Techomonic

CBBic is the provisional designation of a collaborative project on the Conlanger Bulletin Board aimed at the construction of a fictional branch of the Indo-European language family. The chief contributors are Üdj, WeepingElf (Jörg Rhiemeier) and Salmoneus.

Setting

The languages are meant to descend from the language of a group of people who were "dropped off" along the way by the people who trekked eastward along the Eurasian steppe to become the ancestors of the speakers of Tocharian. The languages will be written in conscripts derived from the Kharoshthi script.

Proto-CBBic phonology

Consonants

In the IPA:

	Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Aspirated stops	*pʰ	*tʰ		*cʰ	*kʰ
Neutral stops	*p	*t		*c	*k
Voiced stops	*b	*d		*ɟ	*ɡ
Sibilants		*s	*ʂ	*ɕ
Nasals	*m	*n		*ɲ	*ŋ
Liquids		*l	*r
Semivowels	*w			*j

In an IAST-derived notation, which may be easier for most people to type:

	Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Aspirated stops	*ph	*th		*ch	*kh
Neutral stops	*p	*t		*c	*k
Voiced stops	*b	*d		*j	*g
Sibilants		*s	*ṣ	*ś
Nasals	*m	*n		*ñ	*ṅ
Liquids		*l	*r
Semivowels	*w			*y

Vowels

	Front unround	Front round	Back unround	Back round
Close	*i	*ü (y)	*ï (ɨ)	*u
Mid	*e	*ö (ø)	*ë (ə)	*o
Open	*ä (æ~ɛ)		*a

All vowels can be short or long. Long vowels are marked with acute (e.g. *é), or those with umlaut dots with double acute (e.g., *ő).

Sound changes

(incomplete draft) (Note: for these changes, I've used the IPA instead of the IAST-derived notation.)

• h₂w > h₃
• ej, eje > e:
• Laryngeals "as usual", but with triple reflex as in Greek:

• *h₁e > *e, *h₂e > *a, *h₃e > *o
• *eh₁ > *e:, *eh₂ > *a:, *eh₃ > *o:
• Syllabic and initial before a consonant: *h₁ > *e, *h₂ > *a, *h₃ > *o
• *Hi > *i, *Ho > *o, *Hu > *u (*H = any laryngeal)
• *iH > *i:, *oH > *o:, *uH > *u: (*H = any laryngeal)
• *R̥H > *Ra: (*R = resonant)

• Syllabic resonants develop *ə as prop vowel before the resonant
• Clusters of stop + nasal, stop + stop, nasal + stop, or nasal + nasal develop *ə as prop vowel between the two segments
• Labiovelars lose labialization, with rounding of following vowel, e.g. *kʷe > *kø
• *w causes rounding of a following vowel, but is not lost, e.g. *we > *wø, *twe > *twø
• Palatovelar stops become palatals, e.g. *ǵ > *ɟ
• *s > *ʂ after *r, *u, or dorsal consonants
• *s > *ɕ after *i
• *e lowered to *æ except before an *i in the following syllable or when after palatals (incl. the approximant *j)
• Dental stops become velars before *w, e.g. *dw > *ɡw; also, *sw > *ʂw
• Dentals become palatals before *j, e.g. *tj > *c; also, *sj > *ɕ (Note: the *j is deleted.)
• Voiceless and voiced-aspirated stops merge as aspirated stops in stressed syllables and as unaspirated in unstressed syllables or after sibilants, e.g. *tána > *tʰana, *bʰaná > *pana, *skána > *skana.
• Grassmann's Law: aspirated stops lose aspiration before another aspirated stop later in the word
• Front vowels are centralized before velars, *r and *ʂ, e.g. *ek > *ək
• w is lost after a consonant

Proto-CBBic morphology

(not determined yet)

Proto-CBBic lexicon

(I've only had time to do a few; I'm running through a Swadesh list.)

• *monoko adj. ─ many (< PIE *monogʰo)
• *phó adj. ─ few (< PIE *peh₂w)
• *oynos num. ─ one (< PIE *óynos)
• *kho num. ─ two (< PIE *dwó)
• *thra̋s num. ─ three (< PIE *tréyes)
• *kokhoräs num. ─ four (< PIE *kʷetwóres) *The first vowel is /o/ because it's backed before the dorsal /kʰ/.
• *phaṅkö num. ─ five (< PIE *pénkʷe)
• *dëlákhos adj. ─ long (< PIE *dl̥h₁gʰós)
• *stälos adj. ─ wide (< PIE *stelh₃ós)
• *thäkuṣ adj. ─ thick (< PIE *tégus)
• *ma̋ adj. ─ small (< PIE *mey)
• *mecas adj. ─ big (< PIE *méǵh₂s)