User:Rorschach/Proto-Macro-!Etfãmuǝ:nłenian
| To Be Continued... Rorschach is still working on this article. The contents are incomplete and likely to undergo changes. |
I'm using this article in my namespace as a sort of preparatory/scratch space for a possible protolanguage spoken in "Antarctica" (and possibly the extreme south of Zeluzhia). There's a discussion topic about it on the forum here.
Proto-Macro-!Etfãmuǝ:nłenian (*qwa:s !etfãmuǝ:nłen "our shelter towards the right [i.e., to the south]") is the hypothetical ancestor to many languages spoken in "Antarctica" and Zeluzhia.
| Proto-Macro-!Etfãmuǝ:nłenian | |
| Period | c. -6000 YP |
| Spoken in | Extreme southern Zeluzhia and northern Antarctica |
| Total speakers | |
| Writing system | |
| Classification | Macro-!Etfãmuǝ:nłenian |
| Typology | |
| Basic word order | a large #10 and a Dr Pepper |
| Morphology | |
| Alignment | |
| Credits | |
| Created by | Linguifex |
Contents
Phonology
Consonants
| labial | coronal | palatoalveolar | velar | uvular | glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| plosive | t tʷ | k kʷ | q qʷ | ʔ | |||
| fricative | plain | f | s | h | |||
| lateral | ɬ | ||||||
| trill | ʙ | r | |||||
| approximant | l | w | ʁ | ||||
| click | plain | ʘ | ǃ ǃʷ | ǂ ǂʷ | |||
| lateral | ǁ ǁʷ | ||||||
The reconstruction of *r as alveolar is not without contention; some conjecture that it was actually *ʀ and fronted in a few select dialects.
Romanization is much like IPA with the following exceptions:
- Labialized consonants are indicated with a following ⟨w⟩.
- The glottal stop is represented by an apostrophe.
- *ɬ is written ⟨ł⟩.
- *ʙ is written ⟨b⟩.
- *ʁ is written ⟨g⟩. *w is written ⟨u⟩; when a *u is adjacent, it takes a grave accent if it is plain-voiced.
- *ʘ *! *ǁ *ǂ are written ⟨@ ! # %⟩.
Vowels
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| high | u ṳ ṵ | ||
| mid | e e̤ ḛ | ə ə̤ ə̰ əː | o o̤ o̰ |
| low | a a̤ a̰ aː |
That the front vowel was mid as opposed to *i is conjectured based upon reconstructed evidence.
Vowels are written much as in IPA. Creaky voice is indicated with a tilde; breathy voice is indicated with a grave accent. A colon indicates length.
Allophony
Proto-Macro-!Etfãmuǝ:nłenian is thought to have had the following allophonic processes:
- *s are believed to have become *j preceding *e. It is possible that in this same position, *ɬ also became *ʎ.
- Plosives seem to have voiced when intervocalic.
- Obstruents (other than *s and *ɬ) and trills (and clusters solely consisting of them) drop before clicks word-internally. This is quite noticeable in the morphology.
Phonotactics
Attested onsets include:
- Nothing
- Any single consonant
- A fricative plus a plosive
- A non-click obstruent plus a sonorant other than *ʙ
- A nasal plus one of *r *l
Attested codas include:
- Nothing
- Any single non-click consonant except *ʙ
- A fricative plus a plosive
- A plosive plus *s
Morphosyntax
Nominals
Nominal Classifiers
Proto-Macro-!Etfãmuǝ:nłenian is reconstructed as having had a fairly sizable system of nominal classifiers. These were defined based on person (and, for third-person possessors, animacy) of the possessor, animacy of the referent, and relation to the referent. Those classified as direct had a closer relationship to the possessor than did indirect ones; null possessors lacked this distinction.
| Possessor | Inanimate | Animate | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct | Indirect | Direct | Indirect | |
| *Ø | *ǝ̀s' | *e | ||
| 1P | *nus' | *qwa:s | *#ùs | *!wa:n |
| 2P | *mõł | *ũsqw | *fe | *twútw |
| 3Pa | *kõg | *ŋè | *wèq | *%wost |
| 3Pi | *ga:ŋ | *suõ | *ŋə:t | *ẽ |
Noun Classes
Nouns can fall into one of five classes (as distinct from the classifiers shown above, which merely relate possession). Class IV is split into two subclasses, IVa and IVb.
| Class | Singular | Dual | Plural | Collective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | *#e- | *uú- | *fnǝ:(u)- | *à(u)- |
| II | *sõn- | *yet- | *a:(u)- | *ŋèt- |
| III | *twu- | *skwǝ̀n- | *b(ǝ)- | *nẽn- |
| IVa | *!et- | *qwa:l- | *ł(ǝ)- | *im- |
| IVb | *qè(u)- | *ŋ(ǝ)- | ||
| V | *Ø- | *ò(u)- | *õ(u)- | |
- Class I typically refers to the sun, moon, sea, and natural phenomena (e.g., storms, wind, fire). It uses animate agreement.
- Class II is used for objects worked by humans and takes inanimate agreement.
- Class III is used for creatures larger than a human. It takes animate agreement.
- Class IV is used for assorted inanimate objects (IVa, uses inanimate agreement) and animals smaller than a human (IVb, uses animate agreement).
- Class V is used for terms with human referents and takes animate agreement.
Verbs
Verb Classes
Four verb classes are reconstructed for Proto-Macro-!Etfãmuǝ:nłenian, differentiated by how transitivity is marked morphologically. By far the most common verb class is Class I.
- Class I verbs undergo no change.
- Class II verbs undergo a change in the final vowel of the stem: *a > *e, *e > *ə, *ə(:) > *a(:), *o > *a, *u > *o.
- Class III verbs take the prefix *%ũm-.
- Class IV verbs have a suppletive transitive form.
Verbal Directionals
- *-two straight ahead
- *-ŋùr behind, to the rear (of)
- *-bat to the left
- *-łen to the right
- *-ət towards the island
- *-yèn away from the island
- *-tǝ̀rò towards (a large landmass)
- *-mãkw away from (a large landmass)
- *-#o towards
- *-kə:yè away (from)
- *-/a:sq uphill
- *-twẽn downhill
- *-sũqw against the current, upstream
- *-kwòt with the current, downstream
- *-!er across the current
Verbal Aspect
- *-Ø simple
- *-%wa: defective
- *-u inceptive/incohative
- *-@õr pausative
- *-o resumptive
- *-a: iterative
- *-rə: cessative
Tense
Proto-Macro-!Etfãmuǝ:nłenian is reconstructed as having had three tenses: Distant past, past, and nonpast.
- *-(u)k distant past
- *-sò past
- *-Ø nonpast
Participles
Participles are formed from verbs by prefixing *(o)f- to the verb.
