Minor Lenian languages: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:38, 8 April 2021

North Dreamlandic languages

These are ordered roughly east-to-west.

Cappini languages

Proto-Cappini was identical with Baywatch, but was grouped with the others for political reasons.

CONSONANTS:

Bilabials:       p   m           b   
Alveolars:       t   n   s   l   r

And the vowels were /a e i o u/ in both short and long forms. The geminates /pp ss tt/ occurred, and there were sound gaps of */te so bo lo ro/, except in a few rare words where contraction of long vowels before geminates had created new short vowels there.

Cappini to Wineapple

This was the language spoken in Olansele.

The alveolars t n shifted to k ŋ before any of /o u/.

Cappini to Poise

This was the language spoken in Poise.

The alveolars t n shifted to k ŋ before any of /o u/.
This shift was added in the assumption that the language would be taking in many loans from Oyster languages, but if this is not the case, this shift does not create any new phonemes and can be ignored.
Any singleton s disappeared to Ø.
The geminates pp ss tt kk shifted to p s t k.

Other languages

The states of Ládara, Etatăni, Halaspa, Pumpkin, and Pointer did not have their own languages.

East Dreamlandic languages

These are the languages of Sepesi on the south coast of Dreamland. The speakers here are in intimate contact with those of Baeba Swamp and parts of Kuhilani.

It may possible to simply group these languages with South Dreamlandic.

This branch might keep or even elaborate on the classifier prefix system, but probably still does not reach the levels of the Andanese or Subumpamese inventories.

Proto-Dreamlandic (1495) to Suds (~3550)

Labialization was defeated, leaving no effects on the vowels.
The sequence ya shifted to ye.
The sequence mp shifted to mm.
Any singleton p shifted to Ø. (This includes /pu pi/ > /w y/.) Any preceding vowels became long. (But note that īy ūw were equivalent to ī ū.)
The geminates pp čč kk shifted to p č k.
Before a vowel, the sequences ki ti pi hi fi merged as s. Then tu shifted to su. (This also implies /č/ > /š/ > /s/, as in Sessi.)
Any remaining ki ti pi merged as the consonant geminator ʔ, which shifted to /Ø/ in absolute final position; any remaining hi fi lengthened the preceding vowel (ː) and then disappeared to Ø.
Long vowels before a geminate consonant became short.
The sequences ll rr shifted to l r.
The sequences mi ni ŋi li ri shifted to n n n i i. Sequences like /miwa/ > /nwa/ came to be spelled /nua/, etc. This shift did not affect the long ī, which was equivalent to /iy/.
A yer-like process must appear here to prevent the syllables from bunching up on each other. Since ī was rarely word-final, it is likely that word final -i will survive here and that therefore /mimi/ > /mmi/, etc. Word-initial geminates had already existed in the parent language.
The sequences lu ru shifted to u.
The sequences nfa nfu nha nhu changed to mpa mpu na nu.
The sequences fa fu shifted to ha hu.
The sequences kī tī pī merged as si. Then mī nī ŋī merged as ni. Bare ī shifted to i.
The sequences ui ūi merged as i.
This means old kui, pui, kūi, etc all become consonant + /i/.
The sequences ūa ūu became ua uu . This also caused /uwa/ > /ua/.
Note that nearly all /ū/ had been before another vowel even in proto-Dreamlandic.
The sequences yi wu shifted to i u. (The surface realization of the two merged, and either can be thought of as the basic form.)

Baeba Swamp crushed PDP territory here, but the PDP speakers remained as a distinct population group both geographically and culturally. The upper class learned to speak Middlesex, but there were relatively few loanwords.

