Wiktionary:About Lepontic

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Lepontic is an Alpine Language, and a descendant of Proto-Celtic. It is under debate how closely it is related to Gaulish, but the most common thinking since Lejeune in 1971 (and reinforced by Koch in 2008) is that it should be considered a separate (yet heavily related, perhaps a sister or cousin, to Gaulish) Celtic language. It was probably the first language to diverge from Proto-Celtic.

Phonology and Notation

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Consonants

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  • Labial voiceless plosives: p, pp
  • Labial voiceless fricatives: φ
  • Labial voiced plosives: β, bb
  • Labial voiced nasals: m, mm
  • Labial voiced approximants: u̯
  • Coronal voiceless plosives: t, tt
  • Coronal voiceless affricates: ts
  • Coronal voiceless fricatives: s
  • Coronal voiced plosives: δ, dd
  • Coronal voiced nasals: ŋ, nn
  • Coronal voiced trills: r, rr
  • Coronal voiced laterals: l, ll
  • Coronal voiced approximants: i̯
  • Dorsal voiceless plosives: k, kk
  • Dorsal voiceless fricatives: χ
  • Dorsal voiced plosives: γ, gg

Vowels

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Short:

  • Front open: i
  • Front mid: e
  • Central low: a
  • Back open: u
  • Back mid: o

Long:

  • Front open: ī
  • Central low: ā
  • Back open: ū

Diphthongs

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Short:

  • Front mid: ei̯
  • Central low: ai̯, au̯
  • Back mid: oi̯, ou̯

Long:

  • Central low: āi̯
  • Back open: ūi̯

Phonological developments

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Vowel development from Proto-Celtic to Lepontic:

Proto-Celtic Lepontic
Normally
u
o
i
e
a
ū
ī
ā
au
ai
ei
oi
ou

Consonant mutation

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Proto-Celtic Lepontic
g k
st ś
k
ks s
mb p
nd n(n)
x s

Declension

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According to Lexicon Leponticum the known declension endings are:

Masculine
o-stems
Feminine
ā-stems
Masc./fem.
i-stems
Masc./fem.
n-stems
Nominative singular -os -a -is -u
Accusative singular -om -am
Genitive singular -oiso, -i
Dative singular -ui -ai -ei? -onei, -oni
Nominative plural -ones?
Dative plural -opos -onepos

See also

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