Babakiam/Sound changes: Difference between revisions

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===Gold to Yeisu Kasu (3100)===
===Gold (1900) to Play (4100)===
Alternate names: '''Papies; Pre-Proto-Pabappa; Pre-Pabappa; Pabappic Gold'''  
The Play language evolved from the '''Soft Hands''' dialect of Gold, also known as '''Wolf in Wool''', '''Broken Shields''', and perhaps at least one other name.  It drove out the Lazy Palms language and took relatively few loanwords. There were also several other languages spoken in this territory, including one language spoken by Star immigrants, probably a branch of [[Amade]]. 


Wolf in Wool had not yet evolved its characteristic sound, so the relative scarcity of loanwords was not due to the acoustics of the language, but rather a cultural identification with the new language being imported from overseas.  Any loans that were taken in had /e o/ shifting to /ə/ for the entire time period of this language, though /ē ō/ may have been borrowed as /əi əu/ or /ai au/ or either.
'''Gold''' was the language spoken in the city of Beni-Iubaia (earlier Iūni-Iubāia) around 1900 AD. It evolved into a language called '''Yeisu Kasu''' within about 1000 years, and then further into Babakiam by 4100 AD.


Starting phonology:
#At the end of a syllable, the pharyngeal fricative ''ʕ'' disappeared and changed the previous vowel to a high tone. It also voiced the following consonant. 
 
#Syllable-final ''k ḳ ŋ'' changed to '''kʷ ḳʷ ŋʷ'''.   
;Consonants:
#Feeding on the above change, in compounds, if the  final consonant was one of /kʷ ḳʷ/ and the first consonant of the next morpheme was one of the velars ''k ḳ h ŋ'', it also became labiovelar.  Thus for example /kk/ > /kʷkʷ/ or /kʷ:/.  It did not happen for other consonants. Prenasals  did not shift; later, the cluster /ŋʷk/ becomes /mk/, which is pronounced as spelled but later becomes [ŋk], [mpt], etc depending on dialect.
/p b m w t d n s z l č ǯ j k ġ ŋ h g ḳ ʕ/
#In initial position, the labialized coronals ''tʷ dʷ nʷ'' shifted to '''t d n'''. Elsewhere, even in clusters, they decoupled to the sequences ''tu du nu''.
 
#The bilabial approximant ''w'' changed to '''v''' (in internal reconstructions, also spelled "β") before a vowel.
The permissible final consonants are /k ḳ l n s ʕ/. Syllabic consonants /ṁ ṅ ŋ̇/ do, however, exist.   
#Then ''l lʷ'' both became '''w''' (not */v/) in all positions although it retained a rhotic allophone.  The distinction between this new /w/ sound and the one that had just changed to /v/ is important later on, as it keeps sequences like /ʕl/ from being corrupted to /ʕʷ~gʷ/ and then on to /v/, /b/, and /p/. Rather, /l/ stays as /w/.
 
#:Notably, the sequence ''sl'' (which was pronounced as IPA [hl] or for some speakers [ɬ]) shifted here to '''sw''', and did not become */hʷ/ or */f/.  That is, it behaved as    the sequence that it was morphologically, instead of sliding with the phonetics into a new single consonant.
Any consonant other than /w/ can be labialized, but only in a syllable onset, meaning that they can be analyzed as clusters of consonant + /w/.  However, this setup ignores the influence of the labialized conosnants ''tʷ dʷ nʷ'', which are much more common than other labialized consonants, and evolve distinctly from them in all branches of the Gold family.
#:''NOTE ON POLITICS'': [[Macro-Pabap_languages#Gold_.281900.29_to_Proto-Highland_Poswob_.282668.29|Proto-Highland Poswa]] breaks off here. 
 