At this point the alphabet consisted of a very small number of glyphs:

  a    i    u
 wa         
 pa  (pi)  pu
 ma  (mi)  mu
 ta      
 na   ni   nu    ne
 sa   si   su    se
 la    
 ra    
 ya              ye
 ka  (ki)  ku
 ŋa  (ŋi)  ŋu
 ha   hi   hu

However, unlike neighboring languages, syllables could end in /n t/, which assimilated Palli-style to a following consonant. Note that this is due to phonetic analysis, and there was never a stage in which clusters like /tk/ appeared at the surface. Thus, this cannot be used to trigger a sound change such as /tk/ > /t/ that would fill in the syllabary.

Common vowel nuclei were /a i u ā ai au āi āu ua uu ia ii iu/. There were also /e ei eu/, but these could only appear after /n s y/ and never in bare form. Also, there was no */ea/.

The sequences /ia ua/ can be considered equivalent to the bare syllables /ya wa/ because /ya wa/ never occurred after consonants.

The alveolars /t l r/ only occurred before /a/, but this /a/ could precede /i/ or /u/, and also could be long, so a five-way contrast of /a ai au āi āu/ was maintained.

Possible sound changes if this branch survive include vowel shifts to fill in the near-gaps of /pi ki/ and /t s l r/ before other vowels. possibly /ai au āi āu i u/ > /i u e o Ø Ø/ at least conditionally. Or the high vowels might be retained.

Alternatively, there could be shifts like /tapu taku/ > /tō/ > /to/. But note that this is asymmetric ... there is no crop of /pi ki/ that could provide new /e/'s.

Syllable rows like /na ni nu ne/ could be reanalyzed as /na nʲi ni nʲa/.

Distribution

This was the language of the Soap party, also known as Suds. They were pacifists who lost a war against the Crystals and therefore their language became a substratum of the Crystal language. The Crystals opposed slavery, and therefore the Suds were allowed to move out, but many stayed and resigned themselves to living as an underclass in Baeba Swamp. This was because, as pacifists, they opposed both sides of the war that had cost them their homeland, and thus considered themselves equally at home among their enemies as among their former allies (who did not waste men trying to protect them).

Because the language lost most /p/ early on and also lost some /m/, it does not have the same character as the northern languages, DPR and Baywatch. But the restricted distribution of the coronals /t l r/ made the language stand out from all of its neighbors even so, and when the Crystals took control of the Soapies' homeland, the Soap language rapidly evolved a more phonologically stable inventory.

Proto-Dreamlandic (1495) to Sesesi (~2700)

The end date might be earlier, because this originally contained additional sound changes under influence from Baeba Swamp.

Labialization was defeated, leaving no effects on the vowels.
The sequence ya shifted to ye.
Before a vowel, the voiceless sequences pu p pi shifted to w Ø y. (This includes mp > mm > m). Any preceding vowels became long. (But note that īy ūw were equivalent to ī ū.)
The geminates pp čč kk shifted to p č k.
The sequences hi fi ti tu shifted to si si si su. Then all č became š.
Any remaining t shifted to r.
The fricatives f š shifted to h s.
Before a vowel, the sequences pi mi ni li ri (including from earlier /mbi/) shifted to s n n l r .
added /ni/ because there was no /ñ/ in the target phonology.
The prenasalized sequences nr ns ŋk shifted to n s k. Adds vowel length?
The sequences aw ew iw uw shifted to ō ō ū ū. Thus a new vowel, /ō/, was created; however there was no short counterpart. This shift also included tautosyllabic /au/, /eu/, etc.
The sequences ay ey iy uy shifted to ē ē ī ī.
The double vowel sequence aa shifted to ā.
Long vowels followed by another vowel became short. Thus the new sequences like /ōa/ became /oa/, and the reflexes of earlier /ipia/ merged with /ipa/, and so on.

Thus the alphabet consisted of 39 syllables:

  a    i    u    
 wa        wu   
 pa   pi   pu         
 ma   mi   mu       
 na   ni   nu   ne
 sa   si   su   se
 la   li   lu   le   
 ra   ri   ru   re  
 ya   yi        ye 
 ka   ki   ku        
 ŋa   ŋi   ŋu    
 ha   hi   hu

The short vowels were /a e i u/ and the long vowels were /ā ē ī ō ū/.

