What's New in This Edition

This is Europaio: A Brief Grammar of the European Language, vol. 1, First Edition, with Europaio in version 1.0, already in Beta phase. The timetable of the next changes is still unclear, but news can be followed at Dnghu's and Europaio's web sites and official centres.

We have changed some features of good old Europaio 0.x (2004-2005), especially:

1. The old alphabet, which followed the traditional c-k-q distinction (and special characters for palato-velar and labio-velar g), is impossible to maintain after the decision not to differentiate the - traditionally written - palatal pronunciation of the velars. The c is then now used with its oldest phonetic value, g-like.

2. The laryngeals' (not supported by more traditional views) question has been solved, as the -later, northern- Third Stage selection avoids any further discussion. Those words for which a schwa-sound is reconstructed after the (supposed) laryngeal's time will be written with an a. So, version 0.x phter becomes version 1.0 pater, although the pronunciation remains the same, /pter/.

3. The more phonetical writings of the Alpha phase, with j and w always written for consonantal i, u, has proven a very difficult and (surprisingly) too artificial way of representing the Europaio. The possibility of writing always and only i,u has been discarded altogether for the artificial (moreLatinized) feeling it gives up, and the practical problems that arouse, especially when followed by sonants. They will be maintained, then, in certain cases, in which the use of i and u would be especially confusing or artificial.

4. The historically alternating cases Oblique / Dative-Locative-Instrumental-Ablative, shown on a declension-by-declension basis, was more difficult than a simple five-case system for all declensions and for singular and plural alike, like in the Northern Dialects. Wether an innovation or (more probably) an archaism, the five-case system is more clearly reconstructed, easier to use and more similar to modern languages, than the (mainly southern) eight-case system.

5. The Aorist has been eventually replaced, and its stem is now called (and used for the) Imperfect. The Northern dialects influence is again stronger than the general inclination towards looking for older, obscured, unitary formations.

6. The Dual reconstruction is abandoned, as it is a doubtful feature of the oldest IE, very difficult to reconstruct and indeed not too important for the modern language.

7. The use of loan words, such as photo, fides (faith) or mille (Latin thousand), has been reduced, as we have decided to translate every possible word to Europaio, as bhawtos or bhidhes, and even in cases where the reconstruction is not sure, as in mli (possibly derived from IE smgheslo > mghesli > mihili > mille in Latin) or in seros, hero (heros in Greek), because -s is the normal reconstruction of the initial -h in Greek dialects.