#The  labiovelar consonants ''kʷ ḳʷ  hʷ gʷ'' became '''p ṗ  f v''' unconditionally. This includes sequences like /kʷl/, despite the precedent set by /sl/ above, because in this case, /kʷl/ was already [kʷ] at the surface level in the proto-language.
Note that all voiceless stops here are spelled the same regardless of whether they were aspirated or not.  This is because Babakiam later merges all aspirated voiceless stops with their plain voiceless counterparts unconditionally, with there being no difference in outcome even in conditional environments such as after a closed syllable. The changes relating to aspiration are mentioned here only for the purpose of deriving loanwords from Babakiam into Khulls and other languages.
#Sequences of two vowels in which the first vowel was ''i'' or ''u'' became rising diphthongs. Then all clusters of a consonant followed by a semivowel came to be pronounced as coarticulated single consonants.  Thus ''pua'' became '''pʷa''', ''pia'' became '''pʲa''', and so on.
#Stressed syllabic nasals were opened to sequences containing a schwa.   
The fricative that corrsponds to Khulls /x/ is here spelled /h/; its pronunciation began as [h] but shifted towards [x] in some positions over time.  It never merged with the much rarer /ħ/ phoneme, which mostly corresponds to Khulls' true /h/.
#The voiced fricative ''g'' assimilated to a neighboring glide /j/ or /w/, thus creating sequences of /jj/ and /ww/. The shift thus was ''gj jg gw wg'' > '''jj jj ww ww'''. This includes ''g'' after /ī/ and /ū/.
 
