As with Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Uralic, linguists working on reconstructions of the Proto-Dené–Caucasian language usually do not use the IPA. To facilitate comparisons with the literature, Starostin's transcription is used in this section, followed by the IPA equivalents between slashes or brackets. It differs from the IPA especially in the affricates, each of which is written with a single character, and the laterals. This convention strongly resembles the APA. As in all reconstructions of proto-languages, every value in the tables below is a hypothesis and may change as more work is done.
Consonants
¹ As in today's Caucasian languages, all plosives and affricates were seemingly either voiced, ejective, or aspirated. Because aspiration alone was not phonemic, it is not shown in the phonemic transcription of Proto-Dené–Caucasian, Caucasian languages, or Na-Dené languages in this article.
² These sounds were probably not separate phonemes, but allophones of their voiceless counterparts.
Vowels
The reconstruction of vowels is rather tentative. Both long and short vowels are reconstructed, but it is as yet uncertain whether the distinction was phonemic or not. It was, however, crucial for phonological developments in the daughter languages.
The Proto-Dené–Caucasian root
Root Structure
The most basic root structure in Proto-Dené–Caucasian is reconstructed as follows:
Nominal and verbal roots:
* */C1VC2V/
* */C1VC2VC3V/
Verbal and adjectival roots may be preceded by class prefixes and have the following structure :
* */=VC1V/
* */=VC1VC2/
Pronominal roots may be monosyllabic:
* */CV/
Prosodical features
The evidence from Sino-Tibetan, Yenisian and North Caucasian appears to support the existence of dynamic accent :
Stress on the penultimate syllable:
* */C1V́C2V/
* */C1VC2V́C3V/
Stress on the final syllable:
* */C1VC2V́/
* */C1VC2VC3V́/
Regular Correspondences
Suprasegmental
The stressed penultimate syllables in PDC give rise to the morpheme-wide tenseness in PNC. As only fricatives and affricates can be tense in PNC, their absence makes tense morphemes indistinguishable from the lax ones. The loss of the slot-3 glottal stop after long vowels in PY is another problem for the clear determination of stress in PDC. In the following table, P represents a PNC stop consonant, whereas F a fricative or an affricate.
PDC
PNC
PY
CV́ːCVː
FːVːFːVː
CVːCVː
CV́ːCVː
FːVːPVː
CVːCVː
CV́ːCVː
PVːFːVː
CVːCVː
CV́ːCVː
PVːPVː
CVːCVː
CV́ːCV
FːVːFːV
CVʔCV
CV́ːCV
FːVːPV
CVʔCV
CV́ːCV
PVːFːV
CVʔCV
CV́ːCV
PVːPV
CVʔCV
CV́CVː
FːVFːVː
CVʔCVː
CV́CVː
FːVPVː
CVʔCVː
CV́CVː
PVFːVː
CVʔCVː
CV́CVː
PVPVː
CVʔCVː
CV́CV
FːVFːV
CVʔCV
CV́CV
FːVPV
CVʔCV
CV́CV
PVFːV
CVʔCV
CV́CV
PVPV
CVʔCV
CVːCV́ː
CVːCVː
CVːCVː
CVːCV́
CVːCV
CVCV
CVCV́ː
CVCVː
CVCVː
CVCV́
CVCV
CVCV
Segmental
Consonants
§1 Stops
Note: Na-Dené languages have three series of stops usually realized as voiceless lenes, aspirated fortes, and ejective fortes, respectively. These are most often transcribed as . In the following table, they are transcribed as to make comparison to the other Dené–Caucasian language families easier.
PDC
Basque
Caucasian
Burushaski
Sino-Tibetan
Yeniseian
Na-Dené
p
p
p
pʰ-
pʰ- / bʱ-
p
w
p
p
p
p
-p
p
w
b
b
b
b
p- / b- / pʰ-
p
w
b
b
b
b
-p
p
w
pʼ
b-
b-
p
p- / b-
b
?
pʼ
p
pʼ
p
-p
b
?
t
t
t
tʰ-
tʰ- / dʱ-
d
t
t
t
t
t
-t
d
t
d
t-
d
ɖ ~ ʈ ~ t
t- / d- / tʰ-
t
d
d
d
d
ɖ ~ ʈ ~ t
-t
t
d
tʼ
t
tʼ
t ~ ʈ
t- / d-
d
tʼ
tʼ
t
tʼ
t ~ ʈ
-t
d
tʼ
k
h
k
k- ~ kʰ-
k- / g-
g-
k
k
h
k
k
-k
k
k
g
g
g
g
k- / g- / kʰ-
k
g
g
g
g
g
-k
k
g
kʼ
k
kʼ
k
kʰ- / gʱ-
g
kʼ
kʼ
k
kʼ
k
-k
-k
kʼ
q
k
q
q ~ qʰ ~ ʁ
qʰ- / ɢ-
q-
q
q
k
q
q ~ qʰ ~ ʁ
-k
q ~ ɢ
q
ɢ
g
ɢ
q ~ qʰ ~ ʁ
q- / qʰ-
q- / x- ~ χ-
ɢ ~ qʼ ~ q?
ɢ
g
ɢ
q ~ qʰ ~ ʁ
-k
q ~ ɢ
ɢ ~ qʼ ~ q?
qʼ
k
qʼ
q ~ qʰ ~ ʁ
q- / ɢʱ-
q- / x- ~ χ-
qʼ ~ ɢ
qʼ
k
qʼ
q ~ qʰ ~ ʁ
-k
q ~ ɢ / x ~ χ
qʼ ~ ɢ
Sound correspondences
The following table depicts how the phonemes of Proto-Dené–Caucasian are hypothesized to have changed into the phonemes of its descendants. Starostin's transcription is used for Proto-Dené–Caucasian, the Basque orthography is used for Basque; IPA is given for all. The Na-Dené correspondences are rather tentative and come exclusively from Bengtson. Hyphens indicate that a phoneme evolved in different ways depending on its position in a word, for example at the beginning or the end. "0" indicates disappearance without a trace. The exact identity of the Proto-Yeniseian phoneme "r₁" is unclear. The derivatives of Proto-Dené–Caucasian consonant clusters are not shown when their constituent phonemes evolved independently. Note: Na-Dené languages have three series of stops usually realized as voiceless lenes, aspirated fortes, and ejective fortes, respectively. These are most often transcribed as . In the following table, they are transcribed as to make comparison to the other Dené–Caucasian language families easier.
¹ /h/ has disappeared in the southern dialects of Basque in historical times.
² is reconstructed for earlier stages of Basque; it has become /h/ in two northern dialects and disappeared in all others.
³ Next to /o/ and /u/.
4 Lengthening of the preceding vowel.
5 Nasalization of the preceding vowel.
6 In PNC, the prosodic feature of morpheme-wide tenseness is marked by presence of one or more long consonants in a morpheme. Starostin also uses a superscript T to mark a tense morpheme and a superscript L to mark a lax one, i.e. PNC *Cː = *CT and *C = *CL.
7 Or rather, when the stress was on the last syllable and the second consonant was a liquid, the word became /CRV/ instead of the otherwise expected /CVR/.
8 At the third position of the first syllable, unless that syllable is long.
