Proto-Wan-Mlir
|
| Proto-Wan-Mlir | |
| Period | c. -2200 YP |
| Spoken in | Milīr valley |
| Total speakers | unknown |
| Writing system | none |
| Classification | Hitatc Western Hitatc Proto-Wan-Mlir |
| Typology | |
| Basic word order | (X)VSO |
| Morphology | lightly agglutinating |
| Alignment | fluid-S |
| Credits | |
| Created by | Cedh |
Proto-Wan-Mlir is the last common ancestor of the Wan-Mlir languages, the northwestern subgroup of the Hitatc language family. It was spoken in the Milīr valley shortly before -2000 YP.
Even though the Wan-Mlir languages were attested as early as -1900 YP in various Ndak sources, and even though no less than seven Wan-Mlir languages are known to have existed well into classical times, not much is known about them. This is certainly due to the high importance placed on Adāta as the official language throughout the Empire of Athalē, which led to the extinction of all Wan-Mlir dialects within a few centuries after the Izatizan War (229-231 YP). However, several Dāiadak scholars have described the culture and language of individual Wan-Mlir tribes, and thus preserved some knowledge for later centuries. The most extensive of these works is the famous Ktacwa grammar sketch written by Saphamīx, one of the greatest Dāiadak historians. Reconstruction of Proto-Wan-Mlir (and of Proto-Hitatc as a whole, of course) rests heavily on his work, supported by evidence from loanwords in Ndak Ta, Adāta or Ndok Aisô, and by comparison with surviving Western Hitatc languages from the Uplands branch, notably Eteucu.
Phonology
Sound changes
- Proto-Hitatc to Common Western Hitatc (c. -2400 YP)
- Common Western Hitatc to Proto-Wan-Mlir (c. -2200 YP)
Phoneme inventory
Consonants
| labial | dental | alveolar | postalv. | palatal | velar | lab.-vel. | uvular | lab.-uv. | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plosives | p · b | t · d | c · ɟ | k · g | q | ʔ | ||||
| fricatives | f | θ | s · z | ʃ · ʒ | x | xʷ | χ | χʷ | ||
| nasals | m | n | ŋ | ŋʷ | ||||||
| laterals | ɬ · l | |||||||||
| trills | rʰ · r | ʀ | ||||||||
| semivowels | j | w |
- *n is grouped under "dental" because it alternated with *θ in some morphological environments.
Vowels
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| high | i · ĩ | u · ũ | |
| mid | ə | ||
| low | a · ã |
- Stressed *ə became /e/ in all attested daughter languages (with exceptional /a/ sometimes showing up adjacent to an uvular consonant). The same generally applies for Hitatc loanwords into neighbouring Edastean languages. It is therefore reasonable to assume that *ə was pronounced as a front vowel in stressed positions already in Proto-Wan-Mlir.
Dialectology
Late in the 3rd millennium BP, Proto-Wan-Mlir broke up in two main dialects as its speakers divided into two distinct tribes, the Hitatc Wan in the lower Milīr valley and southern Lasomo, and the Hitatc Mlir in the upper Milīr further south. During the wars between the Ndak and the Gezoro around -1900 YP, the Wan and Mlir dialects were already distinct but still mutually intelligible.
- Sound changes to Hitatc Wan (c. -1900 YP)
- Sound changes to Hitatc Mlir (c. -1900 YP)