This branch divides less rapidly than the others. There will be /s h/ > /0/, and may be /uk ku/ > /up pu/ and /ik ki/ > /it ti/ (through k > ć > ṭ), but only if these consonants can be separated from this context by later vowel shifts.

Sesesi to Valley of the Minds

This language is spoken in the northern part of Dreamland, by people who made it to the north before the speakers of North Dreamlandic did. It may have survived in a valley with one major city. Also, these sound changes might apply to other languages of the family as well, since VoM did not break off from near the root.

When not before a vowel, the sequences se ne le re shifted to the consonants s n l r. Thus closed syllables were created.
The long vowels ē ō decomposed to ay aw.

South Dreamlandic languages

These are ordered east-to-west.

These lists assume that all three languages are from the same branch of the family as Dolphin Rider (DPR), rather than being related to Wildfire, PDP, or independent. However, the DPR river is not intimately connected to this territory.

Senampattore language

Pupa language

Upper Lohi language

If Lohi was initially settled by tribes closely related to DPR, then this is the language of all of Lohi. If not, then DPR takes over later on, and this language needs to be replaced by DPR proper, as it is unlikely to survive on its own since the uplands of Lohi were the source of the DPR river.

The mid vowel e, which occurred almost entirely after palatalized consonants, shifted to a. Thus, the vowel inventory was reduced to /a i u/, with frequent sequences of /ya wa yi wu/ but no others.
The true palatals ć ń ś shifted to č ň š .
NOTE ON POLITICS: The main DPR list begins here.
The labiovelars kʷ ŋʷ hʷ shifted to pʷ mʷ fʷ unconditionally.
The sequences ya wa shifted to ye o.
In a closed syllable, the vowels i u lowered to e o. Long vowels did not shift.
The sequence āi shifted to ē.
Between vowels, the sequence ta shifted to ra.
The prenasals mp nt nč ŋk shifted to voiced stops b r r g.
The voiceless coronals t č š shifted to s . Meanwhile ň shifted to n.
The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ fʲ bʲ became f m f b. Thus palatalization was defeated.
It appears that lʲ rʲ also shifted to l r.
The sequences hi hu shifted to si fu. Then ŋi shifted to ni.
NOTE ON POLITICS: DPR breaks away at this point.

Western languages

The western branch broke off around 1300 AD, and then lost contact with the others. There could be as many as five languages by 3370 AD, but the growth of the other branches would have prevented these daughter languages from splitting into further branches.

Changes unique to Western Fojy

The voiceless non-sibilant fricatives f fʲ h hʷ shifted to Ø Ø Ø w.
The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ shifted to p m.
The bare vowel u shifted to ʉ. Then wa shifted to wo. Neither of these shifts were phonemic.

The language at this stage had exactly 100 syllables, if the clusters pp kk mp nt nk are counted as single onsets. This makes WF one of two related languages to evolve a 100-character syllabary early in their history, the other being the very early stages of the Gold language.

However, the 100 syllable analysis ignores the rare independent final nasal /n/. There were many vowel sequences, such as /ie/, as well as inherited long vowels which were now written as doubles.

The syllabary consisted of signs for

  a    i    ʉ    ya   wo   yi   wu   ye
 pa   pi   pʉ   __   pwo  __   pwu   pe
 ma   mi   mʉ        mwo       mwu   me
 ta  (ci   cʉ)  tya       tyi       tye
 na   ni   nʉ   nya       nyi       nye
 sa   si   sʉ   sya       syi       sye
 la   li   lʉ   lya       lyi       lye
 ra   ri   rʉ   rya       ryi       rye
 ka   ki   kʉ   kya  kwo  kyi  kwu  kye
 ŋa   ŋi   ŋʉ   ŋya  ŋwo  ŋyi  ŋwu  ŋye
ppa  ppi  ppʉ       ppwo      ppwu  ppe
kka  kki  kkʉ  kkya kkwo kkyi kkwu kkye
mpa  mpi  mpʉ       mpwo      mpwu  mpe
nta (nci  ncʉ) ntya      ntyi      ntye
ŋka  ŋki  ŋkʉ  ŋkya ŋkwo ŋkyi ŋkwu ŋkye

In the year 3958, one of the languages of Western Fojy (here "WF", or Wildfire) took over all of Dreamland, only to be swept out by the Dolphin Rider language in 4108.

