This is the user sandbox of Ioe bidome. A user sandbox is a subpage of the user's user page. It serves as a testing spot and page development space for the user and is not an encyclopedia article. Create or edit your own sandbox here.Other sandboxes: Main sandbox | Template sandbox Finished writing a draft article? Are you ready to request review of it by an experienced editor for possible inclusion in Wikipedia? Submit your draft for review!
Proto-Italic inherited all ten of the early post-Proto-Indo-European simple vowels (i.e. at a time when laryngeals had colored and often lengthened adjacent vowels and then disappeared in many circumstances): *i, *e, *a, *o, *u, *ī, *ē, *ā, *ō, *ū. It also inherited all of the post-PIE diphthongs except for *eu, which became *ou.
Proto-Italic and Old Latin had a stress accent on the first syllable of a word, and this caused steady reduction and eventual deletion of many short vowels in non-initial syllables while affecting initial syllables much less. Long vowels were largely unaffected in general except in final syllables, where they had a tendency to shorten.
*we- > wo-, later followed by wo- > we- except before labial consonants or velarized l [ɫ] (l pinguis; i.e. an l not followed by i, ī or l):[4]
*welō > volō “I want” (vs. velim “I would want”)
*wemō "> vomō “I vomit”
westeros > voster > vester “your, of you (pl)”
There are numerous examples where PIE *o appears to result in Latin a instead of expected o, mostly next to labial or labializing consonants. A group of cases showing *-ow- > *-aw- > -av- (before stress), *-ōw- > *-āw- > -āv- is known as Thurneysen-Havet's law:[5] examples include:
PIE *lowh₃ṓ > *lawō > lavō 'I wash'
PIE *oḱtṓwos > *oktāwos > octāvus 'eighth' (but octō 'eight')
Other cases remain more disputed, such as:
lacus 'lake', in contrast to Irish loch < PIE *lókus
mare 'sea', in contrast to Irish muir, Welsh môr (Proto-Celtic *mori) < PIE *móri
De Vaan suggests a general shift *o > a in open syllables when preceded by any of *b, *m; *kʷ, *w; *l.[6] Vine (2011)[7] disputes the cases with *moCV, but proposes inversely that *mo- > ma- when followed by r plus a velar (k or g).
In non-initial syllables, there was more vowel reduction of short vowels. The most extreme case occurs with short vowels in medial syllables (i.e. short vowels in a syllable that is neither the first nor the last), where all five vowels usually merge into a single vowel:
1. They merge into e before r (sometimes original o is unaffected)[8]
*en-armis > inermis "unarmed" (vs. arma "arms")
*Falisiōi > Faleriī "Falerii (major town of the Faliscans)" (vs. Faliscus "Faliscan")
From the related noun *-kaps "catcher": prīnceps "chief" (lit. "seizer of the first (position)"), gen. prīncipis, vs. auceps "bird catcher", gen. aucupis
*man-kapiom > mancupium "purchase", later mancipium
*mag-is-emos > maxumus "biggest", later maximus; similarly proxumus "nearest", optumus "best" vs. later proximus, optimus
*pot-s-omos > possumus "we can"; *vel-omos > volumus "we want"; but *leg-omos > legimus "we gather", and all other such verbs (-umus is isolated in sumus, possumus and volumus)
*sub-rapuit > surrupuit "filches", later surripuit
Medially before two consonants, when the first is not r or l pinguis, the vowels do not merge to the same degree:
Exon's Law dictates that if there are two light medial syllables in a row (schematically, σσ̆σ̆σ, where σ = syllable and σ̆ = light syllable, where "light" means a short vowel followed by only a single consonant), the first syllable syncopates (i.e. the vowel is deleted):[12]
*priismo-kapes > prīncipis "prince" gen. sg. (nom. sg. prīnceps < *priismo-kaps by analogy)
*wre-peparai > repperī "I found" (cf. peperī "I gave birth" < *peparai)
Syncopation tends to occur after r and l in all non-initial syllables, sometimes even in initial syllables.[13]
*agros "field" > *agr̩s > *agers > *agerr > ager
*faklitāts > facultās
*feret "he carries" > fert
*imbris "rainstorm" > *imbers > imber
*tris "three times" > *tr̩s > *ters > Old Latin terr > ter
Sometimes early syncope causes apparent violations of Exon's Law:
kosolinos "of hazel" > *kozolnos (not **koslinos) > *korolnos > *korulnos (o > u before l pinguis, see above) > colurnus (metathesis)
Syncope of -i- also occurred in -ndis, -ntis and -rtis.[13]-nts then became -ns with lengthening of the preceding vowel, while -rts was simplified to -rs without lengthening.
