Tropical Rim

This is a sprachbund comparable to the Lenian languages. It occupies the tropical rainforests of southwestern Rilola, and certain islands which intercept the islands of Lenia. Thus, if Lenia is "Polynesian ", TR may be Melanesian.

TR excludes the aboriginal Star languages and those of the Baeban macrofamily. In fact, TR is cladistically nested within the Lenian languages, even though the cultures were never united.This is because both are sprachbunds uniting people who are related but yet not each other's closest relatives.

These are apparently NOT the languages of the people who migrated eastward from Laba to Dreamland along with the Hipatal people. Those people may have in fact simply spoken Hipatal themselves.

Tapilula (0) to Star Empire Amade (1900)

1. Accented schwas surrendered their accent to the following vowel (not the same as a stress shift, because the tone also changes).
2. The "labial" vowel ə disappeared, syllabified nearby consonants or turned to i if the nearby consonants were not possible to become syllabic. Note that it never occurred after labialized consonants. Sequences such as /pəh/ collapsed to form aspirated consonants, though these behaved as clusters.
3. Tautosyllabic vowel sequences òi ài èi converged to ē. This did not affect syllable-straddling words like /tùya/. Likewise, èu àu òu in the same environment converged to ō.
4. Duplicate vowel sequences àa èe ìi òo ùu shifted to long vowels ā ē ī ō ū. But the same sequences with the opposite tone pattern did not shift.
5. The sequences ṁg ṅg ŋ̇g shifted to ṁb ṅd ŋ̇ġ.
6. The velar fricatives g gʷ shifted to Ø w.
7. The labial stops p b merged as b.
8. In a closed syllable, the stops b t d shifted to w Ø Ø and lengthened the preceding vowel. New ēw āw ōw merged as ō, while new īw ūw merged as ū.
9. The sequences bh dh shifted to p t.
10. The labialized consonants tʷ dʷ nʷ shifted to kʷ v m. Then d shifted to s, which had a voiced allophone of /z/.
11. The labial fricative f shifted to h.
12. The velar ejective ḳ shifted to g.
13. Before a hiatus, the short vowels u i shifted to ʷ y, creating a new set of labialized consonants. However, the palatalized consonants were not distinct from their components.
14. The labiovelars kʷ hʷ shifted to p f. Any /gʷ/ would have been absorbed as /w/.
15. The sequences tʲ nʲ sʲ lʲ shifted to č ň š y. Then kʲ ŋʲ hʲ also shifted to č ň š. Palatalized labials depalatalized.

Thus the consonant inventory was

Bilabials:        p   m   f   b   w
Alveolars:        t   n   s       l
Palataloids:      č   ň   š       y
Velars:           k   ŋ   h   g  (Ø)

And the vowels were /a e i o u ā ē ī ō ū/.

Star Empire Amade to Buoy

The Buoy language was a creole language incorporating words from the Lenian languages spoken by some of the Stars' slaves, even though many Buoys were actually of Star descent.

1. The palatals ň š shifted to n s.
2. The long vowels ē ō shifted to ī ū.
3. The vowels e o shifted to i u.

Later branches

1. western dialects go entirely voiceless.
2. no q or k_>
3. f>h, iff h>x.
4. ll nn kk ff>individual new consonants.
5. eastern dialects e o>ya u; some other dialects e o>i wa.
6. probably always the same vowel system in all languages at each time.... goes to 4 vowels first, then changes in harmony later.

NOTE: some of these vowel changes MUST precede the shifts that remove the labialized consonants, and this may mean that the labialized consonants survive at 1900 AD.

Childhood writeups can be copied over by assuming ɔ=wa, æ=ya,etc . Note that there were never any diphthongs. Also it might be better to use au/ai instead of wa/ya.

