Proto-Romance language

Proto-Romance is the comparatively reconstructed ancestor of all Romance languages. It reflects a late variety of spoken Latin prior to regional fragmentation.[1]

Proto-Romance
Reconstruction ofRomance languages
RegionRoman Empire
Erac. 3rd–4th centuries CE?
Reconstructed
ancestors
Proto-Indo-European
  • Proto-Italic
Lower-order reconstructions
  • Common Romanian

Phonology

Monophthongs
Front Central Back
Close i u
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Diphthong

The only phonemic diphthong was /au̯/.[2]

Allophony
  • Vowels were lengthened in stressed open syllables.[3]
  • Stressed /ɛ/, /ɔ/ may have yielded the incipient diphthongs [e͡ɛ], [o͡ɔ] when followed, in the same word, by a syllable containing a close vowel.[4]
    • Whatever the precise outcome, Maiden argues that this would have been limited, at the Proto-Romance stage, to open syllables. That is, it would have applied only to instances of /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ that had been subject to stressed-open-syllable lengthening.[5]

Constraints
  • Neither a distinct /ɛ/ nor /ɔ/ occurred in unstressed position on account of having merged into /e/ and /o/ respectively.[6]
  • Neither a distinct /i/ nor /u/ occurred in the second syllable of words with the structure [ˌσσˈσσ] (such as càntatóre 'singer') on account of having merged into /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ respectively.[7]

Consonants
Per Burger (1955:25)
Labial Coronal Palatal Velar
non-labial labial
Nasal m mʲ n nʲ
Plosive p pʲ b bʲ t tʲ d dʲ j[8] k kʲ ɡ ɡʲ kʷ[8]
Fricative f fʲ β βʲ s sʲ
Vibrant r rʲ
Approximant l lʲ

Allophony
  • Palatalized consonants:
    • There was a tendency to geminate in intervocalic position, though the extent of this varied by consonant.[9][lower-roman 1]
    • There was a tendency to merge /dʲ/, /ɡʲ/ (and occasionally /βʲ/) into /j/.[11]
    • /tʲ/ affricated to [t͡sʲ][12] or [t͡zʲ].[13]
  • A prop-vowel [ɪ] was added before word-initial /sC/ clusters not already preceded by a vowel (as in /sˈtare/ [ɪsˈtaːɾe]).[14]
  • The sequence /ɡn/ was likely realized as [ɣn] at first, with subsequent developments varying by region.[15][lower-roman 2]
  • /j/ was likely realized as [ʝ] or [ɟ], possibly with gemination in intervocalic position.[16]
  • /d/ and /ɡ/ might have been fricatives or approximants in intervocalic position.[17]
  • /s/ might have been apico-alveolar.[18]
  • /ll/ might have been retroflex.[19][lower-roman 3]
  • /f/ might have been bilabial.[20]

Constraints
  • /b/ and /bʲ/ did not occur intervocalically on account of having merged with /β/, /βʲ/.[21]
    • The same merger may also have occurred after the consonants/r/ and /l/, but this is not entirely clear.[22]
  • /kʷ/ and /ɡʷ/ did not occur before back vowels on account of having delabialized to /k/, /ɡ/.[23]

Nouns

Proto-Romance nouns appear to have had three cases: a nominative, an accusative, and a combined genitive-dative.

Per Lausberg (1973:29, 32, 66–67)[lower-roman 4]
Class I II III.M III.F
Number SG PL SG PL SG PL SG PL
NOM kápra kápras kaβállʊs kaβálli páter pátres~pátri máter mátres
ACC kaβállu kaβállos pátre pátres
GEN-DAT kápre kápris kaβállo kaβállis pátri pátris mátri mátris
Translation goat horse father mother

Several Class III nouns had inflexions that differed by syllable count or stress position.

Per Hall (1983:28)
Number SG
NOM ɔ́mo pástor sɔ́ror
ACC ɔ́mɪne pastóre soróre
GEN-DAT ɔ́mɪni pastóri soróri
Translation man pastor sister

Some nouns were pluralized with -a or -ora, having originally been neuter in Classical Latin. Their singular was treated as grammatically masculine, while their plural was treated as feminine.[24]

Per Lausberg (1973:47)
Class II III
Number SG PL SG PL
NOM brákʲu brákʲa tɛ́mpʊs tɛ́mpora
ACC
GEN-DAT brákʲo brákʲis tɛ́mpori tɛ́mporis
Translation arm time

Such nouns, due to their plurals, were often reanalyzed as collective feminine nouns.

