Wiktionary:About Lepontic

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

Consonants

• 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

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

Short:

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

Long:

• Central low: āi̯
• Back open: ūi̯

Phonological developments

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

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

Declension

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

• Wiktionary:Lepontic transliteration