Western Measceineafh

Western Measceineafh is the Rajo-Faraneit language that was spoken in the Measceineafh, a coastal region on the continent of Lheinead. It quickly developed into two other languages: Fórong and Furonj. It is related to Faraneit, Rajat, Fraze, Hana, and Kelsiut among others.

Phonology

	Bilabial	Labio-Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stop	p  b		t  d	k  g	q	ʔ
Affricate		pf	ts
Aspirate	bʰ		dʰ
Fricative		f	s	x
Nasal	m	n			ɴ
Approximant		ʋ	l r ɺ ɬ

Vowels: /ɨ i e ɛ a ɔ o u ʉ/

Sound Changes from PRF to WM

• p b t d + any fricative > pf) bv) ts) dz)
• θ [ð] s [z] > s z s z
• ts st sd ds > s s z z
• ɛ > e > i > ɨ
• ɐ > o > u > ʉ
• æ > a
• r ɻ > DELETED ɺ > ʔ ɺ (hypercorrection)
• ɭ > l
• nk nq kn qn > ɴ
• nt nd tn dn > n
• np nb pn bn > m
• mp mb pm bm > m
• v# > DELETED > f (hypercorrection)
• x k > [ɣ g] V_V
• terminal unaccented vowels delete > phonemic /ɣ g/
• z# ɣ# > s x
• z > r
• v > ʋ
• bv) dz) > bv dz > bʰ dʰ
• ao eo au eu aʉ eʉ > ɔ
• ae ai aɨ > ɛ

Morphological and Syntactic Changes

• The most blatant change morphologically would be the evolution of a non-syntactic distinction between nominative and accusitive nouns. Originally a given sentance would have been written-

ʉx sois ʉtɨɺ nɨ dɨs fu.
ʉx so-i-s ʉtɨɺ nɨ dɨs fu
man hit-PRES-REAL dog DAT 3P.GEN nose
The man hit the dog on its nose.

But it became fashionable to seperate the accusitive from other complements with a form of "and" or "with", creating-

ʉx sois ʉtɨɺ i nɨ dɨs fu
ʉx so-i-s ʉtɨɺ i nɨ dɨs fu
man hit-PRES-REAL dog CONJ DAT 3P.GEN nose
The man hit the dog and on its nose.

only for i to become cliticized to the end of accusitive noun phrases.

ʉx sois ʉtɨɺ i
ʉx so-i-s ʉtɨɺ i
man hit-PRES-REAL dog ACC
The man hit the dog.

This even occurs now at the end of a string of adjectives for the phrase:

ʉx sois ʉtɨɺ ozal tibun i
ʉx so-i-s ʉtɨɺ ozal tib-un i
man hit-PRES-REAL dog ugly big-ANI ACC
The man hit the big ugly dog.

• Obviously another extensive change was the complete confusion between topic and subject. Originally, SVO and VSO word orders were in heavy use, but SVO eventually became dominant, and by the time Western Measceineafh could be considered a seperate language, SVO was the only acceptable form, with even occasional SOV constructions, where the object is considered topical (these however were relatively rare).

• Unlike essentially all other branches of the family, only a few qualifiers maintained agreement with their noun. These were - tibun/tibum (large/big), bɨfun/bɨfum (old), pfun/pfum (small/little), and lɨtɔn/lɨtɔm (bad).

• Determiners and genitive modifiers became part of the small but growing class of modifiers that proceeded nouns. Many theorize that they became so by analogy with numerals, which had always been in the front.

• With topicalization of the subject increasingly mandatory, other forms of topicalization for less prominent pieces of the sentence developed. Originally, such extra information was pushed in front of everything else:

Ozɨus ʉx sois ʉtɨɺ i.
now man hit-PRES-REAL dog ACC
The man is hitting the dog right now.

But, to seperate the topicalized section from the rest of the utterance, "is" ((it) is) is frequently used to seperate the topic from the remainder of the sentence:

ozɨus is ʉx sois ʉtɨɺ i
now PRES-REAL man hit-PRES-REAL dog ACC
It's now (that) the man is hitting the dog.

Naturally, the secondary verb must agree with the main verb in terms of tense and mood. For example:

pfɛt ɨn ʉx baʉnɨxis ʉtɨɺ i
pfɛt ɨ-n ʉx baʉnɨx-i-n ʉtɨɺ i
night FUT-IRR man eat-FUT-IRR dog ACC
It might become (during) the night, (that) the man may go and eat the dog.