Tapilula to Old Atla (~1400)

1. Accented schwas surrendered their accent to the following vowel (not the same as a stress shift, because the tone also changes).
2. The "labial" vowel ə disappeared, syllabified nearby consonants or turned to i if the nearby consonants were not possible to become syllabic. Note that it never occurred after labialized consonants. Sequences such as /pəh/ collapsed to form aspirated consonants, though these behaved as clusters.
3. Tautosyllabic vowel sequences òi ài èi converged to ē. This did not affect syllable-straddling words like /tùya/. Likewise, èu àu òu in the same environment converged to ō.
4. Duplicate vowel sequences àa èe ìi òo ùu shifted to long vowels ā ē ī ō ū. But the same sequences with the opposite tone pattern did not shift.
5. The sequences ṁg ṅg ŋ̇g shifted to ṁb ṅd ŋ̇ġ.
6. After a high tone, the labial fricative f shifted to p .
7. The labialized nasals tʷ dʷ nʷ shifted to kʷ gʷ m.
8. Before /u/, the labial fricative f shifted to hʷ .
9. Remaining f shifted to h .

Thus the consonant inventory was

Bilabials:       p   b   m       w
Alveolars:       t   d   n       l
Palatals:                        y
Velars:          k       ŋ   g  (Ø)  h   ḳ
Labiovelars:     kʷ          gʷ  _   hʷ

It is possible that this language might adopt "Pabahais" traits like having /m̄/ as a separate phoneme from /m/, if contact between the two groups occurs early e nough.

Old Atla (1900) to Purple (2800)

1. The labiovelars kʷ hʷ gʷ shifted to p f v unconditionally.

Old Atla (1900) to Red Tide (2800)

1. The velars k ḳ ŋ h g shifted to t t n s z before an /i/ on any tone.
2. In final position, the velars k ḳ h shifted to t t s.
3. The labiovelars kʷ hʷ gʷ shifted to k h g unconditionally.

Old Atla (1900) to Clementine (2800)

1. The voiceless ejective velar stop ḳ shifted to the voiced velar stop ġ before any vowel.

Culture

It is possible that these languages continue westward to meet the "Green Crab" language and its relatives, whose speakers had crossed the entire globe in the opposite direction by island-hopping around the Equator. Despite being apart for around 2,600 years, it is likely the two groups would understand that their languages were related.

Pre-Tarise (1085) to Proto-Tarise (1900)

The phonology of Tarise is fairly conservative, resembling that of the Gold language from which it originated. However, it went through vastly more sound changes than the Khulls branch, so although the superficial appearance is similar, lexical identities are few and the deep structure has been heavily reordered. Being west of Khulls, Tarise shares none of the common traits of the languages spoken to the north and east of Khulls, but shares some traits with Khulls itself.

NOTE: This will need to be reworked to start with a six-vowel inventory instead of four. It may share some changes with Gold due to geographical proximity.

The consonant inventory was:

                       BASIC                             LABIALIZED  
Bilabials:             p   b   m   f   v                     mʷ      w   
Alveolars:             t   d   n       l             tʷ  dʷ  nʷ           
Postalveolars:         č   ǯ           y                       
Velars:                k       ŋ   h   g   ḳ                 ŋʷ  hʷ  gʷ
 

Unlike Fojy, the tone of one syllable was not predictable from the syllable before it: two low tones could occur in a row, and there were more than two tones. Thus, in the sound change list below, descriptions like "after a high tone" are defined narrowly, rather than, for example, also applying before a low tone.

Note that the inherited fricatives /h hʷ/ are velars, as in Khulls, and 're spelled with x.

1. The voiced fricatives g gʷ shifted to Ø w. However, the fricative allophones remained, and therefore came to also replace original Ø~ʕ. For example, syllable final -u merged with original gʷ, and obtained the velar frication as an allophone after a stressed vowel.
2. The stops p t b d shifted to h s g z unconditionally, with palatalization and labialization both preserved. Preexisting č ǯ merged with the palatalized coronals. xʲ , hʲ, and sʲ were still distinct.
3. All unstressed syllables became CV only, with no tones.
4. The sequence ʷə shifted to ʷu.
5. The vowels ə i shifted to i yi unconditionally.
6. The long falling tone vowels ā ī ū became high tone à ì ù unconditionally. They did not acquire glottalization.