#The voiced fricatives ''d dh    g'' became silent between vowels and occasionally in initial position (due to compounding).
#Sequences like /ʕaʕ/, /ʕiʕ/, etc. lost the first /ʕ/ regardless of whether it was in the same syllable or not.  (Possibly move this back even into Gold.)
#:When I wrote this, there was no /ž/ in the language at this stage, and so it is possible that ''ž'' also shifts to '''Ø'''.  
#At this time, syllable-final /s/ was pronounced [h], as in Khulls.  This allophone is actually a retention of the original pronunciation rather than an allophone.  Now, this aspiration spread across a following voiceless stop, causing it to become aspirated.  Note that since Babakiam later merges aspiration anyway, this change had no effect except for causing a small number of loanwords to appear in other languages with unexpected aspiration. 
#:''NOTE ON POLITICS:'' This time period is around 3100 AD, near the beginning of the "Time of Happiness" ('''Yeisu Kasu''': 3138 - 3302 AD).  The branches of the language that fork off from mainline Bābākiam in 3138 all die out, and therefore all of their names in the history are written in Babakiam, but they could be revived as minor local languages, and there would be quite a lot of them.
#At the end of a syllable, ''/ʕ/'' disappeared and changed the previous vowel to a high tone. It also voiced the following consonant. No new consonants arose from this change, but some voiced ones now became less restricted in their distribution.
#A voiced consonant in a cluster after  /p/ or /s/  changed briefly to '''ʕ''' and then disappeared.  
#Syllable-final ''k ḳ ŋ'' changed to '''kʷ ḳʷ ŋʷ'''.  A few compound words in which the second element began with a vowel or a suppressed consonant split into doublets depending on whether the free (labiovelar) or bound (plain velar) version of the morpheme was generalized in the compound.
#:This shift is responsible for important consequences in verb morphology in Poswa more than 5000 years later. Note that the inherited clusters ''gh hg'' had been merged as '''h''' already in Gold; /hg/ was morphologically equivalent to /sg/, which explains why /sg/ shows up in Play as '''š''' instead of ''s'' like the others.  Lastly, this shift explains why the Play toponym ''Fanašasa'' corresponds to Leaper ''Xʷanaxanta''.
#The bilabial approximant ''w'' changed to '''ʕʷ''' (in internal reconstructions, also spelled "v") before a vowel. Note that words like "kua" were still /kua/ rather than /kwa/ and thus did not undergo this change.
#The voiced fricatives ''v z ž g'' changed to '''b d ǯ ġ''' before a high tone. Unlike other languages, Play considered the long vowels to be high tones here.
#Then''l lʷ'' both became'''w''' (not ʕʷ) in all positions although it retained a rhotic allophone.  /lʷ/ was very rare, occurring only from word-initial collapse of an earlier /ul-/ sequence. 
#:This is how Play does /g/ > /k/ even though /g/ was a fricative. Note however that in hypothetical words like /vuau/, where a /d/ dropped out, the initial /v/ was part of a separate syllable,  not stressed, and so did not shift to /b/.
#The labialized consonants ''tʷ dʷ nʷ'' also took on this same rhotic allophone, unlike all other labialized consonants.  Thus they became clusters ''tʕʷ dʕʷ nʕʷ'', which can also be spelled "tv dv nv".
#The post-velar fricative consonants ''ħ ʕ'', which had been developing labial compression, changed unconditionally to '''f v'''.  
#The  labiovelar consonants ''kʷ ḳʷ ġʷ hʷ gʷ'' became '''p ṗ b f w''' unconditionally.
