vega(n)(s)
May. 25th, 2012 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steorran_woruldeFor some weeks (months?) now, the following forms have been sticking to each other in my mind:
Vegas (the city)
Vega (the star)
vegan (not eating animal products)/Vegan (relating to Vega)
vegans/Vegans
They look a lot like the different case/number forms of an Indo-European (non-neuter) noun, and I've been wanting to work out what that paradigm could look like, and what the developments from Proto-Indo-European to the hypothetical language with this paradigm would be. So today I decided to actually try to work it out
My first draft was:
Singular
Nominative: *weg-os > vegas
Accusative: *weg-om > vegan
Vocative: *weg-e > vega
Genitive: *weg-os > vegas
Plural
Accusative: *weg-ons > veg-ans
Sound developments:
Stress: becomes fixed on first syllable of root
*w > v
*e > e in stressed syllable
*g > g
*e, *o > a in unstressed syllable
*n > m word-finally
Then I realized that if I derived it from a root *weǵh-, it could be an o-stem noun from the same IE root that English way comes from. Also, I can work out what a few of the other forms are based on these rules - and some of them actually surface the same as these forms.
So, here are the parts of the paradigm I could work out, with an additional rule that long vowels merge with short vowels, and typical handling of laryngeals:
Singular:
Nominative: *weǵh-os > veg-as
Accusative: *weǵh-om > veg-an
Vocative: *weǵh-e > veg-a
Genitive: *weǵh-os > veg-as
Ablative: *weǵh-ōd
Dative: *weǵh-ōi
Locative: *weǵh-oi
Instrumental: *weǵh-oh1 > veg-a
Plural:
Nominative: *weǵh-ōs > veg-as
Accusative: *weǵh-ons > veg-ans
Genitive: *weǵh-om > veg-an
Dative: *weǵh-omus
Locative: *weǵh-oisu
Instrumental: *weǵh-ōis
Sound development rules
Vowel + laryngeal = long vowel (coloured by laryngeal as appropriate)
Stress becomes established on the first syllable of the root.
Long vowels are shortened.
*w > v
*e > e in stressed syllables
*e, o > a in unstressed syllables
*ǵh > g
*m > n word-finally
*s > s
None of the other forms have a necessary development based on the already established rules, and for none of them have I been able to come up with an obvious English form that should be thrown in to this silly-derivation mix, so the rest of the paradigm is blank for the moment. One possible extension is to have *weǵh-ōi and *weǵh-oi become "veggie" and *weǵh-ōis become "veggies", with *oi > /i/ and palatalization of /g/ before /i/. Although "veggies" is problematic because it would have *s > /z/ while "vegas" has *s > /s/. And the equivalences work better in pronunciation, while the original equivalences work better in spelling. So I think I won't incorporate them for now.
Vegas (the city)
Vega (the star)
vegan (not eating animal products)/Vegan (relating to Vega)
vegans/Vegans
They look a lot like the different case/number forms of an Indo-European (non-neuter) noun, and I've been wanting to work out what that paradigm could look like, and what the developments from Proto-Indo-European to the hypothetical language with this paradigm would be. So today I decided to actually try to work it out
My first draft was:
Singular
Nominative: *weg-os > vegas
Accusative: *weg-om > vegan
Vocative: *weg-e > vega
Genitive: *weg-os > vegas
Plural
Accusative: *weg-ons > veg-ans
Sound developments:
Stress: becomes fixed on first syllable of root
*w > v
*e > e in stressed syllable
*g > g
*e, *o > a in unstressed syllable
*n > m word-finally
Then I realized that if I derived it from a root *weǵh-, it could be an o-stem noun from the same IE root that English way comes from. Also, I can work out what a few of the other forms are based on these rules - and some of them actually surface the same as these forms.
So, here are the parts of the paradigm I could work out, with an additional rule that long vowels merge with short vowels, and typical handling of laryngeals:
Singular:
Nominative: *weǵh-os > veg-as
Accusative: *weǵh-om > veg-an
Vocative: *weǵh-e > veg-a
Genitive: *weǵh-os > veg-as
Ablative: *weǵh-ōd
Dative: *weǵh-ōi
Locative: *weǵh-oi
Instrumental: *weǵh-oh1 > veg-a
Plural:
Nominative: *weǵh-ōs > veg-as
Accusative: *weǵh-ons > veg-ans
Genitive: *weǵh-om > veg-an
Dative: *weǵh-omus
Locative: *weǵh-oisu
Instrumental: *weǵh-ōis
Sound development rules
Vowel + laryngeal = long vowel (coloured by laryngeal as appropriate)
Stress becomes established on the first syllable of the root.
Long vowels are shortened.
*w > v
*e > e in stressed syllables
*e, o > a in unstressed syllables
*ǵh > g
*m > n word-finally
*s > s
None of the other forms have a necessary development based on the already established rules, and for none of them have I been able to come up with an obvious English form that should be thrown in to this silly-derivation mix, so the rest of the paradigm is blank for the moment. One possible extension is to have *weǵh-ōi and *weǵh-oi become "veggie" and *weǵh-ōis become "veggies", with *oi > /i/ and palatalization of /g/ before /i/. Although "veggies" is problematic because it would have *s > /z/ while "vegas" has *s > /s/. And the equivalences work better in pronunciation, while the original equivalences work better in spelling. So I think I won't incorporate them for now.