Wenja’s Roots: Dwani (Sounds), Part 1

Over a series of posts we’ll discuss exactly what we, the creators of Wenja, do each time we create – or rather derive – a new word for the primary language of Oros. How do PIE words like *bʰere- ‘to carry’ and *h₂odyo ‘today’ become Wenja bara and shaja, respectively?

Our first post will begin with the largest class of consonants in PIE — stops (aka occlusives). Stops are found in all of the world’s languages.  When you make a stop, the air is stopped in the mouth in the initial production of the sound, and then the air is released. For this reason you can’t hold a stop out like an s or an m; try holding out a p — you’ll find that it’s impossible!

There are six stops in English:

English stops are organized according to place of articulation and voicing. Stops can either be voiced or voiceless. Voiced sounds require vibration of the vocal folds (in your throat); voiceless sounds do not. The terms bilabial, alveolar, and velar refer to the place of articulation, or where in the mouth a sound is articulated. You can see in the diagram to the left that bilabial sounds are made with the lips, alveolars just behind the top front teeth, and velars towards the back of the mouth.

(Click here for an interactive overview of English phonetics)

While there are only six basic stops in English, it’s very likely that PIE had fifteen. That’s a lot compared to most languages of the world!  The majority of Indo-Europeanists assume five places of articulation (bilabial, dental, palatal, velar, and labiovelar (velar consonant with lip rounding)) and three different ways to make stops (voiceless, voiced, and voiced aspirated). The voiced aspirated stops, which are perhaps better described as breathy, are characterized by a voiced puff of air following the stop in question.

Now let’s see how all of this plays out in Wenja. In the lists below, we first give you an example of a PIE word beginning with the reconstructed stops in question (marked in bold), followed by descendant words in actual Indo-European languages. We then conclude with the Wenja derivative (marked in red).

• Labials: 
• PIE *ped/pod- ‘foot’ > Luvian pāta-, Sanskrit pad-, Greek pod-, Latin ped-, English foot, Armenian otn, Wenja padi ‘foot’
• PIE *bel- ‘strong’ > Sanskrit bála- ‘strength’, Greek beltíōn ‘better’, Latin dē-bilis ‘lacking strength’, Old Church Slavonic bolĭjĭ ‘bigger’, Wenja bala ‘strong’
• PIE *bʰer- ‘carry’ > Sanskrit b^hárāmi ‘I carry’, Greek p^hérō, Latin ferō, Armenian berem, English bear, Old Church Slavonic berǫ ‘I take’, Old Irish ·beir, Wenja bara ‘carry’
• Dentals: 
• PIE *ters- ‘be dry, thirst’ > Sanskrit tarṣáyati ‘makes thirsty’, Greek térsetai ‘becomes dry’, Latin terra ‘(dry) land’, English thirst, Albanian ter ‘I dry’, Wenja tarsa ‘become dry’
• PIE *doru ‘(oak) tree’ > Hittite tāru ‘wood, tree’, Sanskrit dā́ru, Greek dóru, Old Irish daur, Old Church Slavonic drěvo, Albanian dru, English tree, Wenja daru ‘wood’
• PIE *dʰeh₁- ‘put, do’ > Sanskrit d^hā- ‘put, do’, Greek t^hē- ‘put’, Latin faciō, English do, Old Russian dě, Wenja daha ‘do, make, put’

• Palatals:
• PIE *ḱerd- ‘heart’ > Sanskrit śrad-, Old Church Slavonic srĭdĭce, Lithuanian širdìs, Hittite kard-, Greek kardíā, Latin cord- [kord], English heart, Wenja charda ‘heart’
• PIE *ǵónu ‘knee’ > Sanskrit jā́nu, Avestan žnum, Hittite gēnu, Greek gónu, Latin genū, Eng. knee, Wenja janwa ‘knee’
• PIE *ǵʰeu- ‘pour’ > Sanskrit hūyáte ‘is poured’, Avestan zaotar- ‘priest’, Greek k^he(w)ō ‘I pour’, Tocharian B kewu ‘I will pour’, German giessen, Wenja jawa ‘pour’
• Velars:
•  PIE *kes- ‘hair’ > Old Church Slavonic kosa ‘hair’, Lithuanian kasà ‘braid’, Hittite kiss-, Greek késkeon, Old English heord ‘hair’, Wenja kasa ‘braid, weave’
• PIE *gras- ‘grass’ > Sanskrit grásate ‘eats’, Greek grástis ‘grass’, Latin grāmen ‘grass’, Wenja grasti ‘straw’
• PIE *gʰrebʰ(hᵪ)- ‘grab’ > Sanskrit /g^hrab^h-/, Av. grab-, OCS grabiti, Eng. grab, Wenja grabasha ‘grab, catch’

• Labiovelars:
• PIE *kʷis ‘who’ > Sanskrit kás ‘who’, Old Church Slavonic kŭ-to ‘who, Lithuanian kàs, Hittite kuis ([k^wis]), Latin quis ([k^wis]), Old English hwæt, Wenja kway ‘who, what’
• PIE *gʷen- ‘woman’ > Sanskrit jáni-, Old Church Slavonic žena, Old Prussian genna, Hittite kuinnas ([k^winnas]), Greek gunḗ, English queen, Wenja gwani ‘woman’
• PIE *gʷʰen- ‘kill’ > Sanskrit hánti ‘slays’, Avestan jaiṇti, Old Church Slavonic ženǫ ‘I hunt’, Hittite kuenzi ([k^wentsi]) ‘slays’, Greek -p^honos ‘slayer’, Latin dē-fen-dit, English bane, Wenja gwana ‘kill’

If you’ve made it this far and have looked closely at the PIE & Wenja examples, you’ll note two basic changes in the Wenja stop system.

1. Voiced aspirates are pronounced as normal voiced stops in Wenja: *bʰ, dʰ, ǵʰ, gʰ, gʷʰ > b, d, j, g, gw, respectively
2. Palatal stops are pronounced as (alveopalatal) affricates in Wenja: *ḱ, ǵ, ǵ > ch, j, j, respectively. Recall that ch  = < ch > (cheese) & j = < j > (juice).

Though there are some modifications here and there (we’ll get to those), it’s pretty much that simple! This leaves us with the following stop inventory for Wenja:

Next time we’ll talk about the fricatives – the hissy sounds – of Wenja: s, z, h, sh, and f.