Proto-Pontic language

Proto-Pontic language

Proto-Pontic is the postulated proto-language for a Pontic language family or macrofamily. Each of these terms may refer to a number of different linguistic entities.

Northwest Caucasian

In its narrowest sense, Pontic is a synonym for the well-established Abkhazo-Adyghian or Northwest Caucasian (NWC) language family, contrasting with "Caspian" (for the possibly related Nakho-Dagestanian or Northeast Caucasian family).

John Colarusso's Proto-Pontic

In 1997 the linguist John Colarusso proposed another definition. His Proto-Pontic has two daughter languages: Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Northwest Caucasian, the proto-languages of the Indo-European and Northwest Caucasian language families. Colarusso postulated this proto-language after observing a number of similarities between these two proto-languages in the areas of phonology and morphology. Critics consider these resemblances to be superficial.

Examples of similarities that have been noted include:

* Nasal negating particles in both families:
** PIE "*n-": Germanic "un-", Romance "in-", Russian "ne-".
** NWC: Ubykh "m-", Abkhaz "m-".
* A case variously named "accusative", "oblique" or "objective", marked with nasal suffixes:
** PIE accusative "*-m": Latin "luna" 'moon' (nom.) vs "lunam" (acc.).
** NWC: Ubykh "kwæy" 'well (water source)' (abs.) vs "kwæyn" (obl.).

ee also

* Pontic language is a Greek language which was spoken in the Pontus, and has no special relationship to Proto-Pontic.

References

*


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