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Kuma-Koban is an [[Wikipedia:Indo-European_languages|Indo-European language]] spoken in the [[Wikipedia:North_Caucasus|North Caucasus]] during the [[Wikipedia:Bronze_Age_collapse late|bronze-age]], principally in the area around the [[Wikipedia:Kuma-Manych_Depression|Kuma-Manych depression]]. Nominally, it belongs to an independent branch of the IE family, though many characteristics point to a [[Wikipedia:Proto-Greek_language|pre-Proto-Greek]] or [[Wikipedia:Anatolian_languages|Anatolian]] origin.


{{Language|
==Culture==
| English = Old Verat
The Kuma-Koban people show material practices consistent with those of the [[Wikipedia:Srubna_culture|Srubna Culture]], with influence from the older Koban-Culture.
| native = Verát
| country = Terek Highlands
| nativecountry = Teregvérga
| universe = Khelivega Continuity
| speakers = Roughly 300 Thousand
| family = Indo-European
| branch = Indo-Caucasian
| subbranch = Vertaic
| wordorder = SOV
| type = Inflecting
| alignment = Split-S
| author = [[User:thegoatman|S. G. McCabe]]
| date = c2000 CE
| background = white
| headingbg = olivedrab
| width = 25%
}}
==Overview==
The Vertaic languages, of which Sŭmgŭrto Verát is the only widely attested example, were a continuum of Split-S, APV/EV order, Indo-European languages. The most recent common ancestor of Old Verat and any other IE language must be Proto-Indo-European itself, as it shows such features as to be incompatible with any other family. Old Verat is a Satem language which displays the Augment, and shows conditional delabialization of PIE labiovelars, as well as preserving the laryngeal h₂ in anlaut, and demonstrating an unusual chain-shift of its obstruent series.


As a Split-S language, it divides verbs into two morphosyntactic categories, Active and Middle, on the basis of transitivity and the volition of the subject/experiencer. There are two accompanying noun classes, Animate and Neuter, the latter of which cannot be marked as an Agent (nominative). Despite this, the language is syntactically Nominative-Accusative, as the verbs agree in person and number with the subject in every case, not with the patient, as is the case with its more Ergative North-Caucasian neighbors.
==Phonology==
Kuma-Koban is rather conservative in terms of its phonological development away from PIE. It shows twelve plosive to six non-plosive consonants, and six vowel qualities and two lengths.


==History==
The langauge only displays two fricatives, of which /h/ has a rather limited distribution, found only word-initially and between /a/ (for good historical reasons: /h/ < PIE *h2 or, more rarely, *h3).
Commonly known as Verat, this was the language spoken by the southern Helivega tribes. Traditionally it is held to be the language spoken by the first Lord of Lords, Sinkúrago Udún, promulgated after he forced the other Helivega clans to kneel and pay tribute.


Verat was spoken in the south and east, especially at Terek, and presumably as far north as Kuban. Because of its southern location, Sumgurto Verat progressively accumulated more features from its Northeast-Caucasian neighbors, such as increasingly pure ergativity, and significant amounts of vocabulary in the common dialects.
===Major Historical Developments===
There are four main historical developments from [[Wikipedia:Proto-Indo-European_language|PIE]] to Kuma-Koban which deserve special consideration. These are, in their presumed order of occurrence, the preservation of PIE ''*h₂'' and ''*h₃'' as consinants before ''*e'', the vocalization of syllabic resonants, the splitting of the labiovelar series, and [[Wikipedia:Grassmann%27s_law|Grassmann's law]].


