View source for Social:Proto-Algic language

{{short description|Reconstructed ancestor of the Algic languages}}
{{Infobox proto-language
| name = Proto-Algic
| altname = PAc
| familycolor = Algic
| era = ca. 5000 BCE
| region = [[Earth:Columbia Plateau|Columbia Plateau]]?
| target = [[Social:Algic languages|Algic languages]]
| child1 = [[Social:Proto-Algonquian|Proto-Algonquian]]
}}

'''Proto-Algic''' (sometimes abbreviated '''PAc''') is the [[Social:Proto-language|proto-language]] from which the [[Social:Algic languages|Algic languages]] (Wiyot language, [[Social:Yurok language|Yurok language]], and [[Social:Proto-Algonquian|Proto-Algonquian]]) are descended. It is estimated to have been spoken about 7,000 years ago somewhere in the American Northwest, possibly around the [[Earth:Columbia Plateau|Columbia Plateau]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Bakker |first=Peter |year=2013 |chapter=Diachrony and typology in the history of Cree |editor1=Folke Josephson |editor2=Ingmar Söhrman |title=Diachronic and typological perspectives on verbs |location=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins |pages=223–260}}</ref><ref name="Proulx Phonological Sketch">Paul Proulx, ''Proto-Algic I: Phonological Sketch'', in the ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', volume 50, number 2 (April 1984)</ref><ref>Paul Proulx, ''Algic Color Terms'', in ''Anthropological Linguistics'', volume 30, number 2 (Summer 1988)</ref><ref>Paul Proulx, ''Proto-Algic IV: Nouns'', in ''Studies in Native American Languages VII'', volume 17, number 2 (1992)</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Golla |first=Victor |year=2011 |title=California Indian Languages |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |page=256}}</ref> It is an example of a second-level proto-language (a proto-language whose reconstruction depends on data from another proto-language, namely its descendant language [[Social:Proto-Algonquian language|Proto-Algonquian]]) which is widely agreed to have existed.<ref name="Proulx Phonological Sketch" /> Its main researcher was Paul Proulx.<ref>[https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/magazine/in_memory/1965/paul-m.-proulx-65] Amherst Obituary for Paul Proulx</ref>

== 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:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Proto-Algic consonant phonemes
|-
!
!
! rowspan="2" align="center" | Bilabial
! colspan="2" align="center" | Alveolar
! rowspan="2" align="center" | Palatal
! colspan="2" align="center" | Velar
! rowspan="2" align="center" | Glottal
|-
!
!
!<small>central</small>
!<small>lateral</small>
!<small>plain</small>
!<small>labialized</small>
|-
! rowspan="3" | Stop
!<small>plain</small>
| align="center" | *p
| align="center" | *t
|
| align="center" |
| align="center" | *k
| align="center" | *kʷ
| align="center" | *ʔ
|-
!<small>aspirated</small>
| align="center" | *pʰ
| align="center" | *tʰ
|
| align="center" |
| align="center" | *kʰ
| align="center" | *kʷʰ
|
|-
!<small>glottalized</small>
| align="center" | *pʼ
| align="center" | *tʼ
|
| align="center" |
| align="center" | *kʼ
| align="center" | *kʼʷ
|
|-
! rowspan="3" |Affricate
!<small>plain</small>
|
| align="center" | *c /t͡s/
|
| align="center" | *č /t͡ʃ/
|
|
|
|-
!<small>aspirated</small>
|
| align="center" | *cʰ /t͡sʰ/
|
| align="center" | *čʰ /t͡ʃʰ/
|
|
|
|-
!<small>glottalized</small>
|
| align="center" | *cʼ /t͡sʼ/
|
| align="center" | *čʼ /t͡ʃʼ/
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | Fricative
|
| align="center" | *s
| align="center" | *ɬ<sup>1</sup>
| align="center" | *š /ʃ/
| align="center" |
| align="center" |
| align="center" | *h
|-
! rowspan="2" | Nasal
!<small>plain</small>
| align="center" | *m
| align="center" | *n
|
|
|
|
|
|-
!<small>glottalized</small>
| align="center" | *mʼ
| align="center" | *nʼ
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |Liquid
!<small>plain</small>
|
| align="center" |*r
| align="center" |*l
|
|
|
|
|-
!<small>glottalized</small>
|
|align="center" | *rʼ
|align="center" | *lʼ
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | Semivowel
!<small>plain</small>
|
| align="center" |
| align="center" |
| align="center" | *y /j/
|
| align="center" | *w
|
|-
!<small>glottalized</small>
|
| align="center" |
| align="center" |
| align="center" | *yʼ /jʼ/
|
| align="center" | *wʼ
|
|}

