Proto-Algonquian language
Encyclopedia
Proto-Algonquian is the name given to the proto-language
from which the various languages of the Algonquian family
are descended. It is generally estimated to have been spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, but on the question of where it was spoken there is less agreement. The Algonquian family, which is a branch of the larger Algic language family
, is usually divided into three subgroups: Eastern Algonquian
, which is a genetic
subgroup, and Central Algonquian
and Plains Algonquian
, both of which are areal
groupings. Proto-Algonquian is one of the best-studied proto-languages, particularly compared with the many other North American language families
, and researchers have had notable success in reconstructing its phonology and grammar.
deduced that the Algonquian languages of the eastern and central United States were "radically the same" (that is, members of the same family), and contrasted them with the neighboring Iroquoian languages
. However, the earliest work on reconstructing the Algonquian proto-language was undertaken by the linguists Truman Michelson
and Leonard Bloomfield
. In 1925 Bloomfield reconstructed what he called "Primitive Central Algonquian", using what were at the time the four best-attested Algonquian languages: Fox
, Ojibwe
, Menominee
, and Plains Cree
. Following his initial reconstructions, investigations of other languages revealed that his "Primitive Central Algonquian" was essentially equivalent to Proto-Algonquian. Bloomfield wrote a refinement and expansion of his reconstruction in 1946, and his two papers remain the starting point for all research and reconstructions of Proto-Algonquian. In the years since there has been an enormous amount of comparative work undertaken on the Algonquian family, particularly the work of Ives Goddard
of the Smithsonian Institution
.
or original homeland. The initial theory, first put forth by Frank T. Siebert, Jr. in 1967 based on the examination of the ranges of numerous species of plants and animals for which reliable Algonquian cognate
s existed, holds that Proto-Algonquian was spoken between Georgian Bay
and Lake Ontario
, in Ontario
, Canada, and at least as far south as Niagara Falls
. More recent work by scholars such as Ives Goddard
and Peter Denny suggests that in fact it was spoken farther west than this, perhaps "somewhere immediately west of Lake Superior
."
counterpart (commonly written *i·, *e·, *a·, *o·), for a total of eight vowels. The phonemic
status of short *o is unclear. All the instances in which Bloomfield reconstructed *o can now be reconstructed as *we based on evidence from some of the Eastern languages (for example, Bloomfield's *nekotwi "one" is now reconstructed as *nekwetwi based on forms like Munsee
nkwúti). There are still a handful of instances where *o can be reconstructed, usually as the result of a morphophonological
process of vowel shortening. Ives Goddard concludes that "an independent phoneme *o is of no great antiquity in Proto-Algonquian", although he recommends continuing to use it in reconstructions. Likewise, Howard Berman states that "PA *i is probably also of recent origin", derived from earlier (pre-Proto-Algonquian) *ye sequences and morphophonological shortening.
common in the literature):
The phoneme given in the table as ⟨r⟩ was reconstructed by Bloomfield as *l, but Goddard has more recently argued that it should be reconstructed as *r, largely because the earliest attestations of the majority of languages show some sort of rhotic as its reflex, which in many languages subsequently changed to a lateral within the historical period. The precise pronunciation of the phoneme written ⟨θ⟩ is unknown. It has merged with the reflex of *r in all Algonquian languages except for Cree
and the Arapaho group
. Leonard Bloomfield
originally suggested that it could have been either an interdental fricative or a lateral fricative. Ives Goddard agrees with the interdental fricative view—one piece of evidence being that this is the reflex it has in Arapaho. However, other researchers have argued for its reconstruction as a lateral fricative, */ɬ/, in part because of the aforementioned merger in most languages with the phoneme traditionally reconstructed as *l.
As with *o, it is unclear whether *č was an independent phoneme in Proto-Algonquian. Almost all instances where *č is reconstructed are before *i, *i·, or *y, where it does not contrast with *t (see below), or in cases of diminutive consonant symbolism. However, Goddard recommends continuing to write it in reconstructions, since it seems to have been present in the clusters *čp and *čk; since it can be reconstructed before *a in the term *čapo·nk- "splash"; and since *t does appear before *i· in the onomatopoeic noun ti·nti·wa "blue jay".
