Vowels[]
Proto-Algic had four basic vowels, which could be either long or short:
- long: *i·, *e·, *a·, *o·
- short: *i, *e, *a, *o
Consonants[]
Proto-Algic had the following consonants:
| labial | alveolar | postalveolar | postalveolar affricate/ palatal |
velar | labiovelar | glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stop / plosive | p | t | c | č | k | kʷ | ʔ | |
| voiced stop / plosive | b | d | g | gʷ | ||||
| aspirated stop / plosive | pʰ | tʰ | cʰ | čʰ | kʰ | kʷʰ | ||
| glottalized stop / plosive | pʼ | tʼ | cʼ | čʼ | kʼ | kʼʷ | ||
| voiceless fricative | j /f/ | ɬ /ɬ/ 1 | s | š /ʃ/ | x | h | ||
| voiced fricative | v | ʒ /ɮ/ | z | ž /ʒ/ | ɣ | |||
| nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| glottalized nasal | mʼ | nʼ | ŋʼ | |||||
| lateral, rhotic | f /ʙ/ | r, l | q /ʟ/ | |||||
| glottalized lateral, glottalized rhotic | fʼ /ʙʼ/ | rʼ, lʼ | qʼ /ʟʼ/ | |||||
| semivowel | w | y /j/ | u /ɰ/ | |||||
| glottalized semivowel | w' | yʼ /jʼ/ | uʼ /ɰʼ/ | |||||
- 1 The identity of this consonant is not entirely certain; in Proto-Algonquian, it is sometimes alternatively reconstructed as θ /θ/.
It is unclear if č /tʃ/ was an independent phoneme or only an allophone of c and/or t in Proto-Algic (as in Proto-Algonquian). In 1992, Paul Proulx theorized that Proto-Algic also possessed a phoneme gʷ, which became *w in Proto-Algonquian and g in Wiyot and Yurok.
All stops and affricates in the above chart have aspirated counterparts, and all consonants, except fricatives, have glottalized ones. Proto-Algonquian significantly reduced this system by eliminating all glottalized and aspirated phonemes.[1]
References[]
- ↑ Paul Proulx, Proto-Algic I: Phonological Sketch, in the International Journal of American Linguistics, volume 50, number 2 (April 1984)