User:Thedukeofnuke/Proto-T1

To Be Continued... Thedukeofnuke is still working on this article. The contents are incomplete and likely to undergo changes.

Proto-T1 (PT1) is the provisional name for the ancestor of the T1 languages, spoken around -2000 YP at the inland end of the Tidika mountains of southeastern Tuysáfa.

Phonology

Consonants

Uncertain or poorly supported phonemes are shown in grey.

	labial	coronal	palatal	dorsal
nasals	*m	*n	*ń	*ŋ
stops	*p *pʰ	*t *tʰ	*c *cʰ	*k *kʰ
fricatives		*s	*ś	*h
approximants	*w	*r *l	*j

Nasals

PT1 had nasal phonemes at the labial (*/m/) and coronal (*/n/) points of articulation. It might also have had one or two dorsal nasals (*/ń/, */ŋ/). However, more work is needed to establish the details of these.

Stops

PT1 distinguished stops at four points of articulation - labial, coronal, palatal, and velar - and had a systematic aspiration contrast. This was most likely plain vs. aspirated, but the latter might have had another quality such as breathy voice.

*/p/
A tenuis labial stop.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt: initial p
• Old Yalan: initial p
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial p
• Teyetáti: initial p
• Omari: initial p
• Tumetıęk: initial p
• Tari: initial p

*/pʰ/
An aspirated version of the above.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt: initial pʰ
• Old Yalan: initial pʰ
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial w
• Teyetáti:
• Omari: initial p
• Tumetıęk: initial p
• Tari: initial pv

*/t/
A tenuis coronal (probably alveolar) stop.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt: initial t
• Old Yalan: initial t
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial t
• Teyetáti: initial t
• Omari: initial t/d
• Tumetıęk: initial t
• Tari:

*/tʰ/
An aspirated version of the above.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt: initial tʰ
• Old Yalan: initial tʰ
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial ʧ/s
• Teyetáti: initial t
• Omari: initial t
• Tumetıęk: initial t
• Tari: initial ts

*/c/
A tenuis palatal (or possibly pre-velar) stop.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt: initial t
• Old Yalan: initial kʲ
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial k
• Teyetáti:
• Omari: initial k
• Tumetıęk: initial k
• Tari:

*/cʰ/
An aspirated version of the above.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt:
• Old Yalan: initial kʲʰ
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial ʃ/ħ
• Teyetáti:
• Omari: initial k
• Tumetıęk: initial k
• Tari: initial ʨ/kh

*/k/
A tenuis velar (or possibly post-velar or uvular) stop.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt: initial k
• Old Yalan: initial k/kʲ
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial q
• Teyetáti: initial ʔ
• Omari: initial k
• Tumetıęk: initial k
• Tari: initial k

*/kʰ/
An aspirated version of the above.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt: initial kʰ
• Old Yalan: initial g
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial ħ/s
• Teyetáti: initial ʔ
• Omari: initial k
• Tumetıęk: initial k
• Tari: initial ts

Fricatives

PT1 had two sibilants distinguished by place of articulation, though the exact nature of the contrast is unclear. These are transcribed here as */s/ and */ś/; the first was probably alveolar, the second alveolo-palatal or pure palatal. There was probably also at least one dorsal or glottal fricative (provisionally called */h/) although further research is needed to determine its nature.

*/s/
A coronal sibilant, probably alveolar.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt: initial θ
• Old Yalan: initial s
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial s/Ø
• Teyetáti: initial s
• Omari: initial s/Ø
• Tumetıęk: initial s
• Tari: initial s

*/ś/
A "palatalised" sibilant.
Reflexes:

• Cednìtıt: initial ɕ
• Old Yalan: initial ʃ
• Hkətl’ohnim: initial h
• Teyetáti: initial ʃ
• Omari: initial ʃ
• Tumetıęk: initial s
• Tari: initial ɕ

Approximants

PT1 is well-established to have had a rhotic */r/; it is possible (though not well supported) that there was a second liquid phoneme, */l/. The nature and status of semivowels is uncertain, but it seems likely that there was a labial or labiovelar */w/ and a palatal */j/. Very little work has yet been done in this area.

Consonant clusters

Onsets

PT1 allowed two-syllable onset clusters of several types, some of which might have actually been phonemic affricates. Reasonably good evidence exists for the following, with N representing an unknown nasal, T representing an unknown stop, and S representing an unknown sibilant:

• *Np *Nt *Nk *Nh
• *p(ʰ)n *pt *ps *pś
• *pʰS
• *t(ʰ)m *t(ʰ)n *ts *tś *tr
• *tʰS *tʰr
• *cr
• *kS
• *k(ʰ)m
• *Sp *St *Sk *Sr
• *Sr

Initial clusters of the type *NT are poorly attested in the daughters of PT1; however, they appear to be reflected as voiced stops in Omari, as "fortifiable" nasals in Hkətl’ohnim, and as syllables of the form NVT in Cednìtıt and Ṽ̃T in Tari (and possibly Tumetıęk).

Vowels

Evidence from daughter languages suggests that PT1 had a fairly small vowel system, with three to six vowel qualities. */a i u/ are certain, */o/ likely, and */e/ and */ə/ may also have existed. There my also have been a length distinction. Very little work has yet been done on the PT1 vowel system.

Morphology

PT1 was an agglutinating language with a complex system of verbal morphology and simpler nominal morphology that marked possession. It was both prefixing and suffixing.

See also

Thedukeofnuke's spreadsheet of lexeme comparisons is here.