#The velar fricatives ''h g'' were fronted to '''š ž''' unconditionally. ''šʲ žʲ'' became '''š ž'''.  This includes the /čʲ/ sequence, which had long ago become [šʲ] but was maintained in spelling because of its importantly distinct grammatical behavior.  
#:Note, /gʷ/ > /w/ is questionable since the weaker consonant /ʕʷ/ was not affected.
#:Importantly, this shift included conditions in hiatus ("holes" in Play terminology), so that ''čiva'' became '''čua'''.
#Sequences of two vowels in which the first vowel was ''i'' or ''u'' became rising diphthongs. Then all clusters of a consonant followed by a semivowel came to be pronounced as coarticulated single consonants. Thus ''bua'' became '''bʷa''', ''bia'' became '''bʲa''', and so on. ''ñ'' was assimilated as '''nʲ'''.
#Stressed syllabic nasals were opened to sequences containing a schwa.  This happened in various ways depending on the environment: the maximal expansion was [CəC], where the two C's are identical. This happened only when the syllabic nasal had occurred between two vowels.  If instead, it occurred at the end of a word or in a closed syllable (e.g. /''pṁp''sa/), the second C was always '''m'''.  If the syllabic nasal had also been preceded by a consonant in the same syllable, the first C would be omitted altogether.  The first C was also omitted if the syllabic nasal had occurred word-initially; however, since this created a word beginning with a stressed schwa, a /'''β'''/ was quickly inserted by analogy with all other words beginning with a stressed syllable. Nevertheless, the β-less form appeared in compounds in which the preceding element ended in a consonant, where it additionally competed with forms  appearing in compounds whose first element ended in a vowel. Thus for example, the Gold language word ''ṁ'' "breast" split into '''em''', '''βem''', and '''mem''', with no difference in meaning between the three.
#Unstressed syllabic nasals followed the same rules as above, except that whenever possible, they contracted to a simple nasal rather than retaining a schwa. Whenever syllable-final, the result was always '''m''', never ''*n'' or ''*ŋ''.
#The voiced labialized stops ''bʷ dʷ ǯʷ ġʷ'' changed to '''b''' between vowels.
#The voiced palatalized stops ''bʲ dʲ ǯʲ ġʲ'' changed to '''ǯ''' between vowels.
#The voiced stops ''b d ǯ ġ''(including ones created by the previous two rules) changed to '''β ð ž g''' between vowels.  This change also caused the voiced labialized stops ''dʕʷ ġʷ'' to merge into '''ðʷ gʷ'''.
#The voiced aspirated stops ''bʰ dʰ ǯʰ ġʰ'' (structurually [h] + consonant, plus sandhi) changed to '''f þ š x''' between vowels. <---Experimental change, requires replacing some roots. /š x/ would be extremely rare
#The clusters ''gj jg'' (where [j] is an allophone of /i/) changed to '''jj''' unconditionally.  This new cluster sometimes became resyllabified into /ī/, but usually did not. (Because these clusters by definition could only occur between two vowels, the new /jj/ cluster was treated like an ordinary consonant cluster.  However, /gj/ and /jg/ had sometimes occurred at word boundaries.) 
#The voiced fricatives ''ð z g'' became silent between vowels and occasionally in initial position (due to compounding).   
#''βʷ ðʷ gʷ'' all changed to '''w'''.
#:See note above about /gʷ/. This shift may have been avoided at least word-initially ... note that a bare /g/ was still common word-initially.
#''žʲ'' became '''ž'''.
#All aspirated consonants (except nasals) became voiceless, and the aspiration disappeared.
 