In several cases the actual phonetic identity of the first member of the clusters was unknown, and Bloomfield's choice of symbols to represent them was purely arbitrary. Thus, ⟨x⟩ does not represent *[x], ⟨ç⟩ does not represent *[ç], and ⟨⟩ does not necessarily represent *[ʔ]. Ives Goddard argues that Bloomfield's arbitrary symbol ⟨x⟩ be reconstructed as *s, and Bloomfield's ⟨ç⟩ be reconstructed as *r. While a glottal stop phoneme is not otherwise reconstructed, given that Bloomfield's ⟨⟩ in clusters seems to represent the neutralization of *p and *k and its realization in Menominee and Cheyenne is a glottal stop, it probably was indeed phonetically [ʔ]. The cluster written ⟨Hm⟩ shows up as p or m in most of the daughter languages, but as hm in Munsee
(for example, PA *wi·kiwa·Hmi "house" becomes Ojibwe wiigiwaam, Fox wîkiyâpi, and Munsee wíikwahm). The first member of the cluster may have been either *h or *ʔ.
The clusters *št and *hr are each reconstructed on the basis of only a single correspondence set (*št in *weštikwa·ni, "his head"; and *hr in *re·hre·wa, "he breathes") and may not have been part of Proto-Algonquian. David Pentland, for example, argues that Ojibwe oshtigwaan, the only form requiring the reconstruction of *št, is a borrowing from Cree.
Finally, all consonants and consonant clusters could be followed by *w or *y (although the sequences *čw and *hy did not occur; and *t and *θ were regularly replaced before *y, for which see below).
processes, morphophonemic
processes, and phonological constraints
can be reconstructed. Among the most significant of these processes was that *t and *θ became *č and *š respectively before *i, *i·, and *y. For example, the initial *went- "from there" (as in *wentenamwa "he takes it from there") is realized as *wenč- in the word *wenči·wa "he comes from there", since it precedes *i·.
There were several restrictions on phonotactics and the shape of the PA word that can be reconstructed. All words began with a single consonant (other than *h) or vowel, or with a consonant plus *w or *y; there were no sequences of consecutive vowels; and the word always ended in a short vowel. The vowels *i and *o never occurred in initial syllables. A sequence of consonant+semivowel could not be followed by *o or *o·. There was also a restriction which prevented two-syllable nouns from ending in a sequence of short vowel + consonant + short vowel.
In most cases, when the pronominal prefixes *ne- (first person), *ke- (second person), and *we- (third person) were added to a vowel-initial stem, an epenthetic
*-t- was inserted between the prefix and the stem. Thus, the prefixes became *net-, *ket-, and *wet- respectively. For example, *ne- + *-ehkwa- = *netehkwa- "my louse". This feature goes back to Proto-Algic
(compare Wiyot
du- + híkw = dutíkw "my louse"). There were a handful of irregular exceptions to this pattern, however. For example, the prefixes lost their initial vowel before several kinship terms, as in *ne- + *-o·hkomehsa = *no·hkomehsa "my grandmother."
Several rules for internal sandhi
in morpheme combinations can be reconstructed. The most basic was the insertion of a "connective i" between two consonants. For example, *po·n- "cease" + *-m "act by speech on an animate object" = *po·nime·wa "he stops talking to him." In a few idiosyncratic cases, however, this rule did not operate, and instead the consonants were changed in various ways. For instance, the combination θ+p produced when the root *eθ- "thither, thus" was added to the final *-pahto· "run" simplified to *xp: *expahta·wa "he runs thither." One regular exception to the "connective i" rule was when the conjunct suffix *-ki was added to a verb stem ending in a consonant, for example *ki·šekat- "be day" + *-ki = *ki·šekaxki "when it is day." When two vowels became contiguous, if one was a long vowel and one was short, the short vowel dropped: *naka·- "stop" + *-en "by hand" = *naka·ne·wa "he stops him by hand." If both were long, an epenthetic *y was inserted between the two.
contrast: nouns representing animate beings (and some traditional items viewed as having spiritual powers) were classed as animate, while all other nouns were inanimate. The plural marker differed in form depending on whether the noun was animate or inanimate: animate nouns took a plural suffix *-aki, while inanimate nouns took a plural suffix *-ari. Another important distinction involved the contrast between nouns marked as proximate and those marked as obviative
. Proximate nouns were those deemed most central or important to the discourse, while obviative nouns were those less important to the discourse. When two third person participants appeared in a sentence, one was marked as proximate and the other as obviative, in order to distinguish which one was the subject and which was the object (since verbs inflected for whether they had a proximate or obviative subject and a proximate or obviative object).
