Northeastern !Ho

Northeastern !Ho was a branch of the !Ho family spoken to the as said in the name to the Northeast of the Xšali core regions. By 0 YP the languages were still spoken vigorously across large swathes of this region and some subgroups had begun to spread into the mountains to the north and into the territory of the "O2 languages" but it had already lost some of its former territory as a descendant of Old Xšali was spoken along the banks of the Znu river and various of the more easterly of the Western language had substrates from it. The territory of course would be increasingly displaced by Xšali dialects until most languages only practiced marginal agriculture or even hunting and gathering. The languages are characterised by complex initials and usually larger click series than Xšali proper. The proto language was reconstructed as having up to 3 consonants preceding the primary initial it through which ones could fill this role was more limited and in many languages all of these or only 1 of these were preserved. Also seen was the postinitial consonant which was in all cases a continuant and usually a sonorant which was more often preserved but often triggered sequisyllibifaction which was also seen for disyllables. In most cases the postinitial was added via lexical derivation especially from verb roots. Northeastern !Ho also allowed 2 finals none of which could be clicks (in fact clicks could only occur as the primary initial) and the first of which had to be either *m, *n, *l, *s or *ʔ. Tonogenesis from codas is frequent and in fact by modern times had only failed to occur in a few mountain languages.

Proto Northeastern !Ho was believed to have been spoken during -2500 YP probably to the west of the northern Yima river. They have borrowed extensively from the same substrate as Xšali and like it have undergone monosyllabification and have natively developed clicks in contrast to the "Western !Ho languages" which aren't a true subgroup but have generally not undergone the same processes. It's speakers lacked any terms for Agriculture or complex society which was generally developed by the more advanced subgroups and often consisted of purported loanwords from the same now extinct family as the one which was spoken in the Old Kingdom of Xšali.