;NOTE ON POLITICS: This time period is around 3100 AD, near the beginning of the "Era of Happiness" ('''Yeisu Kasu''': 3138 - 3302 AD).  The branches of the language that fork off from mainline Bābākiam in 3138 all die out, and therefore all of their names in the history are written in Babakiam, but they could be revived as minor local languages, and there would be quite a lot of them.
 
The name Yeisu Kasu would have been exactly the same in Yeisu Kasu itself, as it is unlikely to have contained a /ġ/ or an unusual cluster such as /sħ/.
<br>Thus the language now had the consonants
 
Labials:        /p ṗ b m f β w/
Dentals:        /þ/
Alveolars:      /t d n s z/
Postalveolars:  /č ǯ ž/
Palatals:      /j/
Velars:        /k ḳ ġ ŋ h g/
Pharyngeals:    /ħ ʕ/
 
Voiced stops had an odd distribution, occuring almost entirely in word-initial position.  Word-internally, the contrast was not between voiced and voiceless stops but between single and double voiceless ones.  These two contrasts were not related to each other, but loans from Babakiam into CV languages often treated the single voiceless stops as voiced stops in intervocalic position.   
 
There may have also been a marginal /š/ and /x/.
 
 
 
====Yeisu Kasu (3100) to Bābākiam (4100)====
Alternate names: Proto-Pabappa; Pabappa (in historical texts)
 
#A nasal (or any voiced sound<sup>??</sup>) in a cluster after a voiceless consonant (nearly always /p/ or /s/) changed to '''ʕ'''. (This shift is responsible for important consequences in verb morphology in Poswa more than 5000 years later.)
#The voiced fricatives ''β z ž g'' changed to '''b d ǯ ġ''' before a high tone.
#The post-velar fricative consonants ''ħ ʕ'', which had been developing labial compression, changed unconditionally to '''f β'''.  Note that this was the (rare) "true" /h/, not the common {h} which is /x/.  (Possibly shift this rule up by one position, creating /b/ instead of /β/ in many words.)
#The clusters ''pʕ sʕ'' changed to the ejectives '''ṕ ś''', but this shift did not affect the labialized or palatalized versions.  (These are the same consonants that became clicks in some Kxel languages.)  This happened also for other voiceless sounds ,but they were very rare. 
#The velar fricatives ''h g'' were fronted to '''š ž''' unconditionally.  ''šʲ žʲ'' became '''š ž'''.
#The labialized voiced stops ''bʷ dʷ ǯʷ ġʷ'' changed to '''b'''.   
#The labialized voiced stops ''bʷ dʷ ǯʷ ġʷ'' changed to '''b'''.   
#The palatalized voiced stops ''bʲ dʲ ǯʲ ġʲ'' changed to '''ǯ'''.
#The palatalized voiced stops ''bʲ dʲ ǯʲ ġʲ'' changed to '''ǯ'''.
#Any remaining voiced stops ''b d ǯ ġ'' changed unconditionally to '''p t č k''' (except when in clusters).  This eliminated the situation that had persisted in the early Yeisu Kasu era in which the contrast for stops was voiced:voiceless in word-initial position (and a few clusters) but single:geminate in intervocalic position.
#Any remaining voiced stops ''b d ǯ ġ'' changed unconditionally to '''p t č k''' (except when in clusters).   
#The voiced fricative ''žʷ'' changed to '''β'''.   
#The voiced fricative ''žʷ'' changed to '''v'''.   
#Tones were eliminated. However the stress accent (nouns on the penultimate syllable, verbs on the ultimate) remained and became regularized.
#Tones were eliminated. However the stress accent (nouns on the penultimate syllable, verbs on the ultimate) remained and became regularized.
#The voiced stops ''d ǯ ġ'' (now found only in clusters) changed to '''n nʲ ŋ''' unconditionally.
#The voiced stops ''d ǯ ġ'' (now found only in clusters) changed to '''n nʲ ŋ''' unconditionally.
#Remaining ''β'' changed to '''b'''.  
#Remaining ''v'' changed to '''b'''.  
#Remaining ''z'' changed to '''s'''.
#Remaining ''z'' changed to '''s'''.
#The ejectives ''ṕ ś'' became plain, making the earlier sound change entirely meaningless but for the presence of a few loanwords into Khulls and other surrounding languages.
#The postalveolar affricate ''č'' was softened to '''š''' unconditionally.
#Newly created vowel sequences beginning with ''i'' or ''u'' collapsed into rising diphthongs, thus creating a new series of palatalized and labialized consonants.   
#Newly created vowel sequences beginning with ''i'' or ''u'' collapsed into rising diphthongs, thus creating a new series of palatalized and labialized consonants.   
#:This same shift happened twice but many words missed by the first  change were captured by this change.  Note, however, that the reflex of /buya/ is still /buya/; it did not become /bʷia/ and then /bia/.
#The labialized consonants ''bʷ žʷ'' changed to '''b''' unconditionally. (Despite the fact that a nearly identical sound change had occurred only shortly before this one, this rule was very common in verb forms that were created by the shift of /bua/ > /bʷa/ > /ba/, and likewise for other vowels.)
#The labialized consonants ''bʷ žʷ'' changed to '''b''' unconditionally. (Despite the fact that a nearly identical sound change had occurred only shortly before this one, this rule was very common in verb forms that were created by the shift of /bua/ > /bʷa/ > /ba/, and likewise for other vowels.)
#The palatalized consonants ''bʲ žʲ'' changed to '''ž''' unconditionally.  (The above shift also applies here; many verbs underwent a shift of /bia/ > /bʲa/ > /ža/.)
#The palatalized consonants ''bʲ žʲ'' changed to '''ž''' unconditionally.  (The above shift also applies here; many verbs underwent a shift of /bia/ > /bʲa/ > /ža/.) This shift did not apply to words such as '''bivu''', from earlier /buivu/, because the /i/ in this word was not [ʲ] but still a true /i/.
#A schwa ''ə'' in a word in which the following syllable had /a/ changed also to '''a'''.  Note that this is the only vowel change in the entire history of the language going back 3500 years, even before the Gold language, except for a few diphthongizations such as /ua/ > /wa/.  However, the vowel system became very unstable in the succeeding period as the language developed into Poswa and Pabappa.
#A schwa ''ə'' in a word in which the following syllable had /a/ changed also to '''a'''.  Note that this is the only vowel change in the entire history of the language going back 3500 years, even before the Gold language, except for a few diphthongizations such as /ua/ > /wa/.  However, the vowel system became very unstable in the succeeding period as the language developed into Poswa and Pabappa.
#The stress was shifted to the first syllable in all words. 
#The stress was shifted to the first syllable in all words.
 
