Tsonboran

Attested in western Persia from around -5ka to -4.3ka as a language of one of the first major civilizations. Falls into disuse later, but not before contributing significant amounts of technical vocabulary to (…). Briefly re-emerges around -3ka before its apparent extinction some 500 years later.

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals	m	n
Voiceless plosivs	p	t	ts	k	q	ʔ
Voiced plosivs	b	d	(dz)
Voiceless fricativs	f	θ	s	x	χ	h
Voiced fricativs	v	ð	z
Approximants	w	l	r	j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Hi	i, y		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Lo	a~ɑ

Development from Proto-Persian'

to Proto-West Persian'

• high vowels
  • ɪ ʊ ɪː ʊː → i u əj əw
  • ɪw ɪj ʊj → iw iː uj
• loss of difthongs in _w
  • k → kʷ / w_C
  • iw → yː
  • ew → e₂ː
  • æw → æː
  • ow → uː
  • əw → oː
• stop phonation changes
  • intervocalic lenition
    • b d → β ð
  • intervocalic voicing
    • p t k q → b d g ɢ
  • loss of aspiration
    • ʰp ʰt ʰk ʰq → p t k q intervocally, → ɸ θ x χ before another stop
    • pʰ tʰ kʰ qʰ → ɸ θ x χ
  • remaining stop clusters devoiced
• palatalization
  • k ɡ x → ʧ ʤ ʃ before front vowels & /j/
• lo vowels
  • æ ɐ æː ɒː → a ə aː oː

to Proto-Tsonboid

• aː→ oː
• unstressed long vowels shortened in closed or final syllables
• uvular coloring
  • i u ə(j) → e₂ o a(j) / _Q
• prenasalization
  • NP → N^NP (mt → mⁿt, nk → n^ŋk etc.) (do this later/in a different branch?)
    • (original) mp nt coalesce to single consonants ^mp, ⁿt
  • Nɸ Nθ Nɬ Nl Ns Nʃ → Nkʷ Ntr (?) Ntɬ Ndl Nts Nʧ
  • Nx Nχ → Nh Nh
  • Nj Nw → Nʤ Nɡʷ
• related:
  • j w → ʤ ɡʷ also intervocally
  • morphological t + s ɬ l also change to ts tɬ dl, where still productiv
• -h- lost; related vowel changes:
  • (…)
• hs hɬ hh → s ɬ h
• coda p → β before a sonorant

to Old Tsonboran

• kʷ ɡʷ → p b
• voiced dorsal stops lost
  • ɡ → (…) (/r/ a la Battlax 3?)
  • ɢ → ʁ → ð, ∅ (…)
• umlaut
  • i(ː) e₂(ː) → y(ː) ø(ː) / _(C)Cu, (old e(ː) = e₁(ː) not affected)
  • e₂β → ø
  • ø øː → ə (j)oː
• word-final stops lost
• tj dj → ts
• tɬ dl ɬ → t d ʃ
• ɸ β → f v

to New Tsonboran

• do something w/ prenasality?
• some vowel breikage?
• ʧ ʤ ʃ → ts z s
• …