Star languages: Difference between revisions

From FrathWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
(this was the old name)
 
(13 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 2: Line 2:


==Phonology==
==Phonology==
A possible minimal consonant inventory is such as
 
All Star languages shared a three-vowel inventory, /a i u/, but some distinguished vowel length while others did not.  A typical consonant inventory is that of the '''Southwest''' dialect:<ref>originally used Ekwĕbe, but that is so far from the Star homeland that it might have spoken an effectively alien language.  Note that the Stars only ''claimed'' the Ekwebe people were of Star ancestry.</ref>
 


  Labials:      p  m             
  Labials:      p  m             
  Alveolars:    t  n      l  r
  Alveolars:    t  n      l  r
  Velars:        k  ŋ  h        
  Velars:        k  ŋ  h
 


NOTE: This inventory was previously much larger.  It is possible that it could be restored partially by assuming pharyngealization (as in Tapilula) that was initially part of the syllable and could occur after any consonant, but later became restricted.  This introduces a minor continuity problem, though, as Tapilula lost its pharyngealization before the migrants ever discovered the mainland.  Thus there would be two families doing the same thing at the same time with no connection between them.
Vowels:       a   i  u


===ekwebe dialect===
But it could perhaps be significantly larger. 


#The voiceless labiodental fricative ''f'' shifted to '''v'''.,
A much larger phonology could have been present, perhaps with as much as :
Labials:          p  m  b  w
Dentals:          ṭ  ṇ  ḍ  ḷ      ṣ
Alveolars:        t  n  d  l  r  s
Postalveolars:    č  ň  ǯ  λ  ř  š
Palatals:          ć          y
Velars:            k  ŋ  ġ          h


Note the presence of a true voiced stop column, unlike almost all other languages in later times, where approximants, voiced fricatives, and voiced stops were all grouped together, usually with the velar member being a fricative and usually with no /d/. 


A few "exotic" consonants might also appear, being pronounced almost the same as those listed but with effects on nearby vowels.  These would merge with the others when found in certain environments where the effects were not audible.


The vowels were /a i u/, even under the maximal plan.  This is morphologically significant, and the vowel inventory would likely be /a i u/ in nearly every Star language, not just the Ekwebe capital city language, and would remain so for thousands of years. However, vowel sequences occurred, including two of the same vowel in a row.


UNLIKELY SHIFTS:
If the maximal inventory above is taken, sequences like /ny/ would be disallowed.


The pre-proto-Star language had had five vowels, /a e i o u/.  But then, in a conditional change, much of the /i/ and /u/ disappeared, creating new coarticulated consonants. Then, /e o/ merged unconditionally with the /i u/ that had survived the first shift, establishing a three-vowel system with a large consonant inventory. 
As indicated below under the grammar section, whatever the phonology might be, the morphology behaves as though the phonology is much larger, a trait shared with the [[Repilian languages/Owl|Owl languages]] to the north and perhaps with the much later Moonshine which also edged into this territory.
 
Then, preexisting /p b/ shifted to /h Ø/.
 
Later, all of the coarticulated consonants became simple.  Labialized consonants became pure labials, thus adding back /p b/ into the inventory, along with a new ejective /ṗ/.  Meanwhile, the palatalized forms of the other consonants became postalveolars and palatals, with these two series then partly merging with each other.  However, in some clusters, the labialization decayed to simple consonants instead. For example, /tul/ > /tl/, never /pl/.  In general, homorganic clusters were favored.
 
The commonest ejective was /ṭ/, since previous sound changes had distributed the others among /ḳ q̇ ṗ/ and eliminated some.


==Grammar==
==Grammar==
Star languages were SOV, like nearly all other [[languages of Teppala]].  However, the grammar of the Star languages was less fusional than most, and there were more small words in each sentence to play with.
Star languages were SOV, like nearly all other [[languages of Teppala]].  However, the grammar of the Star languages was less fusional than most, and there were more small words in each sentence to play with.


==Cultural contacts==
The core vocabulary was based on biconsonantal roots, and all of the inflections (but not the derivations) were slates of vowels. Sometimes there were more than two vowels, which resulted in either a sequence  of vowels or a reduplication of one of the root consonants. Also, there were consonantal prefixes and suffixes which could be considered as pseudo-allophones of these vowels, and which were written with separate letters in the Star script.  
The Stars living east of the Gold Sea were smothered by the [[Lenia|Mumba ]] settlers early on; in Paba, the Sukuna population was wiped out within just 400 years, just prior to the Pabap king's declaration that henceforth Paba would be a pacifist empire and would no longer participate in any wars.   In Subumpam, they survived much longer and many Sukuna married into Mumba families. However, when Subumpam's Mumba population was itself conquered in the [[Vegetable War]], the few surviving Sukuna disappeared with them.


West of the Gold Sea, nationality was determined by geography, and therefore it was always possible to claim that the aboriginal Star population was alive and well, and healthier than it had ever been. It was simply a changed population due to the increase in immigration of both the Mumba and many other peoples.  However, the Star languages died out here at about the same pace as they had in the east, because the [[Gold language]] had spread throughout all of Star territory during the rise of [[AlphaLeap]]'s sea power around the year 1103.
There were also pairs of consonants that stuck together, and which were forbidden to occur together when a vowel is left out.  Thus /mp/ was not /m/+/p/, but rather behaved as though it were a single consonant. Most and perhaps all of these sticky sequences are homorganic.