==Orthography and Phonology==
====Laryngeal Preservation====
The Phonology of Verat is somewhat simpler than that of Proto-Indo-European. It shows 15 phonemic consonants and 5 vowels with phonemic length contrasts. Traditionally, the consonants are divided into three main series.
Kuma-Koban, unlike any other language outside Anatolia, preserves the PIE laryngeals ''*h₂'' and ''*h₃'' as /h/ before ''*e''. They show the same vowel-coloring property as in other languages, changing ''*e'' to /a/ and /o/ respectively.
{| cellpadding="2"
|''*h₂ab-ōl-'' || → || '''haboːl-''' || "fruit"
|-
|''*h₂euh₂-os'' || → || '''haːu-os''' || "grandfather"
|-
|''*h₃estH-'' || → || '''hostə-''' || "bone"
|}


===Consonants===
The laryngeals then merge completely, and are preserved as a single vowel /ə/ between consonants and at word-boundaries:
[[Image:Verat_Cons_Inv.gif]]
{| cellpadding="2"
|''*h₃rēǵ-'' || → || '''əreːɟ-''' || "chief"
|-
|''*ph₂-tēr-'' || → || '''pʰəteːr-''' || "father"
|}


===Vowels===
====Syllabic Resonants====
For vowels, we have a rather typical five-vowel system. The short vowels are somewhat more lax than the long vowels, and the language shows a distinctively lowered /uː/. Long vowels are denoted in the standard orthography by a macron; accented short vowels have a high or rising tone, denoted by the acute accent '''á''', while accented long vowels have a rising-falling tone, denoted by the circumflex '''â'''. Some orthographies use the an acute-with-macron '''ā́''', as is done in Sanskrit; this is avoided due to the lack of standard Unicode support for these characters, and poor integration of Opentype into most software.
Syllabic resonants, both alone and with laryngeals (i.e. the "long syllabics") behave much as they do in Sanskrit or Lithuanian. The vowel which the syllable takes depends on the preceding consonant: we see {{IPA|/u/}} after labiovelars, and /ə/ elsewhere.


[[Image:Verat_Vow_Inv.gif]]
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" class="wikitable"
Red glyphs indicate the long counterpart of the short vowels in black. Note the inefficient use of vowel space.
|+ PIE forms and KK Reflexes
|-
! || C_C || (C.)C_V || Cʷ_C || (C.)Cʷ_V
|-
!''*rH''
|əːr || ər || uːr || ur
|-
!''*lH''
|əːl || ə || uːl || ul
|-
!''*r''
| ər || r || ur || r
|-
!''*l''
| əl || l || ul || l
|-
!''*mH''
| əː || əm || uː || um
|-
!''*nH''
| əː || ən || uː || un
|-
!''*m''
| ə || (ə)m || ə || (u)m
|-
!''*n''
| ə || (ə)n || ə || (u)n
|}


==Noun==
====Labiovelars====
There are eight noun cases: Nominative, Absolutive, Genetive, Dative, Instrumental, Ablative, Locative, and Vocative. This is alongside two noun classes: Animate and Neuter, and three numbers: Singular, Dual, Plural.
At a relatively early stage in its development, Kuma-Koban lost the labiovelars as a phonemic series: ''*kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ'' split into plain labials and plain velars, conditioned on the roundness of nearby vowels. When a labiovelar is preceded immediately by ''*u'' or ''*ū'', or followed by any round vowel, it will lose its lip-rounding feature to become a plain velar. This also occurs before *s. Otherwise, the labiovelars become plain labials.
There are sixteen declensions, in total, split among three inflectional patters.


{| cellpadding="5"
|+ Conditioned Splitting of Labiovelars
|''*kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ'' || → || /k g gʰ/ || /_[V+Round] /_s /u(ː)_
|-
|''*kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ'' || → || /p b bʰ/ || elsewhere
|}


==Verb==
====Grassmann's Law====
Unusual among early IE languages, Verat is best classified as a Split-S language. Verbs are split into two categories by morphosyntactic behavior, the Active and Middle. All transitive verbs are Active, but not all intransitive verbs are Middle. Most, such as those where the experiencer has no control, such as ''gābo'' ‹to float› or ''mergă'' ‹to rot› are Middle and mark the experiencer in the absolutive case, but those where the experience has volition, statives such as ''dagī'' ‹to be silent›, or ''xarpo'' ‹to toil› are Active, and the experiencer here is marked in the nominative, rather than the absolutive.
This is a sound law governing the distribution of aspirated plosives within a root, as seen in Greek, Sanskrit, and Kuma-Koban.