There were personal pronouns which distinguished three persons, two numbers (singular and plural), inclusive and exclusive first person plural
, and proximate and obviative third persons. Demonstrative pronouns have been more difficult to reconstruct, as many of the daughter languages have innovated a great deal.
PA had four classes of verbs: transitive
verbs with an animate object (abbreviated TA), transitive verbs with an inanimate object (TI), intransitive
verbs with an animate subject (AI), and intransitive verbs with an inanimate subject (II). Transitive verbs had two paradigms, termed objective and absolute. Objective verbs were used when the object of the verb was not present as an overt noun elsewhere in the sentence, while absolute verbs were used when the object of the verb was marked with an overt noun in the sentence. Objective verbs could also be used when an object was present, and in such cases indicated that the object was definite
, as opposed to indefinite.
Proto-language
A proto-language in the tree model of historical linguistics is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead.Often the proto-language is not known directly...
from which the various languages of the Algonquian family
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
are descended. It is generally estimated to have been spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, but on the question of where it was spoken there is less agreement. The Algonquian family, which is a branch of the larger Algic language family
Algic languages
The Algic languages are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian family, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to Atlantic Canada...
, is usually divided into three subgroups: Eastern Algonquian
Eastern Algonquian languages
The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least seventeen languages collectively occupying the Atlantic coast of North America and adjacent inland areas, from the Canadian Maritime provinces to...
, which is a genetic
Historical linguistics
Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
subgroup, and Central Algonquian
Central Algonquian languages
The Central Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family. Though this grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping rather than a genetic one...
and Plains Algonquian
Plains Algonquian languages
The Plains Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family. Though this grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping rather than a genetic one...
, both of which are areal
Sprachbund
A Sprachbund – also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads – is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact. They may be genetically unrelated, or only distantly related...
groupings. Proto-Algonquian is one of the best-studied proto-languages, particularly compared with the many other North American language families
Indigenous languages of the Americas
Indigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by indigenous peoples from Alaska and Greenland to the southern tip of South America, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families as well as many language...
, and researchers have had notable success in reconstructing its phonology and grammar.
History of research
Most Algonquian languages are similar enough that their relatedness has been recognized for centuries and was commented on by the early English and French colonists and explorers. For example, in 1787 (over a decade before Sir William Jones' famous speech on Indo-European), the theologian and linguist Jonathan Edwards Jr.Jonathan Edwards (the younger)
This article is about the theologian , for other uses of Jonathan Edwards see Jonathan Edwards.Jonathan Edwards was an American theologian and linguist.-Life and career:...
deduced that the Algonquian languages of the eastern and central United States were "radically the same" (that is, members of the same family), and contrasted them with the neighboring Iroquoian languages
Iroquoian languages
The Iroquoian languages are a First Nation and Native American language family.-Family division:*Ruttenber, Edward Manning. 1992 [1872]. History of the Indian tribes of Hudson's River. Hope Farm Press....
. However, the earliest work on reconstructing the Algonquian proto-language was undertaken by the linguists Truman Michelson
Truman Michelson
Truman Michelson was a linguist and anthropologist who worked from 1910 until his death for the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution...
and Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. His influential textbook Language, published in 1933, presented a comprehensive description of American structural linguistics...
. In 1925 Bloomfield reconstructed what he called "Primitive Central Algonquian", using what were at the time the four best-attested Algonquian languages: Fox
Fox language
Fox is an Algonquian language, spoken by around 1000 Fox, Sauk, and Kickapoo in various locations in the Midwestern United States and in northern Mexico...
, Ojibwe
Ojibwe language
Ojibwe , also called Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems...
, Menominee
Menominee language
The Menominee language is an Algonquian language originally spoken by the Menominee people of northern Wisconsin and Michigan. It is still spoken on the Menominee Nation lands in Northern Wisconsin in the United States....
, and Plains Cree
Plains Cree language
Plains Cree is a dialect of the Algonquian language, Cree, which is the most common Canadian indigenous language. Plains Cree is sometimes considered a dialect of the Cree-Montagnais language, or sometimes a dialect of the Cree language, distinct from the Montagnais language...