:<sup>1</sup> The identity of this consonant is not entirely certain; in Proto-Algonquian, it is sometimes alternatively reconstructed as ''*θ'' /θ/.

It is unknown 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. [[Social:Proto-Algonquian|Proto-Algonquian]] significantly reduced this system by eliminating all glottalized and aspirated phonemes.<ref>Paul Proulx, Proto-Algic I: Phonological Sketch, in the International Journal of American Linguistics, volume 50, number 2 (April 1984)</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Social:Algic languages|Algic languages]]
* [[Social:Algonquian languages|Algonquian languages]]
* [[Social:Proto-Algonquian language|Proto-Algonquian language]]

== References ==
<references />
{{refbegin}}
* Baldi, Philip, ''Linguistic Change and Reconstruction Methodology'' ({{ISBN|311088609X}}, 1990)
* {{Cite journal |last=Berman|first=Howard |year=1982 |title=Two Phonological Innovations in Ritwan |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics | volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=412–420 |jstor=1264843 |doi=10.1086/465750|s2cid=144518292 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Berman|first=Howard |year=1990 |title=New Algonquian–Ritwan Cognate Sets |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics | volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=431–434 |jstor=1265518 |doi=10.1086/466168|s2cid=144558611 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Campbell|first=Lyle |year=1997 |title=American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-509427-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Campbell|first=Lyle |year=2004 |title=Historical Linguistics: An Introduction |edition=2nd |publisher=The MIT Press |place=Cambridge, MA |isbn=978-0-262-53267-9}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Campbell|first1=Lyle |last2=Poser|first2=William J. |year=2008 |title=Language Classification: History and Method |publisher=Cambridge University Press |place=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-88005-3 |name-list-style=amp}}
* {{Cite book |last=Goddard|first=Ives |year=1990 |editor-first=Philip |editor-last=Baldi |title=Linguistic Change and Reconstruction Methodology |contribution=Algonquian Linguistic Change and Reconstruction |series=Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 45 |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |place=Berlin |pages=99–114 |isbn=978-0-89925-546-0}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pentland|first=David H. |contribution=Algonquian and Ritwan Languages |title=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics |edition=2nd |volume=1 |pages=161–166 |year=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |place=Oxford |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/02265-3}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Proulx|first=Paul |year=1977 |title=Connective Vowels in Proto-Algonquian |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics | volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=156–157 |jstor=1264935 |doi=10.1086/465473|s2cid=143570568 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Proulx|first=Paul |year=1980 |title=The Subordinative Order of Proto-Algonquian |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics | volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=289–300 |jstor=1264710 |doi=10.1086/465664|s2cid=144992880 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Proulx|first=Paul |year=1982 |title=The Origin of the Absolute Verbs of the Algonquian Independent Order |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics | volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=394–411 |jstor=1264842 |doi=10.1086/465749|s2cid=145240092 }}<!--
already listed above:
* {{Cite journal |last=Proulx|first=Paul |year=1984a |title=Proto-Algic I: Phonological Sketch |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics | volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=165–207 |jstor=1265603 |doi=10.1086/465826}}
-->
* {{Cite journal |last=Proulx|first=Paul |year=1984b |title=Algonquian Objective Verbs |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics | volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=403–423 |jstor=1265400 |doi=10.1086/465850|s2cid=144807432 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Proulx|first=Paul |year=1989 |title=A Sketch of Blackfoot Historical Phonology |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics | volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=43–82 |jstor=1265411 |doi=10.1086/466104|s2cid=144999752 }}
{{refend}}


[[Category:Proto-languages|Algic]]

{{Sourceattribution|Proto-Algic language}}