Imperial Ōmishiman

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Imperial Ōmishiman
Period c. 2500 YP
Spoken in Ōmishima
Total speakers
Writing system Ōmishiman abugida
Classification Macro-Anatolionesian
 Anatolionesian
  Ōmishiman
   Central
Typology
Basic word order SOV, topic-comment
Morphology agglutinating, fusional
Alignment nom-acc
Credits
Created by Thedukeofnuke

Imperial Ōmishiman is the term used to refer to the official language of the Empire of Ōmishima. The language as described in this article is the written and spoken standard of the 25th and 26th centuries YP.

It is a descendant of Proto-Anatolionesian.

Phonology

Consonants

 labial   alveolar   palatal   velar   glottal 
nasals m n
stops p · b t · d k · ɡ
affricates ʦ · ʣ ʧ · ʤ
fricatives f s ʃ h
tap ɾ
  semivowels w j

Vowels

 front   back 
     high i u
mid e o
low a

Transcription

The standard transcription of Imperial Omishiman is as follows:

  • The affricates /ʧ ʤ/ are written ch j
  • The fricative /ʃ/ is written sh
  • The tap /ɾ/ is written r
  • The semivowel /j/ is written y
  • All other phonemes are transcribed as IPA (or Latin-text equivalent)
  • Gemination is represented by a doubling the consonant; long vowels are represented with a macron
  • Double digraphs repeat only the first letter (e.g. the geminated form of sh is ssh)

Phonotactics and distribution

Syllable structure is (C)(j)V(ː)(C).

Any consonant may appear in onset position. Consonants in coda are restricted in principle to the archiphonemes /N Q/.

/N/ is a nasal that assimilates in place of articulation to a following consonant - for instance /aNfa/ > [amfa], /aNka/ > [aŋka]. Word-finally and before /h/, it is realised as [n]. It is transcribed as m before labials and n otherwise.

/Q/ simply geminates an adjacent consonant - for instance /aQfa/ > [affa], /aQka/ > [akka]. It has no independent surface realisation, and some analyses reject the existence of /Q/ and speak in terms of geminated consonants only.

There are no diphthongs; adjacent vowels form separate syllables.

Sound changes from Proto-Anatolionesian

To Old Ōmishiman (up to c. 200 YP)

1. LENITION

  • p > f / (except in clusters)

2. CLUSTER SIMPLIFICATION

  • [+nasal]l > ʤ
  • kʃ ʃt > ʧ
  • gʃ ʃd > ʤ
  • ʃk > ʃʃ
  • ʃg > ʒʒ
  • [+fricative] > Ø / #_[+stop]
  • [+fricative][+nasal] > [+nasal +geminate] / V_
  • [+fricative][+nasal] > [+nasal]

3. MERGER OF CORONALS

  • θ > ʦ

4. VOWEL CHANGES

  • eu > øː
  • ou > au
  • [+vowel +round] > [+front] /_ɲ

5. MERGER OF NASALS

  • ɲ > nj / _V
  • ɲ > in / V_
  • ɲ > n
  • Nasals assimilate in POA to a following consonant

6. LABIALISATION

  • tw kw > p
  • dw gw > b

7. SIMPLIFICATION

  • we > je
  • w > Ø / [+labial]_

8. VOCALISATION

  • w l > u / C_
  • Cr > CC / V_
  • r > Ø / C_

This produced the following phonemic inventory:

 labial   coronal   palatal   velar 
nasals m n
stops p · b t · d k · ɡ
affricates ʦ ʧ · ʤ kx
fricatives f s ʃ · ʒ x
liquids r · l
  semivowels w j
 front   back 
     high i · y u
mid e · ø o
low a

There were also phonemic diphthongs /ai au/. All vowels and diphthongs had phonemic length.

