Proto-Romance language explained

Proto-Romance
Target:	Romance languages
Region:	Roman Empire
Familycolor:	Indo-European
Ancestor:	Proto-Indo-European
Ancestor2:	Proto-Italic
Child1:	Common Romanian
Child2:	Proto-Italo-Western Romance

Proto-Romance is the comparatively reconstructed ancestor of the Romance languages. It is effectively Late Latin viewed retrospectively through its descendants.

Phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
Close	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Near-close	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Close-mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Open-mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Open		pronounced as /link/

Diphthong

pronounced as //au̯// appears to be the only phonemic diphthong that can be reconstructed.

Phonetics

Vowels were lengthened in stressed open syllables.
Stressed pronounced as //ɛ ɔ// may have yielded incipient diphthongs like pronounced as /[e͡ɛ o͡ɔ]/ in metaphonic conditions.
- Metaphony, if it is to be projected to Proto-Romance, may have initially been limited to open syllables. That is, it would have targeted allophonically lengthened pronounced as //ɛ ɔ//.

Constraints

pronounced as //ɛ ɔ// did not occur in unstressed position.
pronounced as //i u// did not occur in the second syllable of words with the structure ˌσσˈσσ.

Consonants

! colspan="2"
Labial	Coronal		Dorsal
Nasal		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	n	pronounced as /link/
Plosive	voiceless	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	t	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Plosive	voiced	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	d	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Fricative	voiceless	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	s	pronounced as /link/
Fricative	voiced	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Approximant				l	pronounced as /link/	(pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/)
Trill				pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/

Palatalized consonants

There is scholarly disagreement over whether palatalization was phonemic in Proto-Romance.
Palatalized consonants tended to geminate between vowels. The extent of this varied by consonant.^[1]
pronounced as //tʲ// would have been an affricate like pronounced as /[t͡sʲ]/ or pronounced as /[t͡zʲ]/.

Phonetics

pronounced as //sC// in word-initial position was assigned a prop-vowel [ɪ], as in pronounced as //ˈstare// pronounced as /[ɪsˈtaːɾe]/.
pronounced as //ɡn// was likely pronounced as /[ɣn]/ at first, with later developments varying by region.^[2]
pronounced as //d ɡ// might have been fricatives or approximants between vowels.
pronounced as //ll// might have been retroflex.
pronounced as //f// might have been bilabial.

Constraints

pronounced as //b// did not occur in intervocalic position.

Morphology

The forms below are spelt as they are in the cited sources, either in Latin style or in phonetic notation. The latter may not always agree with the phonology given above.

Nouns

Nouns are reconstructed as having three cases: a nominative, an accusative, and a genitive-dative:

Number	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
Type	colspan="2"	-a (f)	colspan="2"	-o (m)	colspan="2"	-C (m)	colspan="2"	-C (f)
NOM	capra	capras	caballus	caballi	frater	fratres/-i	noctis	noctes
ACC	capra	capras	caballu	caballos	fratre	fratres	nocte	noctes
GEN-DAT	caprae	capris	caballo	caballis	fratri	fratris	nocti	noctis
Gloss	‘goat’		‘horse’		‘brother’		‘night’

Some nouns of the –C type had inflections with alternating stress or syllable count:

Number	SG	PL	SG	PL
Type	colspan="2"	-C (m)	colspan="2"	-C (f)
NOM	hómo	hómines/-i	múlier	muliéres
ACC	hómine	hómines	muliére	muliéres
GEN-DAT	hómini	hóminis	muliéri	muliéris
Gloss	‘man’		‘woman’

There were also ‘neuter’ nouns. In the singular they would have been treated as masculine and in the plural as feminine, often with a collective sense.

