Wenja's Roots: Dwani (Sounds), Part 3

Smarkaka, salwa!  Having looked at the realization of PIE stops & fricatives in Wenja, we can now turn our attention to the resonants.  Resonants, as their name implies, are relativity loud (in linguistics, we use the term sonorous) sounds, ones which are made with very little obstruction of airflow. Phonetically & phonologically, they have much in common with vowels, which will be the focus of our next Winjas Surka post.

There are six resonants in PIE & Wenja.  Each is present in English, with one crucial difference.  The < r > of both PIE & Wenja is trilled, not approximant, as we here in the stereotypical "American" r.  You can hear the correct < r > in a whole slew of commercials for Ruffles potato chips. (Note too that the PIE < r > was likely dental, not alveolar)

• < r > (voiced alveolar trill)

PIE *prō ‘forward’ > Hitt. p(a)rā ‘forth’, Ved. prá, Av. fra-, Gk. pró, Lat. prō ‘in front of’, Eng. fro, OCS pro- ‘through’, Lith. prã ‘past’, Wenja pra 'ahead, forth'

• < l > (voiced alveolar lateral approximant)

PIE *lewk- ‘light’ > Hitt. lukke- ‘kindle’, Ved. rócate ‘shines’, Av. raocaiieti ‘lights up’, Gk. leukós ‘bright’, Lat. lūc- ‘light’, OIr. luchair ‘a shining’, Arm. loys ‘light’, Eng. light, TA/B luk ‘to shine’, OCS luča ‘beam of light’, Wenja lawka- 'bright', lawkari 'firefly', lawkisna 'glowing', lawkas 'light, color', lawkaya 'shine, light (transitive); kindle', lawkwal 'white wolf'

• < m > (voiced bilabial nasal)

PIE *men- ‘think’ > Ved. mánas- ‘mind’, Av. manah- ‘mind’, Gk. ménos ‘mental energy’, Lat. ment- ‘mind’, OIr. do-moiniur ‘I think’, Arm. i-manam ‘I understand’, Eng. mind, OCS mĭnjǫ ‘I believe’, Lith. menù ‘I think’, Wenja manas 'plan, strategy', manaya 'warn', mani 'think; rage, be angry'

• < n > (voiced alveolar nasal)

PIE *ne ‘not’ > Hitt. na-tta ‘not’, Ved. ná, Av. na, Lat. ne-, OIr. ní, OEng. ne, OCS ne, Lith. nè, Wenja nay 'no', na 'not', nakwayda 'never', etc.

• < w > (voiced labiovelar glide)

PIE *weǵ^h- ‘to lead, convey (in a vehicle)’ >  HLuv. waza- ‘drive’, Ved. váhati ‘leads, brings’, Av. vazaiti ‘leads, brings’, Gk. ek^hetō ‘let him convey’, Lat. uehere ‘to convey’, OIr. fén ‘wagon’ (< *weǵ^h-no-), OCS vezǫ ‘I convey’, Middle Dutch wagen ‘wagon’ ( > English), Wenja waja 'drive; ride (a bear, sabertooth)'

• < y > (voiced palatal glide)

PIE *yugom ‘a yoke’ > Hitt. iukan ([jugan]), Ved. yugám, Gk. zugón, Lat. iugum, Welsh iau, Lith. jùngas (with secondary -n-), Eng. yoke, Wenja yawga 'to yoke, join' 

In PIE, that's not the end of the story for resonants. In fact, each of these sounds, under certain conditions (to learn more than you could ever want, see http://www.brill.com/products/book/indo-european-syllable :D) are realized as "vowels" in that they act as the peak of their syllable. For < r, l, m, n > this is indicated by a little circle under the consonants in question, for < w, y > they are re-written as < u > and < i >, respectively.

• < r̥ > 

PIE *mr̥tos ‘dead’ > Ved. mr̥tá-, Av. mǝrǝta-, Gk. brotós (< *mrotós) ‘mortal’, Lat. Morta ‘goddess of death’, Arm. mard ‘man’, Eng. murd-er, Old Russ. mĭrtvŭ ‘dead’, Lith. mirtìs ‘death’, Wenja marti 'death', marwa 'dead'

• < l̥ > 

PIE *wl̥k^wos ‘wolf’ > Hitt. walkuwa- ‘monster’, Ved. vr̥ kás, Av. vǝhrka-, OCS vliku, Lith. vilkas, Wenja wal(kwa) 'wolf(pack)'

• < m̥ > 

PIE *deḱm̥ ‘10’ > Ved. daśa, Av. dasa, Gk. déka, Lat. decem, OCS desȩ-tĭ, Lith. dẽšimt, Wenja dacham '10'

• < n̥ > 

PIE *n̥- 'un-' > Ved. a(n)-, Gk. a(n)-, Lat. in-, OIr. an-, Eng. un-, Wenja an-fraji 'distracted', an-sharta 'unharmed', an-shurdwa 'wrong, incorrect'

• < u > 

PIE *nu ‘now’ > Greek nun, Latin nunc, Sanskrit nu, Wenja nu 'now'

• < i > 

PIE *ni ‘down’ > Sanskrit ni 'down', ni-taram 'downward', Greek nei-othen, Old Church Slavonic ni-zŭ 'low down', English ne-ther, Wenja ni 'down'

If you look closely at the Wenja forms above, Wenja does not have these reduced resonants -- rather, with very few exceptions (there are more cases with i & u), there is always a vowel next to resonant in question.  In Indo-European terminology, we would say that Wenja is pre-ablaut. For the most part, no reductions have happened yet.  This is one of the "proto-PIE" features we refer to in our past interviews.