 
 
Thus the language had the consonants '''p m f b w t n s k ŋ š ž j''' and the vowels '''a i u ə''', the last of which was a schwa.  Of the consonants, all except '''b w ž j''' could be followed by a semivowel '''w''' or '''j''', when occurring at the beginning of a syllable.  At the end of a syllable, only '''p m w s j''' could occur.  This stage of the language is referred to as ''Bābākiam'', "city language".&nbsp;
Spoken around the year 4100, not only in the city of Bābā but a significant
amount of territory away from it in all directions.</li></ol>
 
 
====Yeisu Kasu (3100) to Mevumep (4100)====
Spoken in [[Mevumep]]. 
 
#Inherited schwa comes to be spelled '''ə'''. (A spelling change to distinguish it from IPA /e/).
#The inherited voiced spread bilabial fricative ''β'' shifted to '''v'''. 
#The voiceless ejective stops ''ṗ ḳ'' became plain voiced stops '''b ġ''' between vowels or after a nasal.  The voiced velar stop /ġ/ was not contrastive with the voiced velar fricative /g/, however, because they occurred in complementary environments.  Therefore, in some word roots, they merged.
#Vowel sequences collapse: ''ài àu'' became '''ē ō''', and ''əi əu'' become '''ī ū'''.  Likewise, ''ăi ău'' became '''ĕ ŏ'''; there was no fourth set because all diphthongs containing schwa had been moved to the low tone during the changes of the parent language.  The sequences ''ăa əa'' shift to '''ă'''.
#:This relies on the idea that a short rising tone is likely to become low, and a short falling tone is likely to become high.
#Further collapse: ''àə ìə ùə əə'' shifted to '''ā ī ū ə̄'''. (Nasal?)   
#The voiceless fricatives ''f þ s h ħ'' became '''v d z g Ø''' between vowels. This also removes ''ʕ''.
#The clusters ''sf ss sh'' became the single consonants '''f s h'''. (Note the lack of */sþ/ and */sħ/ inherited from the parent language.)
#The voiced fricative ''g'' became '''v''' adjacent to a labial vowel in either direction.
#The voiced fricatives ''d z g'' became '''ž''' adjacent to a palatal vowel in either direction.
#The voiced stops ''d ġ'' became the approximants '''r g''' unconditionally (not just intervocalically). 
#The voiceless stops ''p t č k'' became the voiced stops '''b d ǯ ġ''' intervocalically.
#The voiceless ejective stop ''ṗ'' became '''p''' before another stop.
#The clusters ''pp pt ps pk'' changed to '''p t c k''' unconditionally. These could not occur after a breve tone.
#The voiced velar fricative ''g'' disappeared between vowels.
#The clusters ''mb nd ŋġ'' became '''mm nn ŋŋ'''.
#The voiced velar stops ''ǯ ġ'' became '''ž g''' unconditionally.  /d/ was also a fricative in some environments, but this was not a phonemic contrast.
#The clusters ''mp nt nč ŋk'' became '''mb nd nǯ ŋg'''. 
#The voiceless fricative ''s'' disappeared before any stop or nasal.

Latest revision as of 13:49, 5 October 2022

Gold (1900) to Play (4100)

The Play language evolved from the Soft Hands dialect of Gold, also known as Wolf in Wool, Broken Shields, and perhaps at least one other name. It drove out the Lazy Palms language and took relatively few loanwords. There were also several other languages spoken in this territory, including one language spoken by Star immigrants, probably a branch of Amade.

Wolf in Wool had not yet evolved its characteristic sound, so the relative scarcity of loanwords was not due to the acoustics of the language, but rather a cultural identification with the new language being imported from overseas. Any loans that were taken in had /e o/ shifting to /ə/ for the entire time period of this language, though /ē ō/ may have been borrowed as /əi əu/ or /ai au/ or either.

