Proto-Adzamic language
| Proto-Adzamic | |
|---|---|
| *Atäsamohtaäk | |
 Flag of the Adzamic Empire | |
| Pronunciation | ädəzämohtä:k |
| Region | Ekuosia |
| Ethnicity | Adzamic |
| Native speakers | Extinct (470) |
| Language family | Ekuo-Lahiri
|
| CWS code | paz |
Proto-Adzamic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Adzamic languages. The Old Adzamian language is considered its immediate and main successor, as that language was spread across a sizeable portion of Baredina by the Adzamic Empire. As a result, most modern daughters of Adzamic are of the Adzamian line, although some others do exist.
Phonology
Proto-Adzamic had a moderately-sized phonemic inventory with six vowels and 23 consonants (by most estimations).
Consonants
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | *p | *t | *k | *q | *ʔ | ||
| voiced | *b | *d | ||||||
| glottalic | *pˀ | *tˀ | *kˀ | *qˀ | ||||
| Fricative | *ɸ | *θ | *s | *ʃ | *x | *ħ | *h | |
| Approximant | *l | *j | *ɰ | |||||
Although most of the consonant phonemes are widely accepted by reconstructionists, there is some debate about the exact number and identity of these sounds.
It is widely accepted that there were three different stop series, and generally that these differed in phonation or airstream mechanism. The most widely-accepted reconstruction uses voiced, voiceless, and ejective stops. Some prefer aspirated or creaky-voiced stops in place of ejectives. There is also debate about the presence of /p p' t'/, based on the extreme rarity of these sounds in early Old Adzamian, some of which could be explained as borrowings from Kavahiri or other neighbouring languages.
There is a less intense debate about the exact realization of several fricatives, and the velar approximant. /f/ is often substituted for *ɸ, /ç/ for *ʃ, and /χ/ for *ħ. A small number of authors posit that /χ ħ/ were both present as distinct phonemes in the language, but this is a minority view.
Some sources prefer /w/, /ɣʷ/, or even /xʷ/ for *ɰ, although most of these authors agree that /ɰ~w/ also occurred as an allophone of /u/.
There may have been voiced allophones [g ɢ] of *k *q, and all or some of the fricatives, likely in intervocalic positions; these changes became phonemic in Old Adzamian.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open | a |
Some linguists prefer four placements with length distinction; /i i: u u:/ for *e *i *o *u. A small number also considers /a a:/ more accurate than *ə *a.
Phonotactics
Syllable structure was fairly loose and relatively large clusters occurred, especially medially.
Grammar
Morphology
Nouns mark for animacy and number.
Verbs mark for proximity as the primary deixis (instead of time).
Syntax
Adzamic was a direct-inverse, hierarchical language, organized by a complex animacy system. It was generally head-initial.