Late Jánjéo-Ájnfamo
| Late Jánjéo-Ájnfamo | |
| Period | around -3500 YP to -3000 YP |
| Spoken in | eastern Tuysáfa |
| Total speakers | unknown |
| Writing system | unknown |
| Classification | Ájnljo |
| Typology | |
| Basic word order | unknown |
| Morphology | unknown |
| Alignment | unknown |
| Credits | |
| Created by | unknown |
Late Jánjéo-Ájnfamo (LJÁ) is the descendant of PJÁ (Proto-Jánjéo-Ájnfamo). It was spoken in an area western of Do Anjake lake. Somewhere around the 35th century BYP the speakers begin to migrate in diferent directions, some northwards and some eastwards and by the begining of the third millenium BYP they are already distinct language groups.
Developments from PJÁ
All the languages share a few common innovations.
J metathesis
A round vowel and j swap their place through a series of sound changes:
- uj > yj > y(ː) > jy > ju
- ɔj > œj > œ(ː) > jœ > jɔ
This pattern is extended to aj in the Jánjéo branch:
- aj > æj > æ(ː) > jæ > ja
Later this change occured independantly in some of the dialects of Ájnfamo as well.
Other diphthong changes
Closed diphthongs change:
- ij, uw > iː, uː
- iw > iu
Though those might have had these values in PJÁ already.
In the Ájnfamo branch ɑw and ɛw change analogically:
- ɑw, ɛw > ɑɔ, ɛɔ
Changes specific to a language
It was mostly sound changes that made the two daughter languages distinct.
PJÁ to early Ájnfamo
The nature of what is called a high tone in PJÁ is somewhat unclear. It does manifests as a high tone in Ájnfamo, but from the developments it's probable that it had had some effect on the preceding consonant, such as glottalisation or gemination. For the purpose of this article, such consonants will be marked with superscript glottal stop: ˀ
- Obstruent fortis consonants become plain voiced ones: Tˀ > D
- Sonorant fortis consonants geminate: Rˀ > Rː
- PJÁ tonal difference is still manifested in the same way - high/low tone opposition.
- The odd PJÁ consonant <c>, the exact phonetic value of which is a mystery, is reflexed as t͡p in early Ájnfamo. It's voiced counterpart was d͡b.
PJÁ to early Jánjéo
- Stop fortis consonants become ejectives: Tˀ > Tʼ
- Sonorant fortis consonants gain a homorganic ejective stop: Rˀ > RTʼ
- Fricative fortis consonants gain a homorganic ejective affricate: Sˀ > ST͡Sʼ
- The old tonal distinction is completely lost, if it was tonal in the first place.
Semantic shifts
Besides sound changes, there have also been semantic shifts:
- PJÁ sˀój 'yarn, thread' > LJÁ~EÁ zœ́ 'thread' > EÁ zój 'thread, fibre, line' > Á zój 'order, array'
- PÁl *ko 'gravel?, earth, soil' > PJÁ ko 'sand' > LJÁ ko 'a pile of sand' > EÁ ko 'a pile; a collection of any material' > Á kho 'number; quantity'
Word comparisons
| PJÁ | early JJ | early Á | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| *náj | ntʼja | nnáj | man |
| *lá | ltʼa | llá | water |
| *naj | nja | naj | tree |
| *méj | mpʼej | mméj | sun |
| *pa | pa | pa | land |
| *nó | ntʼo | nnó | this |
| *nów | ntʼow | nnów | that |
| *ʃój | ʃt͡ʃʼjo | ʒjó | to need |
| *ʃoj | ʃjo | ʃjo | house |
| *cá | cʼa | d͡ba | turtle |
| *maj | mja | maj | egg |
| *cej | cej | t͡pej | to grow |
| *nój | ntʼjo | nnjó | I |
| *laj | lja | laj | lake |