Proto-Núalís-Takuña
| Proto-Núalís-Takuña | |
| Period | -2600 to -2200 |
| Spoken in | unknown |
| Total speakers | unknown |
| Writing system | none |
| Classification | Núalís-Takuña family |
| Typology | |
| Basic word order | AuxSV |
| Morphology | some agglutinative and some synthetic affixes; consonant mutations |
| Alignment | NOM-ACC (clauses with multiple core arguments rare) |
| Credits | |
| Created by | TzirTzi |
Proto-Núalís-Takuña is the ancestor of the Núalís-Takuña family, a set of languages indigenous to northeastern Peilaš encountered by speakers of various languages from the Isles family (such as Mûtsipsa').
Features
Proto-Núalís-Takuña has a very small phoneme inventory: it has nine consonants, /p t k ʔ m n ŋ s ɾ/, and three simple vowels /i u ɐ/. All nine possible combinations of these three vowels occur as diphthongs (some realised as long monophthongs). It has contrastive stress, mainly distinguished by pitch. In the orthography, the velar nasal is written as <ñ>, the glottal stop as an apostrophe, the tap as a simple <r>, and stress (where non-initial) is marked with an acute accent over the vowel. /i u/ are written <j w> when the second element of a diphthong.
Nouns are divided into alienably possessable and inalienably possessed, as well as mass, unitary count, and collective count classes. Number is marked by a combination of initial consonant mutation and prefixes. Possession is marked on inalienably possessed nouns by ablaut and infixes in the initial syllable.
Verbs are divided into true verbs and participle verbs. The first group is a very small, closed word class. The meanings of true verbs are often vague, covering very large semantic areas. They are marked for positionality and evidentiality by synthetic suffixes. Participle verbs are a much larger and open word class. They are morphologically identical to inalienably possessed unitary count nouns, but the number marked on them has aspectal meaning and their possession marking agrees with their subject. Participle verbs are classified by which true verbs they may appear with.
Sample Text
This sample text is an extract taken from the beginning of a traditional, recited story-cycle, known as kañunuwakaíwkañu, or the Story-Hearer Cycle.
kima’i’ú nuwakaíwkañu ki, tumú suw’i’ú tumú kima’i’áa a ka’ajta
tumú kima’i’áa kima’i’úw kima’ira’úw paranaká a sarautuwpikaj
tumú kima’i’ú pij’ú, ta’mú suw’i’ú tumú kima’i’áa a ka’ajta
ta’mú suw’i’ú paranaká tumú kima’i’áa a amákami aapáw
tumú kima’i’áa kima’i’úw kima’ira’úw nuwakaíwkañu ki a kajtaká’ajta
tumú kima’i’ú pij’ú, ta’mú suw’i’ú tumú kima’i’áa a ka’ajta
ta’mú suw’i’ú paranaká tumú kima’i’áa a ka’ajta pumú kaw’akáw’a pumú ruku’ pumú tajsuriw’i’áa
tumú kima’i’áa kima’i’úw kima’ira’úw paranaká a rama’uña’ajta
tumú ñuj’a’i’á a ka’ajta parati, tumú ina‘ia’ia kisuma’á
a ka’ajta pumú kaw’akáw’a pumú ruku’ pumú tajsuriw’i’áa.
pij’á nuwakaíwkañu umiu’ pumú niñuwíñuj pumú a ka’ajta suwñi’i’rá’uw parati
pij’á tumú uíñuj umiu’ a aapáw suwñi’i’úw
tumú ‘ipáwma sanarúmarita miarutu’ú
pikiki paranaká tumú maríta tumú rapa’ú ‘awkua’ú
ta’mú pij’ú nuwakaíwkañu paranaká pumú iñuwíñuj rutumu a ka tuwñi’i’á
ta’mú nuíñuj umiu’ a aapáw
ta’mú inamasáma ka’ajta riúkua pa’mú pu’rá’mu’ pumú ñamij’ú a paranaká pij’irá’uw.
“So, they say Nuwakaíwkañu stood, and he wanted to go to the river
And he went away, and around, and reached the salt-sand
And he stood, and looked, but he wanted to go to the river
But he wanted to go to the sea's arm
So Nuwakaíwkañu went away, and around, and reached the river-mouth
And he stood, and looked, but he wanted to go to the river
But he wanted to go to the gurgling-throat river
So he went away, and around, and reached the river-bank.
And there he sat by the river, and it was good,
By the gurgling-throat river.
Nuwakaíwkañu saw there the sun float back and forth in the river,
He saw the sun flow down from the sea,
and he would have got out his favourite fishing tackle,
he would have wanted to fish,
but he saw a man in whose eyes the moon floated back and forth,
though the sun was flowing down from the sea,
and the river breathed warm breath around him.”
Descendants
Known descendants of Proto-Núalís-Takuña include the following languages:
- Takuña, encountered by speakers of the Mûtsipsa' language.
- Núalís, encountered by speakers of the Máotatšàlì language.