Note that labialization is preserved. The consonant inventory at this time was:

Labials:                   m  w              
Alveolars:           s  z  n  l
Palatals:                     y      
Velars:        k  ḳ  x     ŋ (Ø)     
Postvelars:          h  g       

But consonantal allophony was very powerful, even alternating between stop and fricative realizations of /s z/.

SEE Tarise for remainder of sound changes.

Thus there were only two proper stops in the language: /k ḳ/. The fricatives /s z/ preserved allophones [t d] when before [a] and not after a closed syllable, but there is still no [ti] or [tu] in any environment. Likewise, the velars /k ḳ x/ were allophonically uvular before [a], palatal before [i], and true velar before [u]. However, this uvular opposition was not significant because in most cases the contreasast wias wth kʷ not k.

The inherited /ki/ gap is filled by the shift of /kə/ > /ki/; primordial /ki/ by this time had shifted to /sʲi/.

There were three vowels: /a i u/, on two tones. A vowel could be followed by /i/ or /u/, even if another consonant was in the coda.

The verb markers for past tense were ki/xi/hyi/syi for 1,2,♀️,♂️. Those are for weak verbs. Passives are xi xi myi xyi zyi, where the fifth is epicene...that is, epicene was only distinct for passive verbs and in some daughters may replace the masculine. a variant masc replces both /yi/ withj /i/.

              PAST TENSE
              ACTIVE       PASSIVE
1st person     -ki         (-xi)
2nd person     -xi         (-xi)
Feminine  ♀️    -hyi         -myi
Masculine ♂️    -si~-syi     -xyi
Epicene   ♁                 -zyi

languages of Gekira

bait language

The consonant inventory was:

Rounded bilabials:                     hʷ  w
Spread bilabials:      p       m   b   f  (Ø)
Alveolars:             t       n   d       l
Rounded alveolars:     tʷ      nʷ  dʷ         
Velars:                k   ḳ   ŋ   ġ   h   g

1. Accented schwas surrendered their accent to the following vowel (not the same as a stress shift, because the tone also changes).
2. The "labial" vowel ə disappeared, syllabified nearby consonants or turned to i if the nearby consonants were not possible to become syllabic. Note that it never occurred after labialized consonants. Sequences such as /pəh/ collapsed to form aspirated consonants, though these behaved as clusters.
3. Tautosyllabic vowel sequences òi ài èi converged to ē. This did not affect syllable-straddling words like /tùya/. Likewise, èu àu òu in the same environment converged to ō.
4. Duplicate vowel sequences àa èe ìi òo ùu shifted to long vowels ā ē ī ō ū. But the same sequences with the opposite tone pattern did not shift.
5. The sequences ṁg ṅg ŋ̇g shifted to ṁb ṅd ŋ̇ġ.

1085 to Pēles

See Lenian languages.

This language is the only one in the family that is spoken by a Lenian tribe. Most people did not realize its identity and grouped it with Subumpamese.

Southwestern Tip languages

See Hipatal#HP-3.

The consonant inventory was

Labials:          b   m   m̄   w
Alveolars:    t   d   n   n̄   l
Palatals:                     y
Velars:       k       ŋ   ŋ̄   g   h

Culture

It is possible that the Blue Oysters settled in the area that much later on was home to the TCT campground for orphans. But survival of the language for such a long period of time in an empire which enforced monolingualism is unlikely. If there is any survival of the language here, it must be due to a second wave of refugees who fled to the area after the Oyster government became weaker.

HP-3 (~2600) to Green Crab

The language names of this section and below are temporary, patterned after Blue Oyster, of which at least the Oyster part of the name is canonical. It is not clear where this language is spoken other than that it is not in the Oysters' territory, which was politically united.

The consonant inventory was

Labials:          b   m   m̄   w       b̲
Alveolars:    t   d   n   n̄   l
Palatals:                     y
Velars:       k       ŋ   ŋ̄   g   h

1. The voiced stop b̲ became a voiced velar stop ġ.
2. The nasals m̄ n̄ ŋ̄ shifted to m ṇ ŋ.

   Either /n/ or /ṇ/ might later shift to /r/ at least conditionally; this would prevent /d/ from doing so.

