Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
The protolanguage has 22 phonemes: 4 vowels and 18 consonants.
| front | central | back | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | - | ɨ | ï | - | ||||||||
| mid | - | ə | ë | - | ||||||||
| low | - | a aː | a a: | - | - | |||||||
| labial | coronal | dorsal | guttural | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasal | voiced | m | m | - | - | n | n* | - | - | ŋ | n* | - | - | ||||||||
| stop | voiced | - | - | d | d | - | - | - | |||||||||||||
| voiceless | p | p | - | - | t | t | - | - | k | k | - | ʔ | ' | ||||||||
| affricate | voiceless | - | t͡ɬ | c | - | t͡ʃ | č | - | - | ||||||||||||
| fricative | voiceless | - | f | f | ɬ | z | s | s | ʃ | š | - | χ | x | h | h | ||||||
| vocoid | voiced | - | l | l | - | j | y | - | w | w | - | - | |||||||||
Protolanguage syllables: CV(V|C).
The protolanguage stress appears on the last accented morpheme.
| 1. | Insert ɨ where needed to make syllables conform. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | ɨj, ɨw, əj, əw | > | iː, uː, eː, oː | / | __ (C, #) | |
| aj, aw | > | ai, au | / | __ (C, #) | ? | |
| 3. | ɨ, ə, a | > | i, e, ɛ | / | __ C(j, iː) | |
| ɨ, ə, a | > | u, o, ɔ | / | __ C(w, uː) | ||
| 4. | j, w | > | 0 | / | C __ | |
| 5. | V | > | Vː | / | __ (CV, #) | iff stressed |
| 6. | Vː | > | V | / | __ C(C, #) | iff unstressed |
| 7. | ɨ, ɛ, ə, o | > | e, a, ɔ, u | |||
| aː | > | ɑː | ||||
| iː, uː | > | ai, au | / | iff stressed | ||
| 8. | əː | > | aː | |||
| eː, oː | > | iː, uː | / | iff stressed | ||
| 9. | ɨː | > | iː | |||
| ɛː, ɔː | > | eː, oː | / | iff stressed | ||
| 10. | aː, ɑː | > | ɛː, ɔː | / | iff stressed | |
| 11. | e, a, ɔ, u | > | ɛ, ɑ, o, i | |||
| ɛː, ɔː | > | eː, oː | ||||
| aː | > | æː | / | iff unstressed | ||
| ai, au | > | ɑː, æː | / | iff stressed | ||
| 12. | w | > | v | |||
| d | > | ɾ | / | V __ V | ||
| d | > | r | / | __ (C, #) | ||
The tri-consonantal roots are actually composed from 2 parts: a CVC verb root and a C classifier. The formants for the stems become suffixed to the verb root, before the classifier. Other inflectional suffixes, such as those for aspect and subject person marking, follow the classifer. The personal prefixes are essentially proclitic pronouns.
| Formant | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ɨ | <Anim> | animate patient |
| ˈəj | <Inan> | inanimate patient |
| ˈwaː | <Intr> | intransitive |
There are 3 kinds of noun stems: CVC, CVCC, and those formed from verb roots. In the last case, there are formants of 2 parts, prefixed and suffixed to the verb root; this is also used for participles.
| Formant | Tag | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| action nominal | |||
| ja | <Don> | donor, agent | |
| ˈɨj | <Rec> | recipient, animate patient | |
| ˈəw | <Thm> | theme, inanimate patient | |
| w | ˈəw | <Ins> | instrument |
| n | ˈəw | <Loc> | location |
| ʔ | ˈəw | <Sup> | superlative (scalar) |
page started: 2016.Aug.01 Mon
current date: 2016.Aug.05 Fri
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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