  1. At the end of a syllable, the pharyngeal fricative ʕ disappeared and changed the previous vowel to a high tone. It also voiced the following consonant.
  2. Syllable-final k ḳ ŋ changed to kʷ ḳʷ ŋʷ.
  3. Feeding on the above change, in compounds, if the final consonant was one of /kʷ ḳʷ/ and the first consonant of the next morpheme was one of the velars k ḳ h ŋ, it also became labiovelar. Thus for example /kk/ > /kʷkʷ/ or /kʷ:/. It did not happen for other consonants. Prenasals did not shift; later, the cluster /ŋʷk/ becomes /mk/, which is pronounced as spelled but later becomes [ŋk], [mpt], etc depending on dialect.
  4. In initial position, the labialized coronals tʷ dʷ nʷ shifted to t d n. Elsewhere, even in clusters, they decoupled to the sequences tu du nu.
  5. The bilabial approximant w changed to v (in internal reconstructions, also spelled "β") before a vowel.
  6. Then l lʷ both became w (not */v/) in all positions although it retained a rhotic allophone. The distinction between this new /w/ sound and the one that had just changed to /v/ is important later on, as it keeps sequences like /ʕl/ from being corrupted to /ʕʷ~gʷ/ and then on to /v/, /b/, and /p/. Rather, /l/ stays as /w/.
    Notably, the sequence sl (which was pronounced as IPA [hl] or for some speakers [ɬ]) shifted here to sw, and did not become */hʷ/ or */f/. That is, it behaved as the sequence that it was morphologically, instead of sliding with the phonetics into a new single consonant.
    NOTE ON POLITICS: Proto-Highland Poswa breaks off here.
  7. The labiovelar consonants kʷ ḳʷ hʷ gʷ became p ṗ f v unconditionally. This includes sequences like /kʷl/, despite the precedent set by /sl/ above, because in this case, /kʷl/ was already [kʷ] at the surface level in the proto-language.
  8. Sequences of two vowels in which the first vowel was i or u became rising diphthongs. Then all clusters of a consonant followed by a semivowel came to be pronounced as coarticulated single consonants. Thus pua became pʷa, pia became pʲa, and so on.
  9. Stressed syllabic nasals were opened to sequences containing a schwa.
  10. The voiced fricative g assimilated to a neighboring glide /j/ or /w/, thus creating sequences of /jj/ and /ww/. The shift thus was gj jg gw wg > jj jj ww ww. This includes g after /ī/ and /ū/.
  11. The voiced fricatives d dh g became silent between vowels and occasionally in initial position (due to compounding).
    When I wrote this, there was no /ž/ in the language at this stage, and so it is possible that ž also shifts to Ø.
    NOTE ON POLITICS: This time period is around 3100 AD, near the beginning of the "Time of Happiness" (Yeisu Kasu: 3138 - 3302 AD). The branches of the language that fork off from mainline Bābākiam in 3138 all die out, and therefore all of their names in the history are written in Babakiam, but they could be revived as minor local languages, and there would be quite a lot of them.
  12. A voiced consonant in a cluster after /p/ or /s/ changed briefly to ʕ and then disappeared.
    This shift is responsible for important consequences in verb morphology in Poswa more than 5000 years later. Note that the inherited clusters gh hg had been merged as h already in Gold; /hg/ was morphologically equivalent to /sg/, which explains why /sg/ shows up in Play as š instead of s like the others. Lastly, this shift explains why the Play toponym Fanašasa corresponds to Leaper Xʷanaxanta.
  13. The voiced fricatives v z ž g changed to b d ǯ ġ before a high tone. Unlike other languages, Play considered the long vowels to be high tones here.
    This is how Play does /g/ > /k/ even though /g/ was a fricative. Note however that in hypothetical words like /vuau/, where a /d/ dropped out, the initial /v/ was part of a separate syllable, not stressed, and so did not shift to /b/.
  14. The post-velar fricative consonants ħ ʕ, which had been developing labial compression, changed unconditionally to f v.
  15. The velar fricatives h g were fronted to š ž unconditionally. šʲ žʲ became š ž. This includes the /čʲ/ sequence, which had long ago become [šʲ] but was maintained in spelling because of its importantly distinct grammatical behavior.
    Importantly, this shift included conditions in hiatus ("holes" in Play terminology), so that čiva became čua.
  16. The labialized voiced stops bʷ dʷ ǯʷ ġʷ changed to b.
  17. The palatalized voiced stops bʲ dʲ ǯʲ ġʲ changed to ǯ.
  18. Any remaining voiced stops b d ǯ ġ changed unconditionally to p t č k (except when in clusters).
  19. The voiced fricative žʷ changed to v.
  20. Tones were eliminated. However the stress accent (nouns on the penultimate syllable, verbs on the ultimate) remained and became regularized.
  21. The voiced stops d ǯ ġ (now found only in clusters) changed to n nʲ ŋ unconditionally.
  22. Remaining v changed to b.
  23. Remaining z changed to s.
  24. Newly created vowel sequences beginning with i or u collapsed into rising diphthongs, thus creating a new series of palatalized and labialized consonants.
    This same shift happened twice but many words missed by the first change were captured by this change. Note, however, that the reflex of /buya/ is still /buya/; it did not become /bʷia/ and then /bia/.
  25. The labialized consonants bʷ žʷ changed to b unconditionally. (Despite the fact that a nearly identical sound change had occurred only shortly before this one, this rule was very common in verb forms that were created by the shift of /bua/ > /bʷa/ > /ba/, and likewise for other vowels.)
  26. The palatalized consonants bʲ žʲ changed to ž unconditionally. (The above shift also applies here; many verbs underwent a shift of /bia/ > /bʲa/ > /ža/.) This shift did not apply to words such as bivu, from earlier /buivu/, because the /i/ in this word was not [ʲ] but still a true /i/.
  27. A schwa ə in a word in which the following syllable had /a/ changed also to a. Note that this is the only vowel change in the entire history of the language going back 3500 years, even before the Gold language, except for a few diphthongizations such as /ua/ > /wa/. However, the vowel system became very unstable in the succeeding period as the language developed into Poswa and Pabappa.
  28. The stress was shifted to the first syllable in all words.
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