Play substratum languages

This family could be called Paleo-Pabappa but I may want to repurpose that name since Pabappa is so far in the future from when this family dies out that it may imply a connection that is actually not there.

The Play substratum languages are a branch of the Lenian languages, also known as the Dreamlandic languages, spoken by people who sailed in the opposite direction and ended up with a smaller but more bountiful piece of land to live on as compared to the Dreamers who won control of a large span of land that had abundant seacoast and good fishing but was mostly too dry for agriculture.

It is possible that the "PDP" languages will be added somewhere in here, as their sound changes are no longer appropriate for their location in Dreamland now that the history of Dreamlandic has been shifted back 800 years. PDP could even be the new Thaoa.

They can be called the Pàndu languages, but this is simply a mnemonic term of convenience that happens to begin with the same letter as Play and Pabappa. The native cognate of this name is fianku and neither this name nor their full name begins with or contains the letter p.

Early evolution

Shape of the proto-language

The phonology could be analyzed as

                       CONSONANTS                 VOWELS

Rounded bilabials:     pʷ  mʷ      w              a i u ə
Plain bilabials:       p   m   f  (Ø)             a i u              
Spread bilabials:      pʲ  mʲ  fʲ  y              a i   ə
Alveolars:             t   n   s   l   r          a i u               (/ta ci cu/)
Postalveolars:         č   ň   š  *l  *r          a i   ə             (/ča či čə/)
(Palatals:             ć   ń   ś    )             a i   ə
Velars:                k   ŋ   h                  a i u
Labiovelars:           kʷ  ŋʷ  hʷ                 a i u ə

Though it is possible that PSL had followed Nuclear Dreamlandic in shifting the schwa vowel /ə/ to merge with /a/. The list up above showing it occurring after labialized consonants is probably a mistake, and in fact it only occurs after palatalized consonants. (If it is not a mistake, it is talking about the extremely rare /ʷe/ of the proto-language.)

A minimal phonology, and the one used by the Dreamers in their script, is

p  m  f
t  n  s
k  ŋ  h
r  Ø  l

a  i  u

Possible paths

These languages could follow a "mouthful of Europe" pattern, where they gain a voicing distinction, expand the vowel inventory, and develop an irregular syllable structure where some consonant clusters (for example /ps pt/) are permitted but others are not (/tp pr/). A three-vowel inventory might fit better, though, if the consonants are intended to be retained or to expand and form clusters. The classical Dreamlandic languages expanded their vowel inventory only by minnowing down the consonant inventory.

If this is carried out, the sound changes from proto-Dreamlandic to the daughter languages would somewhat resemble the sound changes from Play to Pabappa.

Contact with Andanese

The PSL speakers lived with the Andanese people, who were a minority except in the far west where they became a majority early on. (Though these people were descended mostly from aboriginals who adopted an early branch of the Andanese language family.) The Andanic languages at this time were Lava Bed languages and thus quite difficult to learn; it may be that few PSL speakers ever learned to speak any Andanic languages and that influence in both directions was minimal.

Proto-PSL (633 AD) to Eastern PSL (2668 AD)

This is the replacement language for Thaoa. There will be one standard language and a crop of dialects spoken further north and east. The first 450 years of changes must be the same as those in Capital because the eastern state had not yet seceded and the central government was very strong.

Proto-PSL (633 AD) to Capital PSL (1900 AD)

This language is bumped off by Gold when AlphaLeap invades around 1900 AD, and Gold is the language that evolves into Play. But the PSL language might survive for another 750 years, disappearing only when AlphaLeap takes full control of the coastline around 2668 while simultaneously destroying "Thaoa".

1. The true palatals ć ś ń ćć ńń became the dentals ṭ ṭ ṇ ṭṭ ṇṇ when not touching an /i/ in either direction. There was no geminate fricative, but the same shift applied to clusters like /ńś ńć/.
2. The true palatals ć ś ń ćć ńń became the dentals ṭ ṭ ṇ ṭṭ ṇṇ when touching a /u/ in either direction (even if also touching an /i/).
3. The true palatals ć ś ń ćć ńń became the postalveolars č š n̆ čč n̆n̆ unconditionally.
4. The postalveolar stops č čč merged as šš.
5. When not touching an /i/, the postalveolars š n̆ (including geminates and clusters) shifted to s n.
6. The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ fʲ shifted to ps mm ff. The first shift would bring the language its first heterorganic cluster, and so may need to be either cancelled or postponed.
7. The dental stop ṭ shifted to an alveolar t.
8. In monosyllabic (C)CV words, the short vowels a i u lengthened to ā ī ū.
9. Long vowlers shortened before a cluster (even /mp/ etc).
10. Word-initial prenasals lost the nasal to become pure voiceless (not voiced) stops.
11. All short unstressed u disappeared, creating consonant clusters. The matter of word stress was complicated, as it had not been phonemic since the time of proto-Dreamlandic; it may be that some unstressed /u/ did not disappear because of analogy with stressed forms; this would then shift to i.

Proto-PSL (633 AD) to Proto-Western PSL

This branch is more diverse than the others, fracturing early. It can be compared to Slavic languages if Capital PSL is Russian and Eastern PSL is Siberian.