The consonant inventory thus became

Labials:          b   m       w
Alveolars:    t   d   n   ṇ   l
Palatals:                     y
Velars:       k   ġ   ŋ       g   h

Culture

Even if the Blue Oyster language detailed above dies out quickly, this language should survive, because the Green Crab settlers moved to an area far out of reach of the Oysters. The Green Crab territory was a rainforest that favored small, independent settlements, and was difficult to control from outside. The Oysters likely held some control over the surrounding seas, but this too would disappear if the Oysters were to ever break ties with the ancestors of the Green Crab colonists (that is, the HP-3 settlers).

Pabahais

These are the languages spoken east of HP-3 ("Green Crab" etc) and west of Atlam. It is possible that the two groups butt right up on each other and that this section simply does not exist.

It is unlikely that the migrants would (separately) conquer both Atlam and the Crab zone, and yet leave the area in between to the aboriginals. Thus it is likely that the migrants also settled the land in between, either cooperatively (as they were ambivalent to the politics of the wider world), or in competition with each other.

Pabahais may be the unorganized territory referred to in Star Empire or Gold Empire, and if so, it would likely be part of Atlam's sphere of influence rather than the Crabs. On the other hand, if the western migrants were able to become Oysters when they moved to Kxesh, perhaps they also became part of the Gold Empire by moving to it. Even the other Gold people would have had difficulty telling the two groups of migrants apart, as they had similar appearance and similar languages, though perhaps not similar lifestyles (one ocean-based and the other hunting-based).

Vowel hiatus, deriving from primordial /g/ > /Ø/, is probably still very frequent and may shift to something else.

Pabahais to ????

This assumes that Pabahais either derives from HP-3 or is an early-branching variety of it that would thus need to derive from Hipatal. Even if it does branch early, the last few sound shifts in HP-3 were likely to have occurred in both branches of the family as they involved filling gaps in the phonology. This means that they could also be interleaved with other unrelated shifts.

The front vowels /e i/ probably palatalized any preceding consonants.

The consonant inventory was

Labials:          b   m   m̄   w       b̲
Alveolars:    t   d   n   n̄   l
Palatals:                     y
Velars:       k       ŋ   ŋ̄   g   h

The vowel inventory may have been /a i u e/ or /a i u ə/.

1. The voiced stops b d shift to v r unconditionally.
2. The fortis voiced stop b̲ shifted to b.
3. The fortis nasal n̄ shifted to ṇ.
4. The vowel sequences uà uì uù shifted to ʷò ʷì ʷù.

   /e/ participates too if it exists.

5. The vowel sequences ià iù shifted to ʲè ʲì.
6. The labialized sequences lʷ rʷ gʷ shifted to w v.
7. The voiceless labialized alveolar stop tʷ shifted to kʷ.
8. The voiced velar fricative g disappeared to Ø unconditionally.
9. Labialization was eliminated, thus phonemicizing a new /o/ vowel. (It is irrelevant whether /o/ in hiatus was still preceded by a [w] or not.)

Thus the final consonant inventory was

Labials:            b   m       v           m̄
Alveolars:      t       n   ṇ   l   r
Palatals:      (č)              y
Velars:         k       ŋ               h   ŋ̄

Since /te ti/ are [če či], all palatal sounds may simply be spelled as /ti/ + vowel, etc. Thus they are not listed here. It could also be argued that the vowel system is something like /a o u ye yi yu/, with just a single contrast at /u/ since it is predictable elsewhere. However, note that there is a contrast between /ki/ and /či/ which would require the separation of /i/ and /ʲi/ if not for the fact that /či/ is analyzed as /ti/ instead of /kʲi/.

Pejo

see pejo language.

Geography and climate

All TR zones are either tropical rainforests or deserts on the border zones of other TR cultures. The northern limit was 31N, but this was reached very late and was not the occupying army's base of power. Other Tropical Rim cultures stayed south of 18N.