Old Albic/Version 1

Introduction

Old Albic (OA) is the oldest Albic language attested in writing. The language was spoken in southern Britain prior to the Celtic invasions. This sketch describes the classical language as it was spoken and written in the heyday of the Albic civilization in the 6th century BC. The native term for the standard language is Tañ Tach (Is Elbis), "proper language (of the Elves)".

Phonology

Consonants

Old Albic has 18 consonant phonemes, which are summed up in the following chart:

                     Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
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Stops, voiceless      p      t                       c
Stops, voiced         b      d                       g
Fricatives            ph     th     s                ch    h
Nasals                m      n                       ñ
Lateral                             l
Flap                                r
Semivowels            v                      j
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Most are as in IPA, except: c = /k/, ph = /f/, th = /T/, ch = /x/, ñ = /N/, v = /w/.

The stops (p, t, c, b, d, g) have fortis and lenis allophones. The lenis allophones occur between vowels, semivowels and liquids, the fortis allophones in all other environments.

The phonemes ph, th and ch, while phonetically fricatives, phonologically behave like stops, and probably were aspirated stops in an earlier stage of the language.

Clusters of stop (including ph, th, ch) and /s/ undergo metathesis, e.g. ps -> sp. Between vowels, /s/ becomes /r/ (rhotacism).

Vowels

There are 7 vowel qualities in Old Albic:

       a e i o ø u y

_____________________

[open] + + - + + - - [front] - + + - + - + [round] - - - + + + + _____________________

All seven vowels have roughly their IPA values. These vowels can be short or long. Long vowels are transcribed with an accent mark: á, é, í, ó, ú, ǿ, ý. Long vowels are tense, short vowels are lax.

Umlaut

The vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ (both short and long) cause changes in preceding short vowels. These changes are called umlaut. Corresponding to the three umlaut-causing vowels, there are three kinds of umlaut: a-umlaut lowers high vowels, i-umlaut fronts back vowels, and u-umlaut rounds unrounded vowels. The changes are summarized in the following table:

Radical a-umlaut i-umlaut u-umlaut __________________________________

a a e o e e e ø i e i y o o ø o ø ø ø ø u o y u y ø y y __________________________________

Umlaut takes precedence from right to left. For example, if an a precedes an i, it is umlauted to e and thus does not trigger a-umlaut in the vowel preceding it.

Vowel harmony

Some affixes undergo vowel harmony: the vowel in the affix always matches the nearest vowel of the stem. The classical Albic scholars analyzed this phenomenon as an eighth vowel phoneme that has none of the three possible vowel features and thus borrows them from the neighbouring vowel. Such a featureless vowel position in an affix is represented by the symbol _@_.

Phonotactics

Most Old Albic syllables are CV or CVC, but CCVC, CVCC and even CCVCC syllables occur. Two-consonant onsets generally consist of an obstruent followed by a liquid or semivowel, or of a stop preceded by a homorganic nasal or /s/. Two-consonant codas mostly consist of a liquid followed by an obstruent or nasal. Zero onsets occur, but only word-initially or after an open syllable. No more than three consonants may occur together between two vowels.

Accent

Old Albic has a phonetic stress accent that depends on syllable weight. Words with one or two syllables are always stressed on the first syllable. In words with three or more syllables, the accent falls on the antepenultimate (third-last) syllable if both the penultimate and ultimate syllable are light (i.e., they are open and have a short vowel), otherwise on the penultimate syllable.

This accent rule can be formulated in a more concise manner using the concept of the mora. A mora is a metric unit below the syllable. A light syllable consists of one mora, a heavy syllable of two. In light of this, it is the third-last mora that carries the accent in Old Albic.

Linking

In Old Albic, neighbouring words are often phonetically linked, similar to the liaison in French. Linking occurs between the elements of a noun phrase, as well as between a verb or a preposition and the following adverb or noun phrase. While each of the linked words has its own stress, the words are phonetically run together. If two words are linked of which the first ends in a vowel and the seconds begins with a stop, that stop is pronounced as a lenis stop just like a stop following a vowel in the same word. Thus, Old Albic shows a subphonemic initial mutation.