Proto-Algic (sometimes abbreviated PAc) is the
proto-language from which the
Algic languages (
Wiyot language,
Yurok language, and
Proto-Algonquian) are descended. It is estimated to have been spoken about 7,000 years ago somewhere in the American Northwest, possibly around the
Columbia Plateau
The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Col ...
.
[Paul Proulx, ''Proto-Algic I: Phonological Sketch'', in the ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', volume 50, number 2 (April 1984)] 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
Proto-Algonquian) which is widely agreed to have existed.
Its main researcher was
Paul Proulx.
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:
:
1 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.
Proto-Algonquian significantly reduced this system by eliminating all glottalized and aspirated phonemes.
[Paul Proulx, Proto-Algic I: Phonological Sketch, in the International Journal of American Linguistics, volume 50, number 2 (April 1984)]
See also
*
Algic languages
*
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically simi ...
*
Proto-Algonquian language
References
*
Baldi, Philip, ''Linguistic Change and Reconstruction Methodology'' (, 1990)
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{{Algic languages
Algic languages
Algic