Old Yalan

Jārana [jæːˈrænæ]
Period	c. -800 YP
Spoken in	southern Tuysáfa, Yalne plains
Total speakers	unknown
Writing system	unknown
Classification	T1 languages   Yalan
Typology
Basic word order	VSO
Morphology	agglutinative
Alignment	accusative secundative
Credits
Created by	Pole, the

Old Yalan is a language in the T1 languages family. It is the ancestor of Early North Yalan, West Yalan and East Yalan.

Phonology

Consonants

Old Yalan had an unexpectedly large consonant inventory, consisting of 33 phonemes.

		labial	alveolar		postalv.	palatal	pre-velar	velar
nasal		m	n			ɲ	ŋʲ	ŋ
stop	aspirate	pʰ	tʰ		tʃʰ		kʲʰ	kʰ
	voiceless	p	t		tʃ		kʲ	k
	voiced	b	d		dʒ		ɡʲ	ɡ
fricative	voiceless		s̺	s	ʃ		xʲ	x
	voiced	v	z̺	z	ʒ		ɣʲ	ɣ~ɦ
sonoric			r			j

• The aspirates are written as their tenuis counterparts + ‹h›.
• /ɲ tʃʰ tʃ dʒ ʃ ʒ/ are written ‹ň čh č ǰ š ž›.
• /s̺ z̺/ are written ‹ŝ ẑ›.
• /ŋʲ kʲʰ kʲ ɡʲ xʲ ɣʲ/ are written ‹ņj ch c gj xj hj›.
• /ŋ ɣ~ɦ/ are written ‹ņ h›.

Vowels

	front	back
close	i iː	u uː
open	æ æː	o oː

The vowels are spelt ‹i ī u ū a ā o ō›.

Syllables

The syllable structure is pretty simple — only (C)V syllables are permitted.

The word stress is governed by what is dubbed the "bimoraic rule", i.e. the stress goes on the penultimate mora of the word. Thus:

1. Words ending with two short vowels are accented on the first of the two.
2. Words ending with a long and a short vowel are accented on the first of the two, with a rising pitch.
3. Words ending with a long vowel are accented on the vowel, with a falling pitch.

Sandhi

Voicing

Some morphemes have their initial consonant (voiceless stop or fricative) voiced when following another morpheme. They are marked with ‹°›.

• ni- (1sg possessive) + °ŝiō "shoulder" → niẑiō "my shoulder"
• čīņjamā "king" + -°tī (proximate suffix) → čīņjamadī "this king", "the king"
• xjādī "lend" + -°tā (action noun) → xjādidā "loan"

It is blocked after long morphemes (two or more syllables) ending with a short vowel:

• tuku "hunt" + -°tā (action noun) → tukutā "hunting", not **tukudā

Length

Polysyllabic morphemes ending with a long vowel undergo a shortening before another morpheme:

• xjāmā "human" + -khō (distal suffix) → xjāmakhō "that human"
• sācatī "know" + -(r)ū (desiderative mood) → sācatirū "want to know"

Exceptions are situations when the following morpheme begins with a voiceless tenuis consonant, unless it becomes voiced:

• īņjō "shoe" + -tū (person) → īņjōtū "shoemaker" (**-°tū would bring **īņjodū instead)

Assibilation

Assibilation (or lenition) is a much rarer type. It happens only with a closed set of derivational affixes. It is marked with a ‹⁺›.

Most importantly, it causes:

• ‹ph p b› to change into ‹x h›;
• ‹th t d› to change into ‹s z›;
• ‹čh č ǰ› to change into ‹š ž›;
• ‹ch c gj› to change into ‹xj hj›;
• ‹kh k g› to change into ‹x h› again;
• ‹ŝ ẑ› to become ‹r›;
• ‹s z› to become ‹h›;
• ‹š ž› to become ‹j›.

‹xj hj x h› are more tricky and mutate seemingly randomly — that alternation is no longer productive though. However, some words are still derived that way:

• ū⁺- "involuntarily", "accidentally" + xījā "agree" → ūvījā "fit", "comply"
• ū⁺- + xjī "try" → ūjī "have an adventure"
• ā⁺- "frequently", "habitually" + xjatāmō "ask" → ātāmō "suspect", "doubt"
• ā⁺- + xjāna "sleep" → āvāna "sleep often"
• tōho "speak" + -⁺amā (habitual agent) → tōamā "user of a language"
• nahī "old" + -⁺amā → nahjamā "elder"

Palatalization

Palatalization is a change turning velar consonants into pre-velar and pre-velar into palatal/postalveolar.

