Western Kelanian
| Western Kelanian Kálanyas tyañáli | |
| Timeline/Universe: | (not yet named) |
| Total speakers: | none |
| Genealogical Classification: | Kelanian Western Kelanian |
| Basic word order: | SOV by convention, could be free |
| Morphological type: | fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | fluid-S |
| Created by: | |
| Andrew | 2007 |
When men started expanding, their language started to change. In the west, the latest common language was what is now called Western Kelanian or sometimes Kalanian (native name Kálanyas tyañáli, lit. "Kelanian speech"). The changes to Western Kelanian weren't to extreme, as opposed to its sister Eastern Kelanian, and it and Kelanian, its parent, could probably have been mutually intelligible.
Sound Changes from Kelanian
P = plosive, N = nasal, F = fricative, L = liquid, W = semi-vowel C = a consonant, V = a vowel
- P[+voice] → P[-voice]/#_s
- P[+voice] → P[+voice][+asp]/ #_V
- P[+voice][+asp] → F[+voice] (/B D G/ <v dh gh>)
- V[+length] → V[-length] /_#
- V[+stress] → V'[+stress] /_CV'
(I'm not sure if I wrote that in a way that makes sense. Its supposed to say that a stressed vowel becomes whatever the next vowel is.)
- V[-length] → Ø /_W
- Pw → Pʷ
- Cj → Cʲ
- Ci → Cʲi /_C
- Ci → Cʲ /_V
- V[-length] → Ø /C_C, where both C's are the same
- Stress moves to the antepenultimate vowel, or to the penultimate vowel if it is long.
Morphology Changes from Kelanian
Most of the changes in inflection were the result of the above sound changes, though the following changes also occurred.
Noun Changes
The comitative case merged with the instrumental into the suffix -tye. Also, because of sound changes, the absolutive long final vowel shortens, meaning it is no longer morphologically distinct from the locative in the 1st, 2nd and 5th declensions.
Modifier Changes
Modifiers remained almost completely unchanged except for sound change.
tséraye → tsárye
tséraya → tsárya
tsêrawe → tsârwe
Verb Changes
The verbal system simplified. The modifier-copula phrase used to make verbs in Kelanian collapsed into single words, forming a regular verbal conjugation system. The present indicative is shown here in its three aspects.
tséraye-éni → tsaryêni
tséraya-éni → tsaryâni
tsêrawe-éni → tsārwêni
Aorist Changes
The aorist took a rather interesting turn. All words started to use the strong aorist stem formation, making it very predictable. This changed all of the aorist forms, including the modifier. This change took place rather early, after the third but before the fifth sound change listed above.
Verb: atsérī → atsíri
Modifier: atsére → atsére
Syntax Changes from Kelanian
The most obvious syntax change is in conventional phrase order, from OSV to SOV, showing more ergative tendencies. As in Kelanian, phrase order is necessary to show grammatical roles, though subject-verb agreement is more frequently used than it was before.
