Proto-Utaıjen
| Proto-Utaıjen Utaıjen | |
| Spoken in: | The Middle East |
| Timeline/Universe: | Earth, alternate universe |
| Total speakers: | ??? |
| Genealogical classification: | Proto-Ōšqʷiť Proto-Utaıjen |
| Basic word order: | SOV |
| Morphological type: | Inflecting |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Nominative-Accusative |
| Created by: | |
| maailmaniag | June 18th 2008 |
Proto-Utaıjen (/u.ta:.jen/) emerged from the most conservative dialect of Proto-Ōšqʷiť. Therefore, many of the phonological features in Proto-Ōšqʷiť have been retained, including the three-way plain/palatized/labialized distinction, as well as many morphological features. Like Proto-Ōšqʷiť, we do not know exactly what Proto-Utaıjen sounded like; however, this is the first of the daughter languages to actually be written down, dating back to 1,500 BC, and therefore one of the more accurate "reconstructions" of Proto-Ōšqʷiť's daughter languages. Because it is also one of the more conservative dialects, and because it was written down, we can get a feeling of what Proto-Ōšqʷiť was like, and what it would have looked like written down.
Phonology
Although there are written records of Proto-Utaıjen, the exact phonology is not as certain, and assumes that the writing system (an alphabet) was largely phonemic
Consonants
As mentioned earlier, Proto-Utaıjen shares a significant portion of its consonant inventory with it's predecessor, and therefore, not much is different. However, one significant change is the merging of the aspirated stops with the voiceless stops, one of the first reconstructed sound changes from Proto-Ōšqʷiť to Proto-Utaıjen. This gives a consonant inventory that looks something like this:
| Consonants | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiodent. | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alv. | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m mʲ mʷ | n nʲ nʷ | ŋ ŋʲ ŋʷ | ||||||||||||||
| Plosive-voiced | b bʲ bʷ | d dʲ dʷ | g gʲ gʷ | ||||||||||||||
| Plosive-unvoiced | p pʲ pʷ | t tʲ tʷ | k kʲ kʷ | q qʲ qʷ | |||||||||||||
| Fricative-voiced | ð ðʲ ðʷ | z zʲ zʷ | ʁ ʁʲ ʁʷ | ||||||||||||||
| Fricative-unvoiced | f fʲ fʷ | θ θʲ θʷ | s sʲ sʷ | ʃ ʃʲ ʃʷ | χ χʲ χʷ | h hʲ hʷ | |||||||||||
| Affricate-voiced | d͡z d͡zʲ d͡zʷ | ||||||||||||||||
| Affricate-unvoiced | t͡s t͡sʲ t͡sʷ | ͡ʧ ͡ʧʲ ͡ʧʷ | |||||||||||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l lʲ lʷ | ||||||||||||||||
There are also two semi-vowels, /j w/ that were inherited as well.
Vowels
The vowels are the aspect of the phonology that was most changed in comparison to Proto-Ōšqʷiť. The constructed vowel system is as follows:
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||
| Close | i | u | ||||||||
| Close-Mid | o | |||||||||
| Mid | ə | |||||||||
| Open-Mid | e | |||||||||
| Open | a | |||||||||
Similar to it's predecessor, Proto-Utaıjen has a very relaxed diphthong inventory, as well. Many vowels can be followed by others, with a few exceptions. Double vowels are all reanalyzed (and written) as long vowels, with the exception of /ə/, which has no long counterpart (the short and long phonemes collapsed into 1 phoneme):
| Vowels | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -a | -e | -i | -o | -u | -ə | ||
| a- | a: | Ae | Ao | ||||
| e- | e: | ei | Eu | eə | |||
| i- | ia | ie | i: | io | iu | iə | |
| o- | oi | o: | ou | Oə | |||
| u- | ua | ue | ui | uo | u: | uə | |
| ə- | əi | əu | |||||
Sound Changes
Here is a compilation of the sound changes from Proto-Ōšqʷiť to Proto-Utaıjen (listed as PŌ > PU):
Stress
"V.CV > V.C"V / C=aspirated consonant
Stress, which was usually on the first syllable in Proto-Ōšqwiť, shifted to any syllable in the word that contained an aspirated consonant, usually the final syllable that contained one, in the case that there were two or more.
Consonants
pʰ pʷʰ pʲʰ > p pʷ pʲ
tʰ tʷʰ tʲʰ > t tʷ tʲ
kʰ kʷʰ kʲʰ > k kʷ kʲ
Vowels
ə ə: > ə
ae > əi / _C[+voice]
ae > e: / closed syllables
ae ai > Ae
aə > o:
ao > o: / open syllables
ao > Ao / closed syllables
au > Ao
ea eə > eə
eo > əo / _C[+voice]
eo > Eu / open syllables, _C[-voice]
oe > oi / open syllables
oe > e / closed syllables
oa oə > Oə
əa > a: / open syllables, _C[-voice]
əa > ə / other closed syllables
əe əi > əi
əo əu > əu
Syllable Structure
There was also a change in syllable structure, where there was a preference for open syllables.
C1C2 > C1 / _#
Cʷ Cʲ > 0 / _#
VC > CV / _# when C = fricative, /r/, /R/
VC > V: / _# when C = stop, liquid
CVC.CV > CV.CCV (note: not applicable when the second C is a nasal)
C1C2C3 > :C2C3 / syllable boundaries, when C1 not nasal, and all 3 are different POAs
Clusters of 4 or more consonants were extremely rare to begin with, but in general, consonants would be lost at the end of the cluster, so the string C1C2C3C4 would become :C2C3.