In final syllables of polysyllabic words before a final consonant or cluster, short a, e, i merge into either e or i depending on the following consonant, and short o, u merge into u.
1. Short a, e, i merge into i before a single non-nasal consonant:[14]
PIE thematic 2nd/3rd sg. *-esi, *-eti > PI *-es, *-et > -is, -it (e.g. legis, legit "you gather, he gathers")
Proto-Italic *wrededas, *wrededat > reddis, reddit "you return, he returns"
i-stem nom. sg. *-is > -is
2. Short a, e, i merge into e before a cluster or a single nasal consonant:[14]
4. All short vowels apparently merge into -e in absolute final position.[14]
2nd sg. passive -ezo, -āzo > -ere, -āre
Proto-Italic *kʷenkʷe > quīnque "five"
PIE *móri > PI *mari > mare "sea" (cf. plural maria)
PI s-stem verbal nouns in *-zi > infinitives in -re
But: u-stem neuter nom./acc. sg. *-u > -ū, apparently by analogy with gen. sg. -ūs, dat./abl. sg. -ū (it is not known if this change occurred already in Proto-Italic)
Long vowels in final syllables shorten before most consonants (but not final s), yielding apparent exceptions to the above rules:[15]
a-stem acc. sg. *-ām > -am
Proto-Italic *amānt > amant "they love"
Proto-Italic *amāt > amat "he/she loves" (cf. passive amātur)
Absolutely final long vowels are apparently maintained with the exception of ā, which is shortened in the 1st declension nominative singular and the neuter plural ending (both < PIE *-eh₂) but maintained in the 1st conjugation 2nd sg. imperative (< PIE *-eh₂-yé).[15]
Proto-Italic maintained all PIE diphthongs except for the change *eu > *ou. The Proto-Italic diphthongs tend to remain into Old Latin but generally reduce to pure long vowels by Classical Latin.
1. PIE *ei > Old Latin ei > ẹ̄, a vowel higher than ē < PIE *ē. This then developed to ī normally, but to ē before v:
PIE *bʰeydʰ- "be persuaded, be confident" > *feiðe- > fīdō "to trust"
PIE *deiḱ- "point (out)" > Old Latin deicō > dīcō "to say"
PIE *deiwós "god, deity" > Very Old Latin deiuos (Duenos inscription) > dẹ̄vos > deus (cf. dīvus "divine, godlike, godly")
The PIE syllabic resonants *m̥, *n̥, *r̥, *l̥ generally become em, en, or, ol[n 4] (cf. Greek am/a, an/a, ar/ra, al/la; Germanic um, un, ur, ul; Sanskrit am/a, an/a, r̥, r̥; Lithuanianim̃, iñ, ir̃, il̃):
PIE *déḱm̥(t) "ten" > decem (cf. Irish deich, Greek deka, Gothictaíhun/tɛhun/)
PIE *(d)ḱm̥tóm "hundred" > centum (cf. Welsh cant, Gothic hund, Lithuanian šim̃tas, Sanskrit śatám)
PIE *n̥- "not" > OL en- > in- (cf. Greek a-/an-, English un-, Sanskrit a-, an-)
PIE *tn̥tós "stretched" > tentus (cf. Greek tatós, Sanskrit tatá-)
PIE *ḱr̥d- "heart" > *cord > cor (cf. Greek kēr, English heart, Lithuanian širdìs, Sanskrit hṛd-)
PIE *ml̥dús "soft" > *moldus > *moldwis (remade as i-stem) > *molwis > mollis (cf. Irish meldach "pleasing", English mild, Czech mladý)
The laryngeals *h₁, *h₂, *h₃ appear in Latin as a[n 4] when between consonants, as in most languages (but Greeke/a/o respectively, Sanskrit i):
PIE *dʰh₁-tós "put" > L factus, with /k/ of disputed etymology (cf. Greek thetós, Sanskrit hitá- < *dhitá-)
PIE *ph₂tḗr "father" > L pater (cf. Greek patḗr, Sanskrit pitṛ́, English father)
PIE *dh₃-tós "given" > L datus (cf. Greek dotós, Sanskrit ditá-)
A sequence of syllabic resonant + laryngeal, when before a consonant, produced mā, nā, rā, lā (as also in Celtic, cf. Greek nē/nā/nō, rē/rā/rō, etc. depending on the laryngeal; Germanic um, un, ur, ul; Sanskrit ā, ā, īr/ūr, īr/ūr; Lithuanian ím, ín, ír, íl):
The Indo-European voiced aspirates bʰ, dʰ, gʰ, gʷʰ, which were probably breathy voiced stops, first devoiced in initial position (fortition), then fricatized in all positions, producing pairs of voiceless/voiced fricatives in Proto-Italic: f ~ β, θ ~ ð, χ ~ ɣ, χʷ ~ ɣʷ respectively.[19] The fricatives were voiceless in initial position. However, between vowels and other voiced sounds, there are indications—in particular, their evolution in Latin—that the sounds were actually voiced. Likewise, Proto-Italic /s/ apparently had a voiced allophone [z] in the same position.
