Proto-Kartvelian language
Reconstructed ancestor of the Kartvelian languages
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The Proto-Kartvelian language, or Common Kartvelian (Georgian: წინარექართველური ენა, romanized: ts'inarekartveluri ena, Georgian: პროტოქართველური ენა, romanized: p'rot'okartveluri ena), is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Kartvelian languages, which was spoken by the ancestors of the modern Kartvelian peoples. The existence of such a language is widely accepted by specialists in linguistics, who have reconstructed a broad outline of the language by comparing the existing Kartvelian languages against each other.[2] Several linguists, namely Gerhard Deeters and Georgy Klimov have also reconstructed a lower-level proto-language called Proto-Karto-Zan or Proto-Georgian-Zan, which is the ancestor of Karto-Zan languages (includes Georgian and Zan).[3]
| Proto-Kartvelian | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of | Kartvelian languages |
| Era | c. 2000 BC[1] |
| Lower-order reconstructions | |
Influences
The ablaut patterns of Proto-Kartvelian are highly similar to those of the Indo-European languages, and so it is thought that Proto-Kartvelian interacted with Indo-European at a relatively early date.[4] This is reinforced by cognates with Indo-European, such as the Proto-Kartvelian *mḳerd- ('breast'), and its possible relation to the Proto-Indo-European *ḱerd- ('heart'). Proto-Kartvelian *ṭep- (warm) may also be related to Proto-Indo-European *tep- 'warm'.[2][better source needed]
Relation to descendants
The modern descendants of Proto-Kartvelian are Georgian, Svan, Mingrelian and Laz. The ablaut patterns of Proto-Kartvelian were better preserved in Georgian and (particularly) Svan than in either Mingrelian or Laz, in which new forms have been set up so that there is a single, stable vowel in each word element.[2]
The system of pronouns of Proto-Kartvelian is distinct on account of its category of inclusive–exclusive (so, for instance, there were two forms of the pronoun "we": one that includes the listener and one that does not). This has survived in Svan but not in the other languages. Svan also includes a number of archaisms from the Proto-Kartvelian era, and therefore it is thought that Svan broke off from Proto-Kartvelian at a relatively early stage: the later Proto-Kartvelian stage (called Karto-Zan) split into Georgian and Zan (Mingrelo-Laz).[2]
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Postalveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | central | lateral[9] | |||||||
| Nasal | *m [m] | *n [n] | ||||||||
| Plosive | voiced | *b [b] | *d [d] | *ʒ [d͡z] | *ʒ₁ [d͡ʐ] | *ǯ [d͡ʒ] | *g [ɡ] | |||
| voiceless | *p [p] | *t [t] | *c [t͡s] | *c₁ [t͡ʂ] | *č [t͡ʃ] | *k [k] | *q [q] | |||
| ejective | *ṗ [pʼ] | *ṭ [tʼ] | *c̣ [t͡sʼ] | *c̣₁ [t͡ʂʼ] | *č̣ [t͡ʃʼ] | *ɬʼ [t͡ɬʼ] | *ḳ [kʼ] | *q̇ [qʼ] | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | *s [s] | *s₁ [ʂ] | *š [ʃ] | *lʿ [ɬ] | *x [x] | *h [h] | |||
| voiced | *z [z] | *z₁ [ʐ] | *ž [ʒ] | *ɣ [ɣ] | ||||||
| Trill | *r [r] | |||||||||
| Approximant | *w [w] | *l [l] | *y [j] | |||||||
Distinction between plain [q] and ejective [qʼ] remains only in Svan language. This distinction also existed in Old Georgian.