Proto-Insane

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A world-internal conlang, derived from Classical Chinese', yet the grammar and lexicon are entirely a priori (tho influenced by its parent). Confused? Originally the language arose as a religious cryptolect, with meaning assigned to subphonemic modifications of chants.

Phonology

  • [n] is split to /n ɲ ŋ ɴ/
  • [l] is split to /l ɬ ʎ ʎ̝̊ ʟ ʟ̝̊/
  • [r] is split to /r ʀ ɹ j ʁ/
  • [ʃ] is split to /s z ʃ ʒ ç ʝ/ (certain scholars construct a fourth, retroflex series)
  • [k] is split to /k kʰ kʼ q qʰ qʼ/
  • [t] is split to /t tʰ tʼ c cʰ cʼ/
  • [p] is split to /p pʰ pʼ/
  • [ɡ] is split to /ɡ ɡʱ ɠ ɢ ɢʱ ʛ/
  • [d] is split to /d dʱ ɗ ɟ ɟʱ ʄ/
  • [w] is split to /b bʱ ɓ β w/
  • [u] is split to /u ɯ/
  • [i] is split to /i y/
  • [o] is split to /o ɔ/
  • [oː] is split to /oː ɔː ou ɔu/
  • [e] is split to /e ɛ/
  • [eː] is split to /eː ɛː ei ɛi/
  • [a](ː) is split to /ɑ æ ɐ/(ː)

Fate

The language survives into the modern day, with some highly unusual descendants.

Some initial phonetic developments are loss of difthong openness and high vowel roundness distinctions;, follo'd by raising of the difthongs to high long monoftongs. Glottalization, unfamiliar in the region, separates as a prosodic feature medially and is lost initially. The palatals decay to postalveolars (sometimes velars), and the velar lateral fricativ becomes /χ/. Proto-Insane thus comes to contain a slightly diminished but still formidable sound inventory of 42 consonants and 18 vowels:

ʧʰ
p t ʧ k q ʔ
ʤʱ ɡʱ ɢʱ
b d ʤ ɡ ɢ
n ŋ ɴ
l ʟ
ɬ ɬʲ
s ʃ χ
β z ʒ ʁ
w ɹ j
r ʀ

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i u
e o
ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː
ɐ ɐː
æ æː ɑ ɑː