Archive:Proto-Cananganamese language
Proto-Cananganamese was an Asuranesian language spoken sometime between 2,500 to 3,000 years ago along the Southern Coast of Nagu and along the western coast of present-day Lharves. It was first reconstructed in 1948 by TBA, who conducted field studies in Cananganam and in Lharves. The proto language is generally agreed to have been spoken at the least, a thousand years, before writing was introduced into Cananganam where the first literary evidence of Asuranesian languages come into record in 894.
Dating
Dating the Proto-Cananganamese language has been difficult for linguists as Nagu was relatively isolated from the Ancient Literary world with connections to Borosan words only appearing as soon as writing was introduced making dating the exact time period of Proto-Cananganamese difficult. Most linguists agree on a general minimum date for Proto-Cananganamese's existence being between 1,000 BCE to 500 BCE, however, some linguists such as TBA believe it to be somewhere between 2,000 to 3,000 BCE which contradicts with the Proto-Asuranesian language's dating of existing between 3,500 to 2,500 BCE.
Phonology
Proto-Cananganamese carries over much of the laryngeal sounds of Proto-Asuranesian, modifying them to an extent, whilst also maintaining a semblance of the old three points of articulation, and then expanding it to five.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Laryngeal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | emphatic | plain | emphatic | plain | emphatic | ||||||
| Nasals | *m | *n | |||||||||
| Stops | voiceless | *t | *k | *q | *ʔ | ||||||
| voiced | *b | *bˤ | *d | *dˤ | |||||||
| Fricatives | voiceless | *f | *θ | *s | *x | *χ | *ʕ | ||||
| voiced | *ð | *ðˤ | *z | *zˤ | *ʀ | *ħ | |||||
| Laterals | *l | ||||||||||
| Lateral Fricatives | *ɬ | *ɮˤ | |||||||||
| Approximant | *j | *w | *h | ||||||||