. Following his initial reconstructions, investigations of other languages revealed that his "Primitive Central Algonquian" was essentially equivalent to Proto-Algonquian. Bloomfield wrote a refinement and expansion of his reconstruction in 1946, and his two papers remain the starting point for all research and reconstructions of Proto-Algonquian. In the years since there has been an enormous amount of comparative work undertaken on the Algonquian family, particularly the work of Ives Goddard
Ives Goddard
Robert Hale Ives Goddard, III is curator emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. He is widely considered the leading expert on the Algonquian languages and the larger Algic language family.-Early life and education:Ives...
of the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
.
Urheimat
There remains some disagreement over the Algonquian UrheimatUrheimat
Urheimat is a linguistic term denoting the original homeland of the speakers of a proto-language...
or original homeland. The initial theory, first put forth by Frank T. Siebert, Jr. in 1967 based on the examination of the ranges of numerous species of plants and animals for which reliable Algonquian cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
s existed, holds that Proto-Algonquian was spoken between Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay, Ontario
The Township of Georgian Bay is an area municipality of the Muskoka District Municipality, in south-central Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Severn River, where it empties into Georgian Bay...
and Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
, in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada, and at least as far south as Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls
The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...
. More recent work by scholars such as Ives Goddard
Ives Goddard
Robert Hale Ives Goddard, III is curator emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. He is widely considered the leading expert on the Algonquian languages and the larger Algic language family.-Early life and education:Ives...
and Peter Denny suggests that in fact it was spoken farther west than this, perhaps "somewhere immediately west of Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
."
Vowels
Proto-Algonquian had four basic vowels, *i, *e, *a, *o, each of which had a longVowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
counterpart (commonly written *i·, *e·, *a·, *o·), for a total of eight vowels. The phonemic
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
status of short *o is unclear. All the instances in which Bloomfield reconstructed *o can now be reconstructed as *we based on evidence from some of the Eastern languages (for example, Bloomfield's *nekotwi "one" is now reconstructed as *nekwetwi based on forms like Munsee
Munsee language
Munsee is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic language family. Munsee is one of the two Delaware languages...
nkwúti). There are still a handful of instances where *o can be reconstructed, usually as the result of a morphophonological
Morphophonology
Morphophonology is a branch of linguistics which studies, in general, the interaction between morphological and phonetic processes. When a morpheme is attached to a word, it can alter the phonetic environments of other morphemes in that word. Morphophonemics attempts to describe this process...
process of vowel shortening. Ives Goddard concludes that "an independent phoneme *o is of no great antiquity in Proto-Algonquian", although he recommends continuing to use it in reconstructions. Likewise, Howard Berman states that "PA *i is probably also of recent origin", derived from earlier (pre-Proto-Algonquian) *ye sequences and morphophonological shortening.
Consonants
The reconstructed consonants are as follows (given in the Americanist phonetic notationAmericanist phonetic notation
Americanist phonetic notation is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American anthropologists and language scientists for the phonetic and phonemic transcription of Native American and European languages...
common in the literature):
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... / Postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | t | č [tʃ] | k | ||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
Central | s | š [ʃ] | h | ||
| Possible Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
θ | |||||
| Sonorant | Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | |||
| Rhotic Rhotic consonant In phonetics, rhotic consonants, also called tremulants or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including "R, r" from the Roman alphabet and "Р, p" from the Cyrillic alphabet... |
r | |||||
| Semivowel Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:... |
w | y [j] | ||||
The phoneme given in the table as ⟨r⟩ was reconstructed by Bloomfield as *l, but Goddard has more recently argued that it should be reconstructed as *r, largely because the earliest attestations of the majority of languages show some sort of rhotic as its reflex, which in many languages subsequently changed to a lateral within the historical period. The precise pronunciation of the phoneme written ⟨θ⟩ is unknown. It has merged with the reflex of *r in all Algonquian languages except for Cree
Cree language
Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana...
and the Arapaho group
Arapahoan languages
The Arapahoan languages are a subgroup of the Plains group of Algonquian languages. Nawathinehena, Besawunena, and Ha'anahawunena are extinct and Arapaho and Gros Ventre are both endangered. Besawunena, is only attested from a wordlist collected by Kroeber, differs only slightly from Arapaho, but...
. Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. His influential textbook Language, published in 1933, presented a comprehensive description of American structural linguistics...
originally suggested that it could have been either an interdental fricative or a lateral fricative. Ives Goddard agrees with the interdental fricative view—one piece of evidence being that this is the reflex it has in Arapaho. However, other researchers have argued for its reconstruction as a lateral fricative, */ɬ/, in part because of the aforementioned merger in most languages with the phoneme traditionally reconstructed as *l.