Number	SG	PL	SG	PL
Type	colspan="2"	-o (n)	colspan="2"	-C (n)
NOM	bracchiu	bracchia	corpus	corpora
ACC	bracchiu	bracchia	corpus	corpora
GEN-DAT	bracchio	bracchiis	corpori	corporis
Gloss	‘arm’		‘body’

Adjectives

Positive

rowspan="7"
Number	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	colspan="5"	-o/-a
Gender	M		F		M		F
NOM	bonus	boni	bona	bonas	virdis	virdes/-i	virdis	virdes
ACC	bonu	bonos	bona	bonas	virde	virdes	virde	virdes
GEN-DAT	bono	bonis	bonae	bonis	virdi	virdis	virdi	virdis
Gloss	‘good’			‘green’

Comparative

For the most part, the typical way to form a comparative would have been to add magis or plus (‘more’) to a positive adjective. A few words were inherited with a comparative suffix -ior. Their inflections can be reconstructed as follows:

Gender	M or F	N
Number	SG
NOM	mélior	mélius
ACC	melióre	mélius
Gloss	‘better’

Superlative

Superlatives would have been formed by adding definite articles to comparatives.

Pronouns

Personal

Tonic

The stressed or 'strong' forms:

Number	SG	PL	SG	PL
Person	1		2
NOM	ego	nos	tu	vos
ACC	me/mene	nos	te/tene	vos
DAT	mi/mibi	nobis	ti/tibi	vobis

Number	SG	PL	SG	PL
Person	3 (m)		3 (f)
NOM	ille/illi/ipse	illi/ipsi	illa/ipsa	illas/ipsas
ACC	illu/ipsu	illos/ipsos	illa/ipsa	illas/ipsas
(GEN-)DAT	illui/ipsui	illoru/ipsoru	illaei/ipsaei	illoru/ipsoru

Atonic

The unstressed or 'weak' forms:

Number	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
Person	1		2		3 (m)		3 (f)
ACC	me	nos	te	vos	lu	los	la	las
DAT	mi	nos	tī	vos	li	lis	li	lis

Interrogative/relative

As follows:

Gender	M or F	N
NOM	qui	quid(/quod?)
ACC	quem	quid(/quod?)
DAT	cui	–

Verbs

Present

Verb class
SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL	Infinitive
1P		2P		3P		Infinitive
I	kánto	kantámųs	kántas	kantátįs	kántat	kántant	kantáre
IIa	dǫ́rm(j)o	dormímųs	dǫ́rmįs	dormítįs	dǫ́rmįt	dǫ́rmųnt/-ent	dormíre
IIb	florésko/-í-	florímųs	floréskįs/-í-	florítįs	floréskįt/-í-	floréskųnt/-í-	floríre
IIIa	wį́dd’o	wįdémųs	wį́des	wįdétįs	wį́det	wį́dųnt/-ent (wį́dd’ųnt)	wįdére
IIIb	wę́ndo	wę́ndįmųs	wę́ndįs	wę́ndįtįs	wę́ndįt	wę́ndųnt/-ent	wę́ndere
Irregular	dáo	dámųs	dás	dátįs	dát	dánt/dáųnt/dáent	dáre
Irregular	ábjo/ájjo	abémųs	áes/ás	abétįs	áet/át	ánt/áųnt/áent	abére

Preterite

Verb class
SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL	Infinitive
1P		2P		3P		Infinitive
I	kantáj	kantámmųs	kantásti	kantástįs	kantáwt/-át	kantárųnt	kantáre
IIa	dormíj	dormímmųs	dormísti	dormístįs	dormíwt/-ít	dormírųnt	dormíre
IIIb	battę́j	battę́mmųs	battę́sti	battę́stįs	battę́wt/-ę́t	battę́rųnt	báttere
Irregular	féki	fékįmųs/-kį́mm-	fekį́sti	fekį́stįs	fékįt	fékerųnt/-ér-	fákere
Irregular	díksi	díksįmųs/-kį́mm-	dikį́sti	dikį́stįs	díksįt	díkserųnt	díkere