basic	ņ	kh k g	x h	ņj	ch c gj	xj hj
palatalized	ņj	ch c gj	xj hj	ň	čh č ǰ	š ž

Pronouns

person	1		2		3 prox.			3 obv.
	sg	pl	sg	pl	sg an.	sg in.	pl	sg an.	sg in.	pl
Nominative	nīčā	tāčā	ŝīčā	čīčā	vī	ī	nī	vidū	idū	nidū
Ergative	nīčaẑa	tāčaẑa	ŝīčaẑa	čīčaẑa	n/a			n/a
Accusative I	nīčaņja	tāčaņja	ŝīčaņja	čīčaņja	viņi	iņi	niņi	viduņu	iduņu	niduņu
Accusative II	niņjū	taņjū	ŝiņjū	čiņjū	vū	ū	nū	viduū	iduū	niduū
Genitive	nīčahja	tāčahja	ŝīčahja	čīčahja	vihi	ihi	nihi	viduhu	iduhu	niduhu
Locative	nīčātū	tāčātū	ŝīčātū	čīčātū	vītū	ītū	nītū	vidūtū	idūtū	nidūtū

• In some dialects all forms of ī, idū have their initial vowels lengthened.

Numerals

1.	nō	11.	n-ānadā
2.	ņjagja	12.	ņjagj-anadā	20.	ņjācā
3.	sā	13.	s-ānadā	30.	sanā
4.	caba	14.	cab-anadā	40.	cāpā
5.	hjā	15.	hj-ānadā	50.	hjanā
6.	tokho	16.	tokh-anadā	60.	tōkhā
7.	muru	17.	mur-anadā	70.	mūnā
8.	capāgja	18.	capāgj-anadā	80.	capācā
9.	ōrā	19.	ōr-ānadā	90.	ōranā
10.	ānadā			100.	ānadanā

In some early varieties there was also a numeral xjā "8". It was too much similar to hjā "5" and was replaced by capāgja (a fossilized compound of caba-ņjagja).

To create higher numerals (21÷99), the units numeral is prefixed to the tens numeral, with some changes:

• nō, sā, hjā, ōrā have their last vowel shortened and the tens numeral first consonant is voiced, if possible, e.g. nō + sanā → no-zanā "39".
• muru is changed to mū-, e.g. mū-cāpā "47".
• When ņjagja, caba, tokho and capāgja are prefixed to ņjācā, hjanā, mūnā, they become ņjac-, cap-, tokh-, capāc- and the following consonant is elided, e.g. tokho + hjanā → tokh-anā "56".
• The numbers 91÷99 are created analogically to 11÷19, i.e. n-ōranā "91", ņjagj-oranā "92" &c.

Noun morphology

Possession prefixes

Possessor		Affix
		_C	_V
sg	1.	ni-	ņj- ~ ň-
	2.	ŝi-	ŝ-
	3.	pu-	p-
pl	1.	ta-	t-
	2.	či-	c- ~ č-
	3.	nu-	n-

Notes:

1. The prevocalic 1st and 2nd person prefixes cause the shortening of the following vowels:
   • āxaka neck → ņjaxaka my neck
2. ň- and č- are used rarely, only with a limited group of words; elsewhere ņj- and c- are used instead.
   • Such words are marked with a superscript ‘equals’ mark ‹⁼› in the lexicon.

Number prefixes

Number	sg.		pl.		coll.
Class	an.	inan.	an.	inan.
before plosives	ō-	-ʰ- ¹	—		ī-
before other consonants	—		nu-	na-
before vowels	—		n- ²

• ¹) ‹-ʰ-› causes the plosives to become aspirates
• ²) ‹n-› causes vowels to become shortened

Sample text

Xōhoẑo

xō-xoẑo

aor.pl>pl-kill

najajamaņa

n-ājajama-aņa

pl-traveller-acc

Kāgatī

Kāga-tī

wind-prox

Xjicīniraha

Xjicīniri-aha

north-gen

sī

sī

and

Khiŝīgjitī,

Khiŝīgji-tī

sun-prox

xahjī

xa-xjī

rel-try

īoņjotaņa,

īoņjo-ta-aņa

prove-dev-acc

pohjabadatūmī

po-hjabā-ta-tūmī

aor.an-strong-dev-exceed

tiňi.

tiňi

which

The North Wind and the Sun were killing travelers to prove which was the stronger.

Mumagja

mum*-āgja

sg.an>sg-be

xjōphahī

xjōphahī

lion

ōčīņjamaņja

ō-čīņja-mā-aņja

sg.an-rule-er-obl

pā

pā

all

nuxōruhu,

nu-xōru-uhu

pl.an-animal-gen

The lion is the ruler of all animals,

thō

thō

because

[āčhigji]

ā-čhigji

sg.in-very

muhjabaga,

mu-hjabā-aga

sg.an-strong-ene

āpaxāẑaga

ā-paxāẑa-aga

sg.in-thick-ene

puxjāō,

pu-xjāō

3sg.poss-chest

ākhigi

ā-khī-igi

sg.in-thin-ene

pūhu,

p-ūhu

3sg.poss-belly

āxokogo

ā-xokō-ogo

sg.in-fast-ene

muŝiņji.

mu-ŝiņji

sg.an-run

because, certainly, he is [very] strong, his chest is thick, his stomach is thin and he runs fast.

Lexicon

see here