Per Alkire & Rosen (2010:193–194)
Number SG PL SG PL
Original noun fɔ́lʲu fɔ́lʲa lɪ́ɡnu lɪ́ɡna
Fem. variant fɔ́lʲa fɔ́lʲas lɪ́ɡna lɪ́ɡnas
Translation leaf, leaves firewood

Adjectives

Positive
Per Lausberg (1973:108–109, 119–122)
Class I/II III
Gender M F M F
Number SG PL SG PL SG PL SG PL
NOM bɔ́nʊs bɔ́ni bɔ́na bɔ́nas βɪ́rdɪs βɪ́rdes~βɪ́rdi βɪ́rdɪs βɪ́rdes
ACC bɔ́nu bɔ́nos βɪ́rde βɪ́rdes βɪ́rde
GEN-DAT bɔ́no bɔ́nis bɔ́ne bɔ́nis βɪ́rdi βɪ́rdis βɪ́rdi βɪ́rdis
Translation good green

Comparative

Proto-Romance inherited the comparative suffix -ior from Latin, but only in a limited number of adjectives.[25][lower-roman 5]

Per Lausberg (1973:129–131)
Number SG
Gender M+F N
NOM mɛ́lʲor mɛ́lʲʊs
ACC melʲóre
Translation better

Otherwise, the typical way to form a comparative seems to have been to add either plus or magis (meaning 'more') to a positive adjective.[26]

Superlative

With the exception of a few fossilized forms, such as /ˈpɛssɪmʊs/ 'worst', superlatives were formed by adding an intensifying adverb or prefix (/mʊltu, bɛne, per-, tras-/ etc.) to a positive adjective. Comparative forms could also have been made superlative by adding a demonstrative adjective.[27]

Possessive

Feminine singular forms shown below. In certain cases there was an opposition between 'strong' (stressed) and 'weak' (unstressed) variants.[28]

Per Lausberg (1973:§§754–755)
1P 2P 3P INT
SG mɛ́a~ma tʊ́a~ta sʊ́a~sa kúja
PL nɔ́stra βɔ́stra

Pronouns

Personal

Numerous variant forms appear to have existed. For the third-person genitive-dative inflexions, there appears to have been an opposition between 'strong' (stressed) and 'weak' (unstressed) variants, as also with the possessive adjectives.

Per Hall (1983:39) and De Dardel & Wüest (1993:39–43, 57)
1P 2P 3P.M 3P.F
Number SG PL SG PL SG PL SG PL
NOM ɛ́ɡo nós tú βós ɪ́lle~ɪ́lli ɪ́lli ɪ́lla ɪ́llas
ACC mé~méne té~téne ɪ́llu ɪ́llos
GEN-DAT mí~mɪ́βɪ nóβɪs tí~tɪ́βɪ βóβɪs ɪlli~ɪllúi ɪllis~ɪllóru ɪlli~ɪllɛ́i ɪllis~ɪllóru

Relative
Per Elcock (1960:95–96)
Gender M+F N
NOM kʷí kɔ́d
ACC kʷɛ́n
GEN-DAT kúi

The interrogative pronouns were the same, except that the neuter nominative-accusative form was /ˈkʷɪd/.

Verbs

Proto Romance verbs belonged to three main classes, each characterized by a different thematic vowel. Their conjugations were built on three stems and involved various combinations of mood, aspect, and tense.[29]

Present indicative
Per Van Den Bussche (1985:§§2.3–2.3.2)[lower-roman 6]
Verb class 1P 2P 3P Translation
SG PL SG PL SG PL
I kánto kantámʊs kántas kantátɪs kántat kántant sing
II.a βɪ́jo βɪdémʊs βɪ́des βɪdétɪs βɪ́det βɪ́jʊnt~βɪ́dʊnt~βɪ́dent see
II.b βɛ́ndo βɛ́ndɪmʊs βɛ́ndɪs βɛ́ndɪtɪs βɛ́ndɪt βɛ́ndʊnt~βɛ́ndent sell
III dɔ́rmo~dɔ́rmʲo dormímʊs dɔ́rmɪs dɔrmítɪs dɔ́rmɪt dɔ́rmʊnt~dɔ́rment sleep
Irregular sʊ́n sʊ́mʊs~sémʊs ɛ́s ɛ́stɪs~sétɪs~sʊ́tɪs ɛ́st sʊ́nt be
áβʲo~ájo aβémʊs áes~ás aβétɪs áet~át áu̯nt~áent~ánt have
dáo dámʊs dás dátɪs dát dáu̯nt~dáent~dánt give
βádo~βáo ímʊs[30] βáɪs~βás ítɪs[30] βáɪt~βát βáu̯nt~βáent~βánt go