Participles

rowspan="4"
	present	preterite
I	kantánte	kantátų
II	dormę́nte	dormítų
III	wendę́nte	(wę́ndįtų/-útų)

Bibliography

Book: Adams, James Noel . 2013 . 10.1017/CBO9780511843433 . Social variation and the Latin language . Cambridge University Press. 978-0-511-84343-3 .
Book: Alkire . Ti . Romance languages: A historical introduction . Rosen . Carol . Cambridge University Press . 2010. 978-0-521-88915-5 .
Web site: Barbato . Marcello . 2022 . The early history of Romance palatalizations . Oxford Research Encyclopedias. 10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.750 . 978-0-19-938465-5 .
Burger . André . 1955 . Phonématique et diachronie à propos de la palatalisation des consonnes romanes . Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure . 13 . 13 . 19–33 . 27757997.
Chambon . Jean-Pierre . 2013 . Notes sur un problème de la reconstruction phonétique et phonologique du protoroman: Le groupe */ɡn/ . Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris . CVIII . 1 . 273–282 . 10.2143/BSL.108.1.3019219.
de Dardel . Robert . Gaeng . Paul Ami . 1992 . La declinaison nominale du latin non classique: Essai d'une methode de synthese . Probus . 4 . 2 . 91–125 . amp . 10.1515/prbs.1992.4.2.91.
de Dardel . Robert . Wüest . Jakob . 1993 . Les systèmes casuels du protoroman: Les deux cycles de simplification . Vox Romanica . 52 . 25–65 . amp.
Dworkin . Steven N. . 2016 . Do romanists need to reconstruct Proto-Romance? The case of the Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman project . Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie . 132 . 1–19 . 10.1515/zrp-2016-0001.
Book: Elcock, William Dennis . 1960 . The Romance languages . London . Faber and Faber.
Book: Ferguson, Thaddeus . 1976 . A history of the Romance vowel systems through paradigmatic reconstruction . Berlin . 10.1515/9783110806960 . De Gruyter. 978-3-11-080696-0 .
Book: Gouvert, Xavier . 2015 . Le système phonologique du protoroman: essai de reconstruction . 10.1515/9783110313482 . Buchi, Éva . Berlin . 61–128 . Schweickard, Wolfgang . Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman . De Gruyter. 978-3-11-031244-7 .
Book: Gouvert, Xavier . 2016 . Du protoitalique au protoroman: deux problèmes de reconstruction phonologique . 10.1515/9783110453614 . Buchi, Éva . Schweickard, Wolfgang . Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman 2 . De Gruyter . Berlin . 27–51 . 978-3-11-045361-4 . amp.
Book: Grandgent, Charles Hall . 1907 . An introduction to Vulgar Latin . Boston . D.C. Heath & Co.
Book: Hall, Robert Anderson . 1976 . Proto-Romance phonology . New York . Elsevier. 978-0-444-00183-2 .
Book: Hall, Robert Anderson . 1983 . Proto-Romance morphology . Philadelphia . John Benjamins. 978-90-272-3522-0 .
Book: Lausberg, Heinrich . Lingüística románica . 1970 . Gredos . 2nd . I–II . Madrid . Pérez Riesco . José . 1965 . Pascual Rodríguez . E..
- Original in German: Book: Romanische Sprachwissenshaft . 1956–62 . De Gruyter . Berlin.
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van den Bussche . Henri . 1985 . Proto-Romance inflectional morphology. Review of Proto-Romance morphology by Robert Hall. . Lingua . 66 . 2–3 . 225–60 . 10.1016/S0024-3841(85)90336-5.
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Notes and References

; ;
apud ;

Proto-Romance language explained

Phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs

Diphthong

Phonetics

Constraints

Consonants

Palatalized consonants

Phonetics

Constraints

Morphology

Nouns

Adjectives

Positive

Comparative

Superlative

Pronouns

Personal

Tonic

Atonic

Interrogative/relative

Verbs

Present

Preterite

Participles

See also

Bibliography

Notes and References