To Middle Ōmishiman (up to c. 1600 YP)

1. AFFRICATION

  • t d > ʦ ʣ / _i

2. LOSS OF FRONT ROUNDED VOWELS

  • ø y > jo ju / _# (regardless of length)
  • ø y > e i / (regardless of length)

3. PALATALISATION

  • x > j / C_ (including /kx/)
  • ʦj ʣj sj xj > ʧ ʤ ʃ ʃ
  • j > Ø / [+affricate]_, [+palatal]_

4. ASSIMILATION OF OBSTRUENTS

  • Sibilants assimilate to following sibilants
  • Stops and affricates assimilate to following stops/affricates

5. PROSTHESIS AND EPENTHESIS

  • ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ > ʦu ʣu ʧi ʤi / _C, _#
  • [+stop] > [+stop]e / _C, _#
  • CC > CCe / _C, _#
  • s ʃ ʒ > su ʃi ʒi / _#

6. LENITION OF FRICATIVES

  • V[+sibilant] > Vː / _$
  • x > k / V_V
  • x > h

To Imperial Ōmishiman (up to c. 2500 YP)

1. SONORANT MERGERS

  • l > n / _$
  • l r > ɾ
  • m > n / _#

2. LENITION

  • f > w / V_V

3. VOWEL BREAKING

  • e o > je wo / (regardless of length)

4. VOWEL SIMPLIFICATION

  • w > Ø / _i, _u (regardless of length)
  • ai au > eː oː
  • aːi aːu > ai au
  • je wo > e o / (regardless of length)

5. MERGER OF VOICED PALATALS

  • ʒ > ʤ

Morphology

Nominal morphology

Imperial Ōmishiman has a suffixing, lightly fusional nominal morphology with nouns marked for a relatively large number of cases (12, according to most analyses) but not for number. Comparative studies have shown that the suffixes are mainly if not entirely derived from fused postpositions.

The locative, lative, perlative, and ablative cases are traditionally grouped as the 'locative cases'. Some analyses do not consider the comitative to be a true case; however, since it is subject to rules of assimilation like the other cases, that view is not followed in this description.

The citation form of a nominal is the nominative. The base for declining a nominal is, however, the nominal root. Normally the citation form is predictable from the root. For a root ending in a vowel or n, the citation form is the same as the root; otherwise an epenthetic vowel is added to the end, which is i for roots in ch j sh, u for ts dz s, and e for all other consonants.

About one in four nominals has an irregular root, indicated in the lexicon. The convention used is that <root>-V indicates a root used before vowels, and <root>- indicates a root used with all suffixes.

The form used for adding suffixes depends on the word and the suffix. Normally the root is used before suffixes starting with vowels (or having both postvocalic and postconsonantal forms), and the citation form before suffixes starting with consonants; however, for some words the root is used with all suffixes.

The case suffixes are listed in the following table:

 Case   postconsonantal   postvocalic 
accusative –on
dative –note
genitive –no
topic –ua –wa
locative –nite
lative –ike
perlative –toshi
ablative –ka –kka
instrumental –Qu –ru
essive –shite
comitative –to


There are some regular rules to be followed when declining a nominal:

  • To form the topic case of a word whose root ends in a stop or nasal, labialise the final (unvoiced stops become p, voiced stops become b, and nasals become m) and add the suffix –a.
  • Long root-final vowels become short before the lative suffix –ike.
  • Before the suffixes –toshi, –ka, and –to, a root-final stop or affricate assimilates to the stop in the suffix. For instance, wawats+ka becomes wawakka.
  • To form the instrumental case of a word whose root ends in Cy, geminate the consonant before the y and add the suffix –u.
  • To form the essive case of a word whose root ends in t or k, delete that consonant and add the suffix –chite; for a word whose root ends in s or sh, delete that consonant and add the suffix –sshite.

Examples

The table below provides some examples of nominal declension. Sha, mōn, and kake are all regular nominals; tsan, fā, and kēn have irregular roots. (While kake has a citation form different from its root, the final –e is epenthetic and predictable.)

Meaning hill breast fire mother tooth gold
Root sha mōn kak tsam-V fak-V kiny-V
nominative sha mōn kake tsan fā kēn
accusative shaon mōnon kakon tsamon fakon kinyon
dative shanote mōnnote kakenote tsannote fānote kēnnote
genitive shano mōnno kakeno tsanno fāno kēnno
topic shawa mōnua kapa tsama fapa kinyua
locative shanite mōnnite kakenite tsannite fānite kēnnite
lative shaike mōnike kakike tsamike fakike kinyike
perlative shatoshi mōntoshi kattoshi tsantoshi fātoshi kēntoshi
ablative shakka mōnka kakka tsanka fākka kēnka
instrumental sharu mōnnu kakku tsammu fakku kinnyu
essive shashite mōnshite kachite tsanshite fāshite kēnshite
comitative shato mōnto katto tsanto fāto kēnto
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