As an Indo-European language, Verat has a fairly complicated verb system displaying an ablaut. Conjugational and inflectional patterns of the tenses are grouped into three systems by aspect: Imperfective in the Present, Perfective in the Aorist, and Perfect in the Perfect.
===Allophony===
 
 
==Morphology==
 
 
==Morphosyntax==
 
 
==Syntax==
 
[[Category: Conlangs]]

Latest revision as of 12:17, 17 July 2011

This article is a stub. If you can contribute to its content, feel free to do so.

Kuma-Koban is an Indo-European language spoken in the North Caucasus during the bronze-age, principally in the area around the Kuma-Manych depression. Nominally, it belongs to an independent branch of the IE family, though many characteristics point to a pre-Proto-Greek or Anatolian origin.

Culture

The Kuma-Koban people show material practices consistent with those of the Srubna Culture, with influence from the older Koban-Culture.

Phonology

Kuma-Koban is rather conservative in terms of its phonological development away from PIE. It shows twelve plosive to six non-plosive consonants, and six vowel qualities and two lengths.

The langauge only displays two fricatives, of which /h/ has a rather limited distribution, found only word-initially and between /a/ (for good historical reasons: /h/ < PIE *h2 or, more rarely, *h3).

Major Historical Developments

There are four main historical developments from PIE to Kuma-Koban which deserve special consideration. These are, in their presumed order of occurrence, the preservation of PIE *h₂ and *h₃ as consinants before *e, the vocalization of syllabic resonants, the splitting of the labiovelar series, and Grassmann's law.

Laryngeal Preservation

Kuma-Koban, unlike any other language outside Anatolia, preserves the PIE laryngeals *h₂ and *h₃ as /h/ before *e. They show the same vowel-coloring property as in other languages, changing *e to /a/ and /o/ respectively.

*h₂ab-ōl- → haboːl- "fruit"
*h₂euh₂-os → haːu-os "grandfather"
*h₃estH- → hostə- "bone"

The laryngeals then merge completely, and are preserved as a single vowel /ə/ between consonants and at word-boundaries:

*h₃rēǵ- → əreːɟ- "chief"
*ph₂-tēr- → pʰəteːr- "father"

Syllabic Resonants

Syllabic resonants, both alone and with laryngeals (i.e. the "long syllabics") behave much as they do in Sanskrit or Lithuanian. The vowel which the syllable takes depends on the preceding consonant: we see /u/ after labiovelars, and /ə/ elsewhere.

PIE forms and KK Reflexes
C_C (C.)C_V Cʷ_C (C.)Cʷ_V
*rH əːr ər uːr ur
*lH əːl ə uːl ul
*r ər r ur r
*l əl l ul l
*mH əː əm uː um
*nH əː ən uː un
*m ə (ə)m ə (u)m
*n ə (ə)n ə (u)n

Labiovelars

At a relatively early stage in its development, Kuma-Koban lost the labiovelars as a phonemic series: *kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ split into plain labials and plain velars, conditioned on the roundness of nearby vowels. When a labiovelar is preceded immediately by *u or *ū, or followed by any round vowel, it will lose its lip-rounding feature to become a plain velar. This also occurs before *s. Otherwise, the labiovelars become plain labials.

Conditioned Splitting of Labiovelars
*kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ → /k g gʰ/ /_[V+Round] /_s /u(ː)_
*kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ → /p b bʰ/ elsewhere

Grassmann's Law

This is a sound law governing the distribution of aspirated plosives within a root, as seen in Greek, Sanskrit, and Kuma-Koban.

Allophony

Morphology

Morphosyntax

Syntax

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