Proto-West Altaic'

Proto-Altaic' to Erly Proto-West Altaic'

• /s ʂ/ → [ts tʂ] and /ɽ/ → [ɖ] when initial or prenasal
• Lenition of dorsal stops to fricativs in vicinity of other stops
• Retroflexes (but not the palato-alveolar sibilant allophones) acquire velarization
• /w/ is also possibly alreddy [βˠ] by this stage (areal influence? CF Proto-Betamax)
• /N/ drops before affricates and [ɖ], phonemicizing 'em
• Lengthening of stress'd nonclose vowels; /a/ attracts stress from a close vowel
• Reduction of /ɛ ɔ a/ to [ə] when unstress'd (also aj aw → əj əw)

Erly to mid PWA'

Till ca. -3ka.

Middle PWA' had two main dialects: Northern, spoken in the vicinity of the Aral Sea; and Southern, spoken as a continuum across a wide area south of this, with the most important subdialects being West proper just south of the Caspian Sea, and Proto-Sadabax, spoken around where Samarkand exists in reality.

• /ɪ ʊ/ → /e o/, phonemicizing length
• Fronting /u/ → /ʉ/
• Before uvulars, /ei ai/ smooth to /eː ɛː/
• General difthong raising
  • /ə əi əu/ → /ʌ ɪi ʊu/
  • /ai au ou/ → /əi ou əu/.
  • (There may be some confusion between *əi, *ai and *əu, *ou however, will hafta wait for stress details)
• /x xʷ Nx Nxʷ χ χʷ Nχ Nχʷ/ → /h f ŋh ŋʷh ħ fˤ ŋħ ŋʷħ/
• Retroflex stops (but generally not affricates) → velars before front vowels, emphatics elsewhere; [ɽˠ] → /ɡ/ consistently
• POA chain shift involving labials. The results differ a bit by the dialect - West proper develops an emphasis contrast, while North shifts this further to a palatalization / velarization contrast (in some cases with a third dimension too). This all may have been brought about from contact with the Transcaspian' family.
  • /kʷ ŋʷ qʷ/ → /p m pˤ/ (South), /pˠ m kʴ/ (North)
  • /p f fˤ/ → /t̻ s̻ s̻ˤ/ (South), /pʲ fʲ fˠ/ (North) (/m/ is not pushed due to distributional differences)
  • Note that this dedorsalization is later than the one affecting spirants, since their reflexes behave here as labials!
• Approximant drift
  • /l/ → /n̻/
  • /j/ → /ɟ/ → /dʲ/ (North), → /d̻/ (South)
  • /w/ → /βˠ/ → /bˠ/ (North), → /bˤ/ (South)
• /q/ → /ʔ/ (South), /kʴ/ (North)
• /s̻/ → /sʲ/ (North and Sadabax)
  • --hang on, where does North get this /θ/? Is there a split development of *f or *h?
• /ts/ → /s̻/ (only in West)
• /ɪi ʊu/ → /i u/
• /i e ə/ → /ʉ/ [ɵ] /ɔ/ when before /u/ etc. (in North, only the last of these seems to occur)
• Unrounding /ʉ/ → /ɨ/
• /aː/ → /oa/ → /ua/, leaving the dialects without an open vowel at all and prompting different repair strategies:
  • In West proper, /o ɔː/ → /a(ː)/, triggering a chain shift: /oː/ → /ɔː/, /ou/ → /oː/
  • In North, /ɨ/ → /a/
• More difthong raising:
  • /ei/ → /iː/ (general)
  • /ou/ → /uː/ (North and Sadabax; West cf. prev.)
  • /əi əu/ → /ɨi ɨu/ (South), furthermore /ɨi/ → /ɨː/ (West only)
  • /əi əu/ → /iː uː/ (North, but without palatalization/velarization)

Mid to late PWA'

ca. -1.5ka

• /t tʂ s n/ → /ṯ ṯ s̱ ṉ/ (with the [ʧ] allophone also generalized to both stops)
• Voicing processes (or maybe later? NB /h ħ/ will not voice)
• Introduce /ɬ̻ ɬˤ/, whence /l̻ ɫ/ (cf. East Persian'!)
• /θˤ/ → /ħ/, /ɫ/
• Velar rounding before /ua/, which itself returns to /aː/ (& elsewhere?)
  • also hʷ → xʷ
• Short vowels lengthen before _CLASS (short sonorants?); also /i/ → /iə/
  • [ɵ] returns to /e/; however [ɵː] breiks → [eɔ]
• Insertion of shwa before _CLASS (pharyngeals?), with length and /ee ɛɛ/, /oo ɔɔ/ contrasts neutralized
  • /iə ɨə uə/ remain difthongs; the last of these attracts remaining /ua/
• [ə] renormalizes to [ɔ] outside of difthongs
  • [eɔ aɔ] → [ɛː ɔː]
• Pharyngeal harmony (spills over into vowels too)
  • Emphasis spreds thru a word unless blocked by a velar obstruent or nasal.
  • The laminal/apical distinction in coronals is neutralized when emphatic.

		Labial		Lamino- dental	Apico- postalveolar		Velar		Laryngeal
		Plain	Emphatic		Plain	Emphatic	Plain	Labial	Plain	Emphatic
Stops	Voiceless	p	pˤ	t̻	ṯ	ṯˤ	k	kʷ	(ʔ ~ ∅)
	Voiced	b	bˤ	d̻	ḏ	ḏˤ	ɡ	ɡʷ
Fricatives	Voiceless			s̻	s̱	ʂˣ		xʷ	h	ħ
	(Voiced			z̻	ẕ	ʐˠ		(ɣʷ))
Nasals		m	mˤ	n̻	ṉ	ṉˤ	ŋ
Laterals				l̻	(ḻ)	ɫ
Semivowels						ɻˠ	j	w

(Depending on the font, the laminality signs (subsc. square) may look like dentality sings (subsc. bridge), but since they're dental anyway, that's no problem.)