The wiki has recently been updated. Please contact me by talk page or email if you encounter any issues.

Proto-Samic

From FrathWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search

Proto-Samic is the reconstructed last common ancestor of the Samic languages. It was spoken in the 1st millennium CE in the area of modern-day northern Finland. (If extinct southern languages are included, this dating will likely become both older and more southern. Stem-group para-Samic languages have from toponymic evidence once been spoken as far south as the Baltic coast)

Sound changes from Proto-Uralic

Possibly original:

  • e → ɪ / _Cə
  • e → e / _{j w x} (ie. does not become *ɪ → *ɤ)

Proto-Uralic to Pre-Samic (≈ "Finno-Volgaic")

Shared with Finnic & Mordvinic

  • a > å / _Cə (except for C ∈ {j ś x})
  • ë > a
  • d₁, d₂ > ð (also ĺ > l, if it exists separately; note that other palatals remain)
    • NB: Sammallahti posits d₂ → θ / V_C (*käd₂wä 'weasel' → *kāθvē → NS gádfe - but can this be ruled out for d₁? Cf. *koTwa → IS kuáđfi)

Shared with Mordvinic

  • å > o
    • ə > a / åC*_
  • ü > i (feeds the next changes)
  • i u > ɪ ʊ (also occurs in Ugric, Nenets, Hill Mari)
    • i > i / _{j x}
    • u > u / _{w x}

Pre-Samic to Proto-Samic

  • V > Vː / [-HIGH] (also shared with Nenets!)

a-umlaut

  • eː äː oː > ea aː oa / _C{aː, oː} (note that this *aː is distinct from *ɑː!)
  • x, ŋ > w / _t

Spirant fortition

  • ś x > ć k / _V
  • PS *ć (written also *č) is perhaps describable as a palatal stop, so we may be dealing with a process [sʲ ~ ɕ] > [ç] > [c]. Note that original *s *š remain sibilants!
  • PS *ś (likewise also written *š) remains elsewhere
    • śj, sj > śś
    • ðj > ðś
  • ð > θ / #_ (South/Ume h-, elsewhere merges with *t-)

Fronting of postalveolars

  • tʃ ʃ <č š> > ts s <c s>

'Preaspiration

  • Pː > ʰPː (both grades; affricates as well)

Popular areal changes

  • w > ∅ / _{y u o} (shared with Finnic, Mordvinic, Mari)
  • j > ∅ / _{i e} (not sure about the distribution of this)
  • w > v (even syllable-finally)

Raising & epenthesis (first two shared with North Finnic but obviously non-genetic)

  • äː ɑː > eː oː / [+STR]
  • ∅ > v / #_oː
  • ∅ > j / #_eː
  • aː > eː / [-STR]
         except remains / [-STR]_ɪ
          → iː / [-STR]_j
  • oː > uː / [-STR]_ɪ

Gradation could be described around here?

Cluster stuff

  • tr > rtt (in loans)
  • k > v / _j (*rōvjē *vōvjē, possibly *tāvjē if not from Fi. *taɣja; South S. has -kś-)
         _l (*keavlē *kōvlē- *nāvlē *tōvlē; *ćīvlē with *ük > *iv > *īv ?!)
         _ń (*ćóvné)
  • t > r / _n (*vōrnē-; but PGmc *bodam → *ponnē, later loan?)
  • n > s / _s (*kāssē *koassē *kōssē *peassē *vōssē)
  • ŋ > k / _s (*jōksɤ)

Centralization (a late change - consider eg the northern Lappland toponym *ɤnārɤš → Finnish Inari)

  • ɪ ʊ → ɤ o

There may have also been a close unrounded back vowel (see ï_a). A merger into that might provide the motivation for the unusual back reflex of PU *i.


This results in the following inventory:

  • long vowels */iː eː ea aː oa oː uː/ <ī ē ea ā oa ō ū>
  • short vowels */ɤ o/ <ë o>

/ea oa/ are traditionally analyzed as [ɛː ɔː] rather than [ea oa], however I'm at a loss to explain how would *ɑː end up as *oː in that case.

The shortening iː uː → i u and the diphthongization eː oː → ie uo (when stress'd) may postdate Proto-Samic; in South Samic, the former two have bimoraic/front reflexes /ij uv/, and in South Sami proper, *ea has merged into *ē, which then yields /ea/ before *ā. At any rate, as eg. *a *e in Scandinavian loans ends up as *ā *ē, the "long" vowels must've been the unmarked series.

Sound changes to individual Sami languages

Proto-Samic to Proto-Western Samic

  • preaspiration spreds to strong grade simple stops/affricates
  • ŋm → mː
  • ŋv → vk ([vg̊]) (versus East *vː, so why not just PS *vː?)
  • NP → Bː (also affricates; later also in Inari, Skolt, Kemi, possibly South; cf. Scandinavian)
  • ś → jʰ / _{n t k} (counterfeeds medial voicing in South)
  • Nː → ʔN (orthographic <bm dn>; counterfeeds gemination in South)

PWS to South Samic

  • θ ð → h r
  • Short vowel split
    • ë o ī ū → ɨC uC ɨj uv / open 1st syllable (+ gemination after *ë *o)
    • ë o ī ū → a a ɨ u / closed 1st syllable
    • Possibly works better if preceding the lowering *i *u → *ë *o (!!)
  • ē ea → ië ie
  • ē ë ō → ie e u [-STR] (& more complications, but this'll do)
  • umlauts
    • ɨ u a → i y ä / _C*ie
    • a → ä / _C*u (if from *ë)
    • ɨ a → y o / _v
  • medial voicing of plain stops

Proto-W Samic to Proto-NW Samic

Comprises Northern, Lule & Pite Sami.

