I have been wondering for quite a while what the rather common  
Urianian z lexeme might signify. The obvious thing, which I assumed  
for many years, is a voiced s, giving such names as Zip, Zagyl, Zilig  
etc. a nice, barbaric sound. However as it commonly occurs next to  
unvoiced stops, as in Zpi, Zperin and Riglitz, it started me  
wondering. Having a voiced s in these environments doesn't sound  
right. It is of course possible, but likely? I wondered for a while  
if the z in these or all the environments were a fossil from an  
earlier phase where a voiced s once had existed, but now had been  
unvoiced as a result of being placed next to an unvoiced stop due to  
a voicing change in the stop or the ellipse of a formerly intervening  
phoneme. Urianians became acquainted with the Latin alphabet in the  
early centuries of this Era, and started using it themselves before  
500 CE.

One of my first breakthroughs in understanding Urianian etymology was  
when I found the name Tumunuk in an eastern dialect area and  
remembered the name Demnig from the central highland dialect area  
which is the basis for the modern written language (because the first  
modern academy was founded there in 1833). Then I also remembered the  
IE root *Tumon- with a meaning that's suitable for a personal name,  
and realised that the eastern dialect had changed the vowels while  
keeping the consonants unchanged, while the central one had voiced  
the stops and made some further vowel changes. I think both names  
strongly indicate an initial stress for Urianian.

Eventually I found that central Urianian as a general rule had simply  
voiced all the IE unvoiced unaspirated stops and unvoiced all the  
voiced ones. Rather curious, but it simply was the best way I could  
fit the names onto the IE roots. Possibly it could have happened  
through later aspiration changes. In the other dialects this change  
is not so complete. Western lowland dialects have voiced the initial  
p and all final unvoiced unaspirated stops, but left the initial k  
and t unvoiced. Eastern lowland dialects retain the initial p as well  
as the final ones, if my analysis so far is right.

Another striking feature of Urianian names is the absence of clusters  
beginning with s-, which is very common in all other IE languages.  
Now, the western lowland names, which were the first ones I analysed,  
still retain a small number of names beginning with P-, such as  
Panyl, Piz, Pren, and I found that I could fit them onto IE roots  
beginning with *sp-, some easily and some with rather more of a  
struggle. I then theorised that Urianian after the voicing changes  
had lost the initial cluster s, and that unvoiced stops after the s  
had been protected from voicing by the presence of the s.

Now back to the z. Since IE has no voiced s, I wondered what could  
have given rise to it in modern Urianian. I decided that aspirated  
stops were the best candidates, as they are affricated in many  
languages. And indeed many Z- names seemed to fit very well with IE  
dh- roots. Names beginning with labiodentals weren't uncommon either,  
so I had a place for the IE bh-. The IE gh- found a home when I  
realised that the eastern dialect had many names with initial H-, a  
lexeme which is missing from other dialect areas, indicating that the  
gh- was lost there and remained as probably a glottal approximant  
only in the east.

Now the question was does the modern Urianian z signify a voiced  
dental fricative, or has it developed into the usual voiced alveolar  
one? Not an improbable change I think, but then I had those 'zp' and  
'tz' combinations to consider. I also found a number of names  
starting in Zt- and Zk-, including some place names. The distribution  
gives a clue, because they occur mainly in the east and south, while  
the west and central areas were nearly devoid of them. The exceptions  
comprise mainly the popular names Zpi and Zperin, with variants,  
which may have been imported. The west contains some 'tz', though.

When I examined the forms, the conclusion seemed unavoidable that  
they reflect IE *sk-, *sp- and *st- roots, and that the initial s was  
retained in the east and south in the form of a sound that can be  
written with a z. There is no sign of the frequent IE *skr-, *spr-  
and *str- clusters, but there is plenty of kr-, pr- and tr-, so I  
assume that s before double consonants was lost completely very  
early. What does this all mean? Is the z really an s? But there are  
many names containing an s, and there is usually no problems finding  
an IE s-containing root for them. There is usually no problems  
finding an IE dh-containing root for them either, but a little more  
difficult, and I think the Urianian s is the IE s, the simplest  
solution.

Then I considered the devoicing of the d in Central Urianian. Could  
the dh also have been devoiced? The d is not devoiced in Western  
Urianian, which used to be cultural focus of Urianian before Azurian  
took over during the first half of the last millennium. And I suppose  
the usage of z for the voiced dental fricative might have started  
there, and maybe they even had evolved it into a voiced alveolar  
fricative, (though z for dental fricatives is not stranger than other  
usages for the z), while the central highlanders then perhaps later  
used it for their corresponding unvoiced dental fricative. Then the  
southern highlanders and the easterners also used it for the  
fricative they used before unvoiced stops and which they somehow  
distinguished from the s. I guess this must mean that s before  
unvoiced stops have developed into something other than an alveolar  
fricative and most likely into an unvoiced dental fricative or  
something very like it.

So that's the conclusion I have so far. Plausible or not. I'd be glad  
if someone could give their opinion on this, or any comment at all.

Anyhow I've enjoyed giving so much time to this. I even considered  
declining to go out and watch some skating, my other main hobby,  
instead of sitting here and finishing it. But skating won.

Now for some work.

Posted by
LEF - the Jack of One Trade...
(Or can I still have another?)