaic languages. It is also the time, when differences between South Carpathian and its relatives began developing.
3. Late Proto-Carpathian, the last common ancestor of West and East Carpathian (specifically Ränci and Puohō dialects). South Carpathian had already diverged at this point.

Phonology

Vowels

Proto-Carpathian vowel inventory was almost identical to the Proto-Oronaic one having a large vowel inventory due to the vowel harmony and a distinct vowel length. Reduced vowels were also present and probably also developed new vowel harmony counterparts, though most of those distinctions are erased in modern languages. Here is a reconstruction of full vowels.

	Front				Back
	Unrounded		Rounded		Unrounded		Rounded
	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close	i /i/	ii /iː/	ü /y/	üü /yː/	ï /ɯ/		u /u/	uu /uː/
Mid	e /e/	ee /eː/	ö /ø/	öö /øː/	ë /ɤ/	ëë (/ɤː/)	o /o/	oo /o/
Open	ä /æ/	ää /æː/			a /ɑ/	a /ɑː/

Vowel *a /ɑ/ resulted from a secondary development and can give irregular results in daughter languages, for example: *tálu ("high") became tālu in West Carpathian and tallo in East Carpathian, but tolu in South Carpathian.

Like in Proto-Oronaic, four reduced vowels were present, marked as *ə₁, *ə₂, *ə₃ and *ə₄, which probably still remained an allophone of *ə₃ The actual realization of them is a question of not known precisely: vowel harmony also applied to those reduced vowels with *ə₁-*ə₂, *ë-*ə₄ and *ə₃-*ə₄ contrasts. Most scholars analize them as following:

	Central
	Unrounded	Rounded
Close-mid	ə1 /ɘ/
Mid	ə2 /ə/
Open-mid	ə3 /ɐ~ɜ/	ə4 /ɞ/

Consonants

The consonant inventory was different from Proto-Oronaic, generally being larger in Proto-Carpathian. Like modern Alpian languages it had a voiced-voiceless contrast as well as a plain-geminated one. Consonant gradation applied to most of these consonants. Palatalization was present in Proto-Carpathian and mostly resulted from consonant clusters with /j/, but some are of a Proto-Oronaic origin.

Traditional view

		Bilabial	Dental	Palatalized	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ń /nʲ ~ ɲ/		ŋ
Plosive	Voiceless	p	t			k
	Voiced	b	d			g
Fricatives	Voiceless		s, θ	ś /sʲ ~ ɕ/	š /ʃ/	x	h /h ~ ɦ/
	Voiced	(β)	(ð)			(ɣ)
Affricate			c /t͡s/	ć /t͡sʲ ~ t͡ɕ/	č /t͡ʃ/
Lateral			l /l/	ľ /lʲ ~ ʎ/
Trill			r /r/
Approximant		w /w/		j /j/

Though being present in early South Carpathian, voiced affricates probably have not yet appeared and thus plain voiceless affricates *c, *ć and *č did not contrast with anything, being already a weak grade of their geminated counterparts.