  • ɤ → ɑ (also Inari; some dialects historically had ɤ → e / _C*{i u})
  • m → b̥ / _P[-LAB] (*b̥d̥ *b̥ć̥ remain distinct from *pt *pć; also *ćɤmkɤ → *ćɑpkɑ; partially also in South)
      nbsp; nbsp; →
  • N₁ → P / _N₂ (ie. nm mn → tn pm)
  • vŋ → ʔŋ (*āvŋō, *tōvŋɤ, ? *vōvŋɤ; South ŋ, Inari/Kildin/ vŋ, Skolt ŋː. Mari/Komi #tum-?)
  • ck ćk ćm → sk śk śm (also Ume, Inari, Kemi, northern Skolt; check other affricate clusters?)
  • strong grade of singletons merges with weak grade of geminates (also Inari, Skolt, Akkala; mostly also Ume, but four degrees attested dialectally!!)
  • repeat: Nː → ʔN (later in Ume where 4 lengths attested; perhaps not common West Samic at all)
  • N → ʔN / r_
  • p → β / _ʰk (strong grade)
  • θ → t / #_

PNWS to Lule-Pite

  • vj → jv (sporadically in North, Ume, South; or does this go before *kj > vj?)
  • ð → d̥ / C_

PNWS to North Sami

  • ie ea oa uo → iː eː oː uː / _C*V[+hi], further → i e o u / _hC etc.
  • eː oː → i u / [-STR]

(other vowel stuff probs too?)

  • k → ɣ / _{s ʰt ʰć} (strong grade; also East, Lule)
  • p b̥ → k / _{t c ć s ś} (both grades)
    • further → ɣ in most dialects
  • ɣ → v / _C
    • Sammallahti claims v → k / _S, strong grade, but what's wrong with retention + analogy on *vs *vś?
  • p [b̥] → β / _{r l ð}
    • further βr βð → rv ðβ
    • also Inari, partially Skolt, Lule
  • N → T / Vs_, with sń → st
    • spred irregularly to other idioms
    • sm generally retain'd
  • t [d̥] → ð / V_V (weak grade; Finnish influence? also Inari, Skolt)
  • lm rd̥ jg̊ vs → lmː rd̥ː jg̊ː vsː (wtf?)
  • θv → ðf (wtf? could be handled better, I'm sure)

Medial consonants

Data extracted from Juhani Lehtisalo: Yhteissaamelainen sanasto (SUST vol. 200), with some addenda from other literature

Singleton medials (+ geminates for comparision)
-C- -CC- ratio
p 35 27 0.74
t 32 16 0.50
c 26 14 0.54
ć 16 7 0.44
k 65 32 0.49
s 38 8 0.21
ś 5 4 0.80
l 68 14 0.21
r 95 1 0.011
ð 28 2 0.071
v 31 2 0.065
j 36 1 0.028
m 50 1 0.020
n 43 4 0.093
ń 13 0 0
ŋ 24 0 0

Two-consonant clusters (proper numbers TBA)
2nd →
1st ↓
p t c ć k s ś ð l r v j m n ń ŋ Notes Frequency color code
N m mp mt mc N/A N/A mm mn 7 single root
n nt nc nn 16 2-3 roots
ŋ ŋk ŋs (ŋm) 9 4-6 roots
P p pp pt pc pk ps pl pr pj N/A 7 7-10 roots
t tt tk N/A N/A tv 3 11-14 roots
c cc ck 3 15-18 roots
ć ćć ćk ćm 19-22 roots
k kt kc kk ks kl kv (kŋ) 12 25-27 roots
Sbl s st sk ss N/A sv sm sn 2 29+ roots
ś śt śk śś śm śn 5
Spr ð ðk ðð ðv ðŋ 2
L l lp lt lk ls ll lv lj lm ln 25
r rp rt rk rs rr rv rj rm rn 10
sV v vt vc vk vs vl vr vv vj vn 6
j jp jt jk js jl jr jv jj jm jn 6
4 19 7 37 7 10 (1) 3 1 0 6 5 7 1 4

Geminate clusters
2nd →
1st ↓
pp tt cc ćć kk
m mpp 1
l lpp ltt lćć lkk 16
r rtt rcc rćć rkk 18
v vkk 7
j jtt jcc jkk 10
3 18 3 5 23

Comments

  • *-tr- in IE loans is substituted by metathesized *-rtt-.
  • *ðð is found in two words and may have been phonetically [-θð-].
  • I would reconstruct *kv rather than *ŋv for the set of words showing WS *-vk-, ES *-vv-. This allows setting up a constraint against nasal+semivowel clusters & is supported by Scandinavian loan etymologies.
  • Some unsecure clusters (in parentheses) may result from variable adoption of substrate loanwords:
    • "*ŋm" is based on a single word showing WS *-ŋ-, Inari -ŋ-, -vŋ- in rest of ES.
    • "*kŋ" is based on two words showing NWS *-ŋ-, versus Peninsular ES *-vŋ-. Inari and Skolt Sami have -ŋ- for the first, -vŋ- for the 2nd.