In this brief note, we propose a Proto-Unitedstatesian lexeme, *fækt, based on linguistic evidence, and discuss some of the implications of this term to reconstructions of Proto-US society and culture.
Words in a variety of ancient and modern Unitedstatesian languages from across the American continent, including Californian vaxdo, “matter, thing,” Ohioan βak, “experience,” and Old New England fɛqt, “real,” all point to a common origin. All these and others point to a Proto-US *fækt, the meaning of which might have been “proposition,” “premise,” “law,” or “evidence.”
The wide variety of possible meanings points to significant ambiguity in what *fækt was used for in the everyday lives of the Proto-Unitedstatesians. It appears to have had some pertinence to the speaker-hearer relationship, a mutual exchange of information highly important to ancient US-ian society. An information exchange was a bond of trust between two people that was accompanied by a ritualized assertion and argument exchange and created an obligation of mutual truth-telling that, once established, could continue in perpetuity and be renewed years later by the same parties or their descendants.
Californian /v/, Ohio-Midwestern /β/ and New England /f/ all regularly derive from Proto-US /f/. Calif. /x/, Midwest /k/ and Old NE /q/ reflect Proto-US /k/, which is continued intact in most descendants of the American protolanguage in the central zone. Old NE languages continue Proto-US /t/, which was dropped from final consonant clusters in Midwestern languages, and voiced prevocalically in Californian languages, where it became dental, perhaps under influence from Proto-Mexican.
The vowel is difficult to reconstruct, and may have had any value in the range /a~e/ but on the basis of the open-mid unrounded front vowel in the conservative Old NE reflex, we posit a value of /æ/, resulting in the countable noun *fækt.
A curious system of thought seems to be reflected in this word. Very likely, to call something a *fækt seems to have been to assert that thing as true, independent of the evidence provided. This is consistent with an interpretation that a *fækt was a matter of opinion to the speaker or the hearer. On the basis of this, we might reconstruct a possible stock phrase, “*altərnətɪv fækts.”
*fækt may have had one initial meaning that frayed over time, perhaps in response to competing sets of opinions that arose between rival USian tribes or factions in the early period, leading to kind of pandemonium of clashing assertions. Whatever the reason, an actual word corresponding the *fækt concept appears to be absent from the historical record, and the concept is evident only through the comparative method.
The semantic shift and degradation of *fækt might be related to proposed turbulent events that took place across the continent in what was the early twenty-first century under the calendar in use at that time. The exact nature of these events is a matter of debate among archeologists, but soil samples and the many gaps in our knowledge of the period point to some highly disruptive, chaotic event or series of events.
In the Washingtonian language, spoken by only a few itinerant tribes in the swamps of the eastern American seaboard, *fækt has no surviving descendants. The closest equivalent is probably trump, meaning an “assertion” or “official proclamation.” While it certainly denoted an important cultural concept, the exact significance of the *fækt remains uncertain.
Any comparison to Early Germanish gefuckt, abgefuckt is regarded as purely coincidental.
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