| Proto-Kartvelian | |
| Familycolor: | Caucasian |
| Target: | Kartvelian languages |
| Child1: | Proto-Georgian-Zan |
The Proto-Kartvelian language, or Common Kartvelian (Georgian: წინარექართველური ენა|tr, Georgian: პროტოქართველური ენა|tr), 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.[1] 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).[2]
See also: Proto-Indo-European language. 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.[3] 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
(warm) may also be related to Proto-Indo-European *tep- 'warm'.
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.
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).
| Front | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | ||||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| Close | (i pronounced as /link/) | (u pronounced as /link/) | |||||
| Open-mid | e pronounced as /link/ | ē pronounced as /link/ | o pronounced as /link/ | ō pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open | a pronounced as /link/ | ā pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Postalveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [6] | |||||||||||
| Nasal | m pronounced as /link/ | n pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| Plosive | b pronounced as /link/ | d pronounced as /link/ | ʒ pronounced as /link/ | ʒ₁ pronounced as /link/ | ǯ pronounced as /link/ | g pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| p pronounced as /link/ | t pronounced as /link/ | c pronounced as /link/ | c₁ pronounced as /link/ | č pronounced as /link/ | k pronounced as /link/ | q pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| ṗ pronounced as /link/ | ṭ pronounced as /link/ | c̣ pronounced as /link/ | c̣₁ pronounced as /link/ | č̣ pronounced as /link/ | ɬʼ pronounced as /link/ | ḳ pronounced as /link/ | q̇ pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | s pronounced as /link/ | s₁ pronounced as /link/ | š pronounced as /link/ | lʿ pronounced as /link/ | x pronounced as /link/ | h pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| z pronounced as /link/ | z₁ pronounced as /link/ | ž pronounced as /link/ | ɣ pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Trill | r pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| Approximant | w pronounced as /link/ | l pronounced as /link/ | y pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
Distinction between plain pronounced as /link/ and ejective pronounced as /link/ remains only in Svan language. This distinction also existed in Old Georgian.
Macropedia
. 15th . 1986 . Languages of the World . "Caucasian languages" section.