In all Italic languages, the word-initial voiceless fricatives f, θ, and χʷ all merged to f, whereas χ debuccalized to h (except before a liquid where it became g); thus, in Latin, the normal outcome of initial PIE bʰ, dʰ, gʰ, gʷʰ is f, f, h, f, respectively. Examples:[20]
PIE *bʰér-e- "carry" > ferō (cf. Old Irish beirid "bears", English bear, Sanskrit bhárati)
PIE *bʰréh₂tēr "brother" > *bʰrā́tēr > frāter (cf. Old Irish bráthair, Sanskrit bhrā́tar-, Greek phrā́tēr "member of a phratry")
PIE *dʰeh₁- "put, place" > *dʰh₁-k- > *θaki- > faciō "do, make" (cf. Welsh dodi, English do, Greek títhēmi "I put", Sanskrit dádhāti he puts")
PIE *gʰabʰ- "seize, take" > *χaβ-ē- > habeō "have" (cf. Old Irish gaibid "takes", Old English gifan "to give", Polish gabać "to seize")
PIE *ǵʰaidos "goat" > *χaidos > haedus "kid" (cf. Old English gāt "goat", Polish zając "hare", Sanskrit háyas "horse")
PIE *ǵʰh₂ens "goose" > *χans- > (h)ānser (cf. Old Irish géiss "swan", German Gans, Greek khḗn, Sanskrit haṃsá-)
PIE *gʰlh₂dʰ-rós "shining, smooth" > *χlaðros > *glabrus > glaber "smooth" (cf. Polish gładki "smooth", Old English glæd "bright, glad")
PIE *gʷʰen-dʰ- "to strike, kill" > *χʷ(e)nð- > fendō (cf. Welsh gwanu "to stab", Old High German gundo "battle", Sanskrit hánti "(he) strikes, kills", -ghna "killer (used in compounds)" )
PIE *gʷʰerm- "warm" > *χʷormo- > formus (cf. Old Prussian gorme "heat", Greek thermós, Sanskrit gharmá- "heat")
Word-internal *-bʰ-, *-dʰ-, *-gʰ-, *-gʷʰ- evolved into Proto-Italic β, ð, ɣ, ɣʷ. In Osco-Umbrian, the same type of merger occurred as that affecting voiceless fricatives, with β, ð, and ɣʷ merging to β. In Latin, this did not happen, and instead the fricatives defricatized, giving b, d ~ b, g ~ h, g ~ v ~ gu.[21]
*-bʰ- is the simplest case, consistently becoming b.[22]
PIE *bʰébʰrus "beaver" > *feβro > Old Latin feber > fiber
*-dʰ- usually becomes d,[23] but becomes b next to r or u, or before l.[24]
PIE *bʰeidʰ- "be persuaded" > *feiðe > fīdō "I trust" (cf. Old English bīdan "to wait", Greek peíthō "I trust")
PIE *medʰi-o- "middle" > *meðio- > medius (cf. Old Irish mide, Gothic midjis, Sanskrit mádhya-)
PIE *krei(H)-dʰrom "sieve, sifter" > *kreiðrom > crībrum "sieve" (cf. Old English hrīder "sieve")
PIE *h₁rudʰ-ró- "red" > *ruðro- > ruber (cf. Old Russian rodrŭ, Greek eruthrós, Sanskrit rudhirá-)
PIE *sth̥₂-dʰlom > *staðlom > stabulum "abode" (cf. German Stadel)
PIE *werh₁-dʰh₁-o- "word" > *werðo- > verbum (cf. English word, Lithuanian var̃das)
The development of *-gʰ- is twofold: *-gʰ- becomes h [ɦ] between vowels but g elsewhere:[21]
PIE *weǵʰ- "carry" > *weɣ-e/o > vehō (cf. Greek okhéomai "I ride", Old English wegan "to carry", Sanskrit váhati "(he) drives")
PIE *dʰi-n-ǵʰ- "shapes, forms" > *θinɣ-e/o > fingō (cf. Old Irish -ding "erects, builds", Gothic digan "to mold, shape")
*-gʷʰ- has three outcomes, becoming gu after n, v between vowels, and g next to other consonants. All three variants are visible in the same root *snigʷʰ- "snow" (cf. Irish snigid "snows", Greek nípha):[25]
PIE *snei-gʷʰ-e/o > *sninɣʷ-e/o (with n-infix) > ninguit "it snows"