Proto-Western (1300) to Shining Wave (~3300)

Since Lohi was clearly a naval power, it is more likely than not that its official language evolved near the coast, not in the DPR-adjacent uplands. However, just as DPR settled the south-facing coasts of their own territory, so too could they have settled Lohi.

Though DPR conquest of Lohi is absolutely certain, it is possible that there were two stages of population movement .... early on, DPR absorbed the preexisting Lohi settlements, likely with little violence; and much later on, participated in a war against Lohi in which Lohi attempted to invade Nama, even knowing that they were nearly certain to lose their own home territory.

The voiceless non-sibilant fricatives f fʲ h hʷ shifted to Ø Ø Ø w.
The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ shifted to p m.
The bare vowel u shifted to ʉ. Then wa shifted to wo. Neither of these shifts were phonemic.
Before any non-high vowel, the sequences ky ŋy ly shifted to ṭ ṇ ḷ.
This might create what is seen as geminate /tt/.
The prenasals mp nt ŋk (including coarticulated forms) shifted to mb nd ŋġ.
When padded in both directions by at least two voiced sounds, the singleton voiceless stop p shifted to b.
When padded in both directions by at least two voiced sounds, the singleton voiceless stop k shifted to ġ.
Note that these shifts occurred separately and may have had slightly different conditions.
When padded in both directions by at least two voiced sounds, the singleton voiceless stop t shifted to d.
Prenasals in absolute word-initial position wore down to plain voiced stops.
All geminate stops (but not nasals) became singletons.

  a    i    ʉ    ya   wo   yi   wu   ye
 pa   pi   pʉ   __   pwo  __   pwu   pe
 ma   mi   mʉ        mwo       mwu   me
 ṭa                                  ṭe
 ṇa                                  ṇe
 ḷa                                  ḷe
 ta  (ci   cʉ)  tya       tyi       tye
 na   ni   nʉ   nya       nyi       nye
 sa   si   sʉ   sya       syi       sye
 la   li   lʉ           lyi        
 ra   ri   rʉ   rya       ryi       rye
 ka   ki   kʉ        kwo       kwu   
 ŋa   ŋi   ŋʉ        ŋwo       ŋwu  
ppa  ppi  ppʉ       ppwo      ppwu  ppe
kka  kki  kkʉ  kkya kkwo kkyi kkwu kkye
mpa  mpi  mpʉ       mpwo      mpwu  mpe
nta (nci  ncʉ) ntya      ntyi      ntye
ŋka  ŋki  ŋkʉ  ŋkya ŋkwo ŋkyi ŋkwu ŋkye

Proto-Western Fojy (1900) to Wildfire I (3958)

This language loses its /ʉ/, creating an unbalanced setup where most of the consonants cannot occur before a back vowel.

The weak vowel ʉ disappeared to Ø, creating closed syllables.
Triple consonant sequences became double.

Culture

The western tribes were well-known for their military ineptitude, but still were able to win wars when other Dreamer tribes were on their side. Their languages may have been replaced by the Rain languages of Hipatal, unless Lohi etc is from this branch.

Para-Birch languages

Bilabials:        p   m   f   w           
Alveolars:        t   n   s   l   
Postalveolars:            š   y                                  
Velars:           k   ŋ   h   g

There were four vowels, and the diphthongs /ai əi au əu/. The tone system was à/ă/ā and the schwa only occurred on the low tone.

Notes