| Proto-Kartvelian | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of | Kartvelian languages |
| Era | c. 10500 BC[1] |
| Lower-order reconstructions | |
TheProto-Kartvelian language, orCommon Kartvelian (Georgian:წინარექართველური ენა,romanized:ts'inarekartveluri ena,Georgian:პროტოქართველური ენა,romanized:p'rot'okartveluri ena), is thelinguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of theKartvelian languages, which was spoken by the ancestors of the modernKartvelian peoples. The existence of such a language is widely accepted by specialists in linguistics, who have reconstructed a broad outline of the language bycomparing the existing Kartvelian languages against each other.[2]Several linguists, namely Gerhard Deeters andGeorgy Klimov have also reconstructed a lower-levelproto-language calledProto-Karto-Zan orProto-Georgian-Zan, which is the ancestor ofKarto-Zan languages (includesGeorgian andZan).[3]
TheBashplemi lake tablet is thought to possibly be Proto-Kartvelian[citation needed].
Theablaut patterns of Proto-Kartvelian are highly similar to those of theIndo-European languages, and so it is thought that Proto-Kartvelian interacted with Indo-European at a relatively early date.[4] 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*ṭep- (warm) may also be related to Proto-Indo-European*tep- 'warm'.[2][better source needed]
The modern descendants of Proto-Kartvelian areGeorgian,Svan,Mingrelian andLaz. 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.[2]
The system ofpronouns 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 inSvan 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 (calledKarto-Zan) split intoGeorgian andZan (Mingrelo-Laz).[2]
| Front | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | (*i[i]) | (*u[u]) | ||||
| Open-mid | *e[ɛ] | *ē[ɛː] | *o[ɔ] | *ō[ɔː] | ||
| Open | *a[ɑ] | *ā[ɑː] | ||||
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Postalveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | central | lateral[9] | |||||||
| Nasal | *m[m] | *n[n] | ||||||||
| Plosive | voiced | *b[b] | *d[d] | *ʒ[d͡z] | *ʒ₁[d͡ʐ] | *ǯ[d͡ʒ] | *g[ɡ] | |||
| voiceless | *p[p] | *t[t] | *c[t͡s] | *c₁[t͡ʂ] | *č[t͡ʃ] | *k[k] | *q[q] | |||
| ejective | *ṗ[pʼ] | *ṭ[tʼ] | *c̣[t͡sʼ] | *c̣₁[t͡ʂʼ] | *č̣[t͡ʃʼ] | *ɬʼ[t͡ɬʼ] | *ḳ[kʼ] | *q̇[qʼ] | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | *s[s] | *s₁[ʂ] | *š[ʃ] | *lʿ[ɬ] | *x[x] | *h[h] | |||
| voiced | *z[z] | *z₁[ʐ] | *ž[ʒ] | *ɣ[ɣ] | ||||||
| Trill | *r[r] | |||||||||
| Approximant | *w[w] | *l[l] | *y[j] | |||||||
Distinction between plain[q] andejective[qʼ] remains only inSvan language. This distinction also existed inOld Georgian.
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| Encoding | ||
| Genealogy | ||
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