Difference between revisions of "Proto-East Mirarian language"
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Illegal clusters are broken up with the addition of an epenthetic |i|. Consonant clusters involving three consonants are rare; all begin with /x/, resulting from apocope of /i ı/. | Illegal clusters are broken up with the addition of an epenthetic |i|. Consonant clusters involving three consonants are rare; all begin with /x/, resulting from apocope of /i ı/. | ||
==Grammar== | |||
===Nouns=== | |||
Proto-East-Mirarian was an agglutinating, almost entirely suffixing nominative-accusative language. Nouns did not have grammatical gender nor did they mark definitiveness. | |||
====Case==== | |||
Proto-East-Mirarian had a large case system, with 12 cases marked by adding a suffix to the relevant noun. All suffixes harmonized with the stem. They were added after any derivational suffixes as well as the plural suffixes. | |||
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="text-align:center;" | |||
|- | |||
! colspan="1" | Case | |||
! colspan="1" | Ending | |||
! colspan="1" | Meaning | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Nominative | |||
| colspan="1" | *-Ø | |||
| colspan="1" | Subject | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Accusative | |||
| colspan="1" | *-t, *-da | |||
| colspan="1" | Direct object | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Genitive | |||
| colspan="1" | *-kin | |||
| colspan="1" | Possession, association | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Dative | |||
| colspan="1" | *-(i)ŋ | |||
| colspan="1" | Indirect object | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Locative | |||
| colspan="1" | *-sit | |||
| colspan="1" | Location | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Ablative | |||
| colspan="1" | *-sin | |||
| colspan="1" | Movement away/off | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Lative | |||
| colspan="1" | *-(l)la | |||
| colspan="1" | Movement to/into | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Instrumental | |||
| colspan="1" | *-sak | |||
| colspan="1" | Used as an instrument/tool | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Essive | |||
| colspan="1" | *-cira | |||
| colspan="1" | Definite period of time, temporary location, state of being | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Perlative/Translative | |||
| colspan="1" | *-zimV | |||
| colspan="1" | Movement through/across, transformation | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Directive | |||
| colspan="1" | *-pizV | |||
| colspan="1" | Proximity | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="1" | Terminitive/Comitative/Equative | |||
| colspan="1" | *-gam | |||
| colspan="1" | Limit in time or target of action, accompaniment, similarity | |||
|} | |||
[[Category:Languages]][[Category:Proto-Languages]][[Category:East-Mirarian]] | [[Category:Languages]][[Category:Proto-Languages]][[Category:East-Mirarian]] |
Revision as of 08:06, 8 January 2021
Proto-East-Mirarian (PEM) is the hypothetical reconstructed ancestor to the East-Mirarian language family. It is believed to have been spoken somewhere between 7000 to 4000 years ago (estimates vary). The precise location of their original homeland is not known, though most theories place it somewhere in the vicinity of the Sheisho mountains in western Juhashka.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonant system had a two-way contrast of stop consonants (fortis vs. lenis).
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Laryngeal | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
central | lateral | plain | labial | ||||||||||
Nasal | *m | *n | (*ñ) | *ŋ | |||||||||
Plosive and Affricate | *p | *b | *t | *d | (*ć) | *č | (*j) | *k | *g | *kʷ | *gʷ | *q | |
Fricative | *s | *z | *ś | *š | |||||||||
Glide | *j | *x | *w | ||||||||||
Liquid | *r | *l |
Vowels
It is generally accepted that Proto-East-Mirarian had 8 vowels, which were sorted into two harmony classes. These harmony classes are traditionally called "front" and "back", though their precise nature has been difficult to assess due to conflicting evidence from different branches. Rounded vowels only occurred in initial syllables (with the exception of some reduplicated stems and fossilized prefixes); unstressed syllables distinguish between height, with vowels harmonizing based on the class of the initial vowel.
The system of vowel harmony is commonly assumed to be palatal based on evidence from Mahavic and Hedretic, with the system of Tongue Root harmony in Ughmar and Elipan being a shared innovation. However, it has been suggested that vowel development in various languages point to the RTR harmony having been primary, which was retained in the central EM branches while being lost in the outliers. This theory has become more popular in recent years but it has yet to gain general acceptance.
Front | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
High | *i /i/ | *ü /y/ | *ı /ɯ/ | *u /u/ |
Low | *ä /e ~ æ/ | *ö /ø/ | *a /ɑ/ | *o /o/ |
Advanced | Retracted | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
High | *i /i/ | *ü /u/ | *ı /ɪ/ | *u /ʊ/ |
Low | *ä /ə/ | *ö /o/ | *a /a/ | *o /ɔ/ |
Phonotactics
The maximal possible syllable in Proto-East-Mirarian is of the form C₁VxC₂. These categories consist of:
- C₁ — Any consonant.
- V — Any vowel.
- x — /x/.
- C₂ — Any consonant besides /q č ć ś x kʷ gʷ/.
/p r x ŋ ć/ cannot occur word initially. /b/ and /d/ may not occur as the first consonant in a cluster. /x/ cannot occur as the second consonant in a cluster. Voiced obstruents and glides cannot occur as geminates. Illegal clusters are broken up with the addition of an epenthetic |i|. Consonant clusters involving three consonants are rare; all begin with /x/, resulting from apocope of /i ı/.
Grammar
Nouns
Proto-East-Mirarian was an agglutinating, almost entirely suffixing nominative-accusative language. Nouns did not have grammatical gender nor did they mark definitiveness.
Case
Proto-East-Mirarian had a large case system, with 12 cases marked by adding a suffix to the relevant noun. All suffixes harmonized with the stem. They were added after any derivational suffixes as well as the plural suffixes.
Case | Ending | Meaning |
---|---|---|
Nominative | *-Ø | Subject |
Accusative | *-t, *-da | Direct object |
Genitive | *-kin | Possession, association |
Dative | *-(i)ŋ | Indirect object |
Locative | *-sit | Location |
Ablative | *-sin | Movement away/off |
Lative | *-(l)la | Movement to/into |
Instrumental | *-sak | Used as an instrument/tool |
Essive | *-cira | Definite period of time, temporary location, state of being |
Perlative/Translative | *-zimV | Movement through/across, transformation |
Directive | *-pizV | Proximity |
Terminitive/Comitative/Equative | *-gam | Limit in time or target of action, accompaniment, similarity |