Etymological Dictionary of Basque - Cryptm.org

14 R. L. Trask
2. The phonemes of Pre-Basque
The name Pre-Basque is given here to the earliest stage of the language for which significant
information can be obtained. This is the period when Basque first began borrowing words
from Latin, and so it must represent a time of about 2000 years ago. The phonemes of Pre-
Basque were magisterially reconstructed by Luis Michelena (1961a). The reconstructed
segments are as follows, where the symbols are chosen to reflect the most usual continuations
of the segments in the modern language, and should not be taken as phonetically precise. The
consonants fall into two groups, called fortis and lenis by Michelena.
fortis:
lenis:
vowels:
(p) t k tz ts N L R
b d g z s n l r
i e a o u
The consonant *p was at best rare, and its existence is not certain. The segments *tz and *z
were lamino-alveolar friction consonants, while *ts and *s were apico-alveolar friction
consonants, as in the modern language. So far as we can judge, the two consonant series
were distinguished phonetically as follows. First, the fortes were long, while the lenes were
short. (The liquid *R was probably a trill, like its modern descendant rr, while *r was
probably a tap, like its modern descendant r.) Second, the five fortis obstruents were
completely occluded, while the five lenes were often incompletely occluded – always so for
the friction consonants. Third, the segments *p *t *k were usually voiceless, while *b *d *g
were usually voiced. Fourth, the segments *p *t *k could bear the aspiration, while *b *d *g
could not.
Note that no *m can be reconstructed for Pre-Basque. The modern m was introduced into the
language by the phonological changes P**{2}, P**{3} and P**{7}, described in section 6.
Early borrowings also often contained m; see especially L**{6} in section ***{10}. The
modern consonants f and j were also absent from Pre-Basque; their origins are given in
section {6: P72, P36}.
The aspiration was undoubtedly present in Pre-Basque, but it seems to have been a nonphonemic
suprasegmental feature; see section 3.
The modern palatal and palatal-alveolar consonants tt, dd, tx, x, ñ and ll were probably
present in Pre-Basque, but these never occurred in ordinary lexical items: instead, they
occurred only in expressive variants of these items. See section {11}.
The modern diphthongs ai, ei, oi, au and eu were very likely present in Pre-Basque, but they
were not distinct from the corresponding vowel sequences. They differed from other vowel
sequences only in that they could constitute single syllabic nuclei for such purposes as
aspiration assignment. The rare modern diphthong ui was probably absent: this diphthong
seems to have developed since Pre-Basque. Other vowel sequences, if these occurred at all,
seemingly could not form single syllabic nuclei.
There were extensive neutralizations of fortis/lenis consonant pairs. The fortis and lenis
members of each pair contrasted only word-medially, and mostly only intervocalically.
Word-initially, only lenis consonants occurred, and only six of them: *b *d *z *s *l *n.
Word-finally, only fortis consonants occurred, and only five of them in lexical items (*tz *ts