Participles

As in Latin, present participles had an active sense and inflected like class III adjectives, while past participles had a passive sense and inflected like class I/II adjectives. Regular forms would have been as follows (in the accusative feminine singular):

Per Hall (1983:122–3)
Type PRES.ACT Translation PERF.PASS Translation
I amánte adoring amáta adored
II aβɛ́nte having aβúta had
III finɛ́nte finishing finíta finished

See also
  • Palatalization in the Romance languages
  • Phonological changes from Classical Latin to Proto-Romance

Notes
  1. The exception is /sʲ/, which appears to have been entirely exempt from gemination.[10]
  2. Per the cited sources, the ultimate outcome of /ɡn/ in most of Romance is /ɲ/. Exceptions include Balkan Romance and Dalmatian, where it yielded /mn/; Sardinian, where it yielded /nn/; and certain dialects of southern Italy, where it yielded /u̯m/ or /i̯m/.
  3. For further discussion on /ll/, see Zampaulo 2019:71–77 and Lausberg 1970:§§494–499.
  4. De Dardel & Gaeng (1992:104) differ from Lausberg on the following points: 1) They believe that the genitive-dative case was limited to animate nouns. 2) They reconstruct a universal GEN-DAT.PL ending /-ˈoru/. 3) They reconstruct, for class I nouns, a NOM.PL /-e/, albeit in competition with /-as/ per De Dardel & Wüest (1993:57). They are in agreement with Lausberg regarding the remaining inflexions.
  5. All comparatives inflected the same way. Further examples are pɛ́jor, májor, mɪ́nor, fɔ́rtjor, and ɡɛ́ntjor; meaning 'worse, greater, lesser, stronger, nobler' Hall (1983:32, 120).
  6. Nearly all of the below is per Van Den Bussche (1985), a critique of, and elaboration on, Hall (1983). Since the former does not discuss the inflexions of essere 'to be', those have been taken unchanged from Hall (1983: 55). Van Den Bussche leaves out the 1PL and 2PL inflexions of vadere 'to go' because there was suppletion with forms of Latin ire, as indicated more explicitly by Maiden (1995:135).

References
  1. Dworkin 2016:13
  2. Ferguson 1976:84; Gouvert 2015:81
  3. Gouvert 2015:118‒119; Loporcaro 2015; Leppänen & Alho 2018:§§5.1, 6
  4. Ferguson 1976:chapter 7
  5. Maiden 2016
  6. Ferguson 1976:76; Gouvert 2015:78–81, 121–122
  7. Lausberg 1970:§§192–196 apud Gouvert 2015:78–79
  8. Gouvert 2015:25
  9. Lausberg 1970:§§451–478
  10. Repetti 2016:659
  11. Barbato 2022:§1; Recasens 2020:§3.1.2
  12. Gouvert 2015:86, 92
  13. Lausberg 1970:§452
  14. Lloyd 1987:148–150; Gouvert 2015:125–126
  15. Lausberg 1970:§444; Chambon 2013 apud Gouvert 2015:95; Zampaulo 2019:80
  16. Lausberg 1970:§§329, 471; Lloyd 1987:132; Gouvert 2015:83, 91; Zampaulo 2019:83‒84, 88
  17. Lloyd 1987:141; Gouvert 2016:48; Barbato 2022:§1
  18. Lloyd 1987:80–81; Zampaulo 2019:93
  19. Gouvert 2015:15
  20. Lloyd 1987:80; Gouvert 2016:28
  21. Lausberg 1970:§§366, 475; Gouvert 2015:86
  22. Gouvert 2015:84
  23. Grandgent 1907:§§226, 254; Lausberg 1970:§§344, 486
  24. Hall 1983:23–4, 29–30
  25. Maltby 2016:340
  26. Lausberg 1973:126–127; Maltby 2016:340–346
  27. Lausberg 1973:§§686–687; Bauer 2016:340, 359
  28. Lyons 1986:20–24
  29. Hall 1983:47–50
  30. Maiden 1995:135

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