As with *o, it is unclear whether *č was an independent phoneme in Proto-Algonquian. Almost all instances where *č is reconstructed are before *i, *i·, or *y, where it does not contrast with *t (see below), or in cases of diminutive consonant symbolism. However, Goddard recommends continuing to write it in reconstructions, since it seems to have been present in the clusters *čp and *čk; since it can be reconstructed before *a in the term *čapo·nk- "splash"; and since *t does appear before *i· in the onomatopoeic noun ti·nti·wa "blue jay".
Clusters
Reconstruction of the consonant clusters has been relatively difficult, and the paths the clusters take in their evolutions to the daughter languages have been complex. The current view is that the permissible consonant clusters were (first member on the left, second member across the top):| p | k | t | č | θ | s | š | r | m | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ʔ | *ʔt | *ʔč | *ʔθ | *ʔs | *ʔš | *ʔr | *Hm | ||
| h | *hp | *hk | *ht | *hč | *hθ | *hs | *hš | (*hr) | |
| N | *mp | *nk | *nt | *nč | *nθ | *ns | *nš | *nr | |
| č | *čp | *čk | |||||||
| š | *šp | *šk | (*št) | ||||||
| θ | *θp | *θk | |||||||
| x | *xp | *xk | |||||||
| ç | *çp | *çk |
In several cases the actual phonetic identity of the first member of the clusters was unknown, and Bloomfield's choice of symbols to represent them was purely arbitrary. Thus, ⟨x⟩ does not represent *[x], ⟨ç⟩ does not represent *[ç], and ⟨⟩ does not necessarily represent *[ʔ]. Ives Goddard argues that Bloomfield's arbitrary symbol ⟨x⟩ be reconstructed as *s, and Bloomfield's ⟨ç⟩ be reconstructed as *r. While a glottal stop phoneme is not otherwise reconstructed, given that Bloomfield's ⟨⟩ in clusters seems to represent the neutralization of *p and *k and its realization in Menominee and Cheyenne is a glottal stop, it probably was indeed phonetically [ʔ]. The cluster written ⟨Hm⟩ shows up as p or m in most of the daughter languages, but as hm in Munsee
Munsee language
Munsee is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic language family. Munsee is one of the two Delaware languages...
(for example, PA *wi·kiwa·Hmi "house" becomes Ojibwe wiigiwaam, Fox wîkiyâpi, and Munsee wíikwahm). The first member of the cluster may have been either *h or *ʔ.
The clusters *št and *hr are each reconstructed on the basis of only a single correspondence set (*št in *weštikwa·ni, "his head"; and *hr in *re·hre·wa, "he breathes") and may not have been part of Proto-Algonquian. David Pentland, for example, argues that Ojibwe oshtigwaan, the only form requiring the reconstruction of *št, is a borrowing from Cree.
Finally, all consonants and consonant clusters could be followed by *w or *y (although the sequences *čw and *hy did not occur; and *t and *θ were regularly replaced before *y, for which see below).
Phonological processes
Several allophonicAllophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
processes, morphophonemic
Morphophonology
Morphophonology is a branch of linguistics which studies, in general, the interaction between morphological and phonetic processes. When a morpheme is attached to a word, it can alter the phonetic environments of other morphemes in that word. Morphophonemics attempts to describe this process...
processes, and phonological constraints
Phonotactics
Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes...
can be reconstructed. Among the most significant of these processes was that *t and *θ became *č and *š respectively before *i, *i·, and *y. For example, the initial *went- "from there" (as in *wentenamwa "he takes it from there") is realized as *wenč- in the word *wenči·wa "he comes from there", since it precedes *i·.
There were several restrictions on phonotactics and the shape of the PA word that can be reconstructed. All words began with a single consonant (other than *h) or vowel, or with a consonant plus *w or *y; there were no sequences of consecutive vowels; and the word always ended in a short vowel. The vowels *i and *o never occurred in initial syllables. A sequence of consonant+semivowel could not be followed by *o or *o·. There was also a restriction which prevented two-syllable nouns from ending in a sequence of short vowel + consonant + short vowel.