PIE *snigʷʰ-ós > *sniɣʷos > gen. sg. nivis "of snow"
The sequences *ḱw, *ǵw, *ǵʰw develop identically to *kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ:[28]
PIE *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂[n 6] "tongue" > *dn̥ɣwā > *denɣʷā > Old Latin dingua > lingua
PIE *éḱwos "horse" > *ekʷos > Old Latin equos > ecus > equus (assimilated from other forms, e.g. gen. sg. equī; cf. Sanskrit aśva-, which indicates -ḱw- not -kʷ-)
PIE *mreǵʰus "short" > *mreɣu- > *mreɣʷi- (remade as i-stem) > brevis (cf. Old English myrge "briefly", English merry, Greek brakhús, Avestanmǝrǝzu-, Sanskrit múhu "suddenly")
Indo-European s between vowels was first voiced to [z] in late Proto-Italic and became r in Latin and Umbrian, a change known as rhotacism. Early Old Latin documents still have s [z], and Cicero once remarked that a certain Papirius Crassus officially changed his name from Papisius in 339 b.c.,[29] indicating the approximate time of this change. This produces many alternations in Latin declension:
est "he is", fut. erit "he will be"
flōs "flower", gen. flōris
mūs "mouse", pl. mūrēs
Other examples:
Proto-Italic *a(j)os, a(j)esem > *aes, aezem > aes, aerem "bronze", but PI *a(j)es-inos > *aeznos > aēnus "bronze (adj.)"
Proto-Italic *ausōs, ausōsem > *auzōs, auzōzem > aurōra "dawn" (change of suffix; cf. English east, Aeolic Greekaúōs, Sanskrit uṣā́s)
In groups of stop + /s/ before unvoiced consonants, the stop was lost: [31]
proto-italic *subs-teneō > latin susteneō "hold up"
Syncopated words like dexter (<*deksiteros) were not effected by this change. Additionally, words beginning with ex- or prepositions like ob- frequently restored the stop.
/s/ was lost before voiced consonants, with compensatory lengthening: [32]
proto-italic *is-dem > latin īdem "same"
Clusters involving /s/ were also lost before voiced consonants, also with compensatory lengthening: [31]
proto-italic *eks-dowkō > *es-dowkō > latin ēdūcō "draw out"
The Instrumental case merges into the ablative case. [37]
The old genitive singular,*-osjo, still attested in the Lapis Satricanus as popliosio valesiosio, is replaced by -ī[38]
The locative merged into the ablative after the proto-italic period. It survives in a few adverbs.[37]
===Verbs
An infinitive ending *-si is created. [39]
The Proto-Indo-European injunctive disappeared. Its functions were taken by the optative and present indicative.[40]
The indicative lost final /i/ (final /t/ had become /d/ earlier so secondary endings remained separate).[41]
^ abThese short vowels are then subject to the normal rules of vowel reduction in non-initial syllables.
^Both "world" and "mountain" evolve out of the early association of oak trees with strength, cf. Latin robur = "oak" but also "strength"
^PIE *dn̥ǵhwéh₂; -ǵʰw- not -gʷʰ- indicated by Old Church Slavonicjęzy-kŭ "tongue" < *n̥ǵhu-H-k- with loss of initial *d-; -gʷʰ- would yield /g/, not /z/.
Silvestri, Domenico (1998), "The Italic Languages", in Ramat, Anna Giacalone; Ramat, Paolo (eds.), The Indo-European languages, Taylor & Francis Group, pp. 322–344