- See also: Venetic, Venetic:Morphology and Syntax, Venetic:Lessons, and Venetic:notes
Consonants[]
There were approximately sixteen consonants in Venetic, with four places of articulation--labial, dental, velar, and labiovelar--and voiced and unvoiced allophones in the plosives. All fricatives are voiceless and all liquids are voiced.
Venetic Consonants | Manner of Articulation | Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal |
Stop | ||||||||
Voiceless | p | t | k | kw | ||||
Voiced | b | d | g | |||||
Fricative | f | s | h | |||||
Nasal | m | n | ||||||
Liquid | ||||||||
Lateral | l | |||||||
Non Lateral | r | |||||||
Glide | y | w |
CEWAL gives the following examples of Venetic consonants: (Note that the periods represent the syllabic punctuation)
- per. ("through") /p/
- te.r.monio.s. ("of the boundaries") /t/
- ke ("and") /k/
- .e.kwo.n. ("horse") /kw/
- bu.k.ka ("Bukka") /b/
- de.i.wo.s. ("god") /d/
- .e.go ("I") /g/
- vha.g.s.to ("he made") /vh/=/f/
- donasan ("they gave") /s/
- ho.s.tihawo.s. ("Hostihavos") /h/
- murtuvoi ("dead") /m/
- dono.m. ("gift") /n/
- lo.u.derobo.s. ("children") /l/
- re.i.tiia.n. ("Reita") /r/
- yorobo.s. ("?") /y/
- vo.l.tiiomno.i. ("Voltiomnos") /w/
There was an additional letter, File:Venetic-san.jpg (san), which may have represented a dental affricate /ts/ or perhaps a palatal fricate /sh/. However, the precise value is unknown.
Vowels[]
Venetic had at least five vowel sounds of varying quantity. Although the script did not distinguish between short and long vowel length, quantity may have been retained nonetheless.
a | e | i | o | u | |
short | vha.g.s.to /a/ | te.r.monio.s. /e/ | tribus.iiate.i. /i/ | hostihavo.s /o/ | klutiiari.s. /u/ |
long | vhratere.i. /a:/ | pater /e:/ | vivoi /i:/ | dono.n. /o:/ | .u. /u:/ |
In addition to these pure vowels, these were also six diphthongs:
- de.i.vo.s. /ei/
- te.u.ta /eu/
- bro.i.joko.s. /oi/
- vhouge /ou/
- .a..i.su.n /ai/
- augar /au/
/eu/ was the most rare of the above, only occurring several times in a restricted area. In addition, it only occurred more recently, perhaps pointing to contact with non Venetic-speakers or an ou > eu sound change.
Phonological Changes[]
Venetic sound changes were centered around the reduction of vowels before word-final /s/. For instance, in prehistoric times, /o/ disappeared, causing the suffix -C-yos (C=consonant) to become C-is. For example, ve.n.noni.s. likely descended from *vennonyos. by the historic period, the /i/ also dropped away, yielding a word-final consonant cluster. Thus, .e.ge.s.t.s. < *egestis < *egestyos.
/h/ disappeared altogether between 350 and 300 B.C., although this loss started much earlier and is one of the earliest known phonological changes in Venetic.
Later Developments[]
By the end of the Venetic period, further changes were brought about on account of the language being written in Latin script. There is inconsistent monophthongization, such as ou > o (/o:/) and ei > e (e:). In addition, the distinction between sigma and san (the silibant of unknown value) was removed due to the limits of the Latin script.