In most cases, when the pronominal prefixes *ne- (first person), *ke- (second person), and *we- (third person) were added to a vowel-initial stem, an epenthetic
Epenthesis
In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
*-t- was inserted between the prefix and the stem. Thus, the prefixes became *net-, *ket-, and *wet- respectively. For example, *ne- + *-ehkwa- = *netehkwa- "my louse". This feature goes back to Proto-Algic
Algic languages
The Algic languages are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian family, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to Atlantic Canada...
(compare Wiyot
Wiyot language
Wiyot is an extinct Algic language, formerly spoken by the Wiyot people of Humboldt Bay, California. The language's last native speaker, Della Prince, died in 1962...
du- + híkw = dutíkw "my louse"). There were a handful of irregular exceptions to this pattern, however. For example, the prefixes lost their initial vowel before several kinship terms, as in *ne- + *-o·hkomehsa = *no·hkomehsa "my grandmother."
Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
in morpheme combinations can be reconstructed. The most basic was the insertion of a "connective i" between two consonants. For example, *po·n- "cease" + *-m "act by speech on an animate object" = *po·nime·wa "he stops talking to him." In a few idiosyncratic cases, however, this rule did not operate, and instead the consonants were changed in various ways. For instance, the combination θ+p produced when the root *eθ- "thither, thus" was added to the final *-pahto· "run" simplified to *xp: *expahta·wa "he runs thither." One regular exception to the "connective i" rule was when the conjunct suffix *-ki was added to a verb stem ending in a consonant, for example *ki·šekat- "be day" + *-ki = *ki·šekaxki "when it is day." When two vowels became contiguous, if one was a long vowel and one was short, the short vowel dropped: *naka·- "stop" + *-en "by hand" = *naka·ne·wa "he stops him by hand." If both were long, an epenthetic *y was inserted between the two.
Grammar
Proto-Algonquian nouns had an animate/inanimateAnimacy
Animacy is a grammatical and/or semantic category of nouns based on how sentient or alive the referent of the noun in a given taxonomic scheme is...
contrast: nouns representing animate beings (and some traditional items viewed as having spiritual powers) were classed as animate, while all other nouns were inanimate. The plural marker differed in form depending on whether the noun was animate or inanimate: animate nouns took a plural suffix *-aki, while inanimate nouns took a plural suffix *-ari. Another important distinction involved the contrast between nouns marked as proximate and those marked as obviative
Obviative
Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...
. Proximate nouns were those deemed most central or important to the discourse, while obviative nouns were those less important to the discourse. When two third person participants appeared in a sentence, one was marked as proximate and the other as obviative, in order to distinguish which one was the subject and which was the object (since verbs inflected for whether they had a proximate or obviative subject and a proximate or obviative object).
There were personal pronouns which distinguished three persons, two numbers (singular and plural), inclusive and exclusive first person plural
Clusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
, and proximate and obviative third persons. Demonstrative pronouns have been more difficult to reconstruct, as many of the daughter languages have innovated a great deal.
PA had four classes of verbs: transitive
Transitive verb
In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...
verbs with an animate object (abbreviated TA), transitive verbs with an inanimate object (TI), intransitive
Intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....
verbs with an animate subject (AI), and intransitive verbs with an inanimate subject (II). Transitive verbs had two paradigms, termed objective and absolute. Objective verbs were used when the object of the verb was not present as an overt noun elsewhere in the sentence, while absolute verbs were used when the object of the verb was marked with an overt noun in the sentence. Objective verbs could also be used when an object was present, and in such cases indicated that the object was definite
Definiteness
In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....
, as opposed to indefinite.
See also
- Algonquian languagesAlgonquian languagesThe Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
- Plains Algonquian languagesPlains Algonquian languagesThe Plains Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family. Though this grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping rather than a genetic one...
- Central Algonquian languagesCentral Algonquian languagesThe Central Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family. Though this grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping rather than a genetic one...
- Eastern Algonquian languagesEastern Algonquian languagesThe Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least seventeen languages collectively occupying the Atlantic coast of North America and adjacent inland areas, from the Canadian Maritime provinces to...
- Plains Algonquian languages
- Algic languagesAlgic languagesThe Algic languages are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian family, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to Atlantic Canada...
External links
- Algonquian languages - EthnologueEthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
page - Native Languages of the Americas: Algonquian Language Family
- Proto-Algokian Roots and Word Formatives by John Hewson
- Proto-Algonquian - handout by Daniela Henze (2010)
- Correspondences of Ojibwe, Cree, and Proto-Algonquian sounds