===Contact with the Andanese===
==Cultural contacts==
Paba was able to achieve a quick victory against its dark-skinned aboriginal minority because they had settled in the most important area and managed to turn the remaining tribes against each other.  As Paba's territory grew, the Pabaps killed or drove out all of the aboriginals in each new piece of land, even though they were still in alliance with other physiologically similar tribes.  The Pabaps promised to protect these aboriginals from other aboriginals in exchange for the aboriginals allowing Pabaps to settle their land. 
Many Stars married into the Lenian families, meaning that in later periods, the Lenians of this area such as the [[Players]] were slightly darker than their original close kin, the Dreamers.  But actually, this was primarily due to intermarriage with Andanese and not with the Star aboriginals.  On the other hand, the Stars also married into Andanese families.
 
The Pabaps never betrayed the tribes who helped them, but as Paba evolved into a naval power, they excluded even these friendly aboriginals from their rapidly growing economy, and as a result, the wealthy Pabap population vastly outgrew the aboriginal population. By the time the aboriginal nations were admitted to the Pabap empire as new states, they already had secure Pabap majorities. 
 
However, as Paba grew, it attracted many new minority populations.  The relative size of these racial minorities ebbed and flowed, as some prospered while others suffered, and some built large settlements in Pabap territory while others moved on to different empires.  The [[Andanese]] people were the poorest minority as they typically lived in the wilderness and survived by hunting and stealing food from nearby settlements.  As the Sukuna people were chased out of their homelands, some Sukuna fled into Andanese territory and became Andanese themselves.  Thus, Paba's Andanese minority had darker skin and a different facial structure than all other Andanese peoples.  When the Andanese lost a war in 4175 and were driven off the entire continent, they fled to the icecapped island of [[Xema]], where the light-skinned phenotype quickly became dominant, but some other traits remained and, in later generations, entered Xema's wider population.


==Later history==
In the extreme west, in [[Atlam]], the Stars had taken over the territory of the Kxel aboriginals, who had a different body type and a very different language family. The Stars of Amade were colonized by immigrants speaking [[Tropical Rim]] languages, but retained their Star identity to some extent, because the colonists introduced a system in which politics, not tribe, was the basis of citizenship and voting rights, so it was possible to be ethnically Star but not a member of the Star political party.  Nonetheless, the Star languages were not passed down.
The remaining Star languages were wiped out by the [[Gold language]] as they settled Lobexon. This was in turn driven out by [[FILTER]], who brought a dialect of Subumpamese with their conquest beginning in 3041.


==Notes==
==Notes==


[[Category:Languages of Teppala]]
[[Category:Languages of Teppala]]

Latest revision as of 22:00, 11 March 2023

The Star languages are the aboriginal languages of the dark-skinned Sukuna peoples who inhabited the central tropics of the continent of Rilola prior to the arrival of the other dark-skinned tribes such as Hipatal, Pabahais, etc, as well as the blonde, light-skinned Mumba people. The most famous tribe later formed the Star Empire; however, the Stars were just one of more than a dozen such tribes; the other tribes mostly blended with the Mumba settlers whereas the Stars stayed isolated. Even the Star Empire had mostly switched to speaking the Gold language, however, so the Star languages had been nearly wiped out by the year 1900 AD and today survive only in placenames.

Phonology

A possible minimal consonant inventory is such as 

Labials:       p   m            
Alveolars:     t   n       l   r
Velars:        k   ŋ   h

Vowels:        a   i   u

But it could perhaps be significantly larger.

A much larger phonology could have been present, perhaps with as much as : 

Labials:           p   m   b   w
Dentals:           ṭ   ṇ   ḍ   ḷ       ṣ
Alveolars:         t   n   d   l   r   s
Postalveolars:     č   ň   ǯ   λ   ř   š
Palatals:          ć           y
Velars:            k   ŋ   ġ           h

Note the presence of a true voiced stop column, unlike almost all other languages in later times, where approximants, voiced fricatives, and voiced stops were all grouped together, usually with the velar member being a fricative and usually with no /d/.

A few "exotic" consonants might also appear, being pronounced almost the same as those listed but with effects on nearby vowels. These would merge with the others when found in certain environments where the effects were not audible.

The vowels were /a i u/, even under the maximal plan. This is morphologically significant, and the vowel inventory would likely be /a i u/ in nearly every Star language, not just the Ekwebe capital city language, and would remain so for thousands of years. However, vowel sequences occurred, including two of the same vowel in a row.

If the maximal inventory above is taken, sequences like /ny/ would be disallowed.

As indicated below under the grammar section, whatever the phonology might be, the morphology behaves as though the phonology is much larger, a trait shared with the Owl languages to the north and perhaps with the much later Moonshine which also edged into this territory.

Grammar

Star languages were SOV, like nearly all other languages of Teppala. However, the grammar of the Star languages was less fusional than most, and there were more small words in each sentence to play with.

The core vocabulary was based on biconsonantal roots, and all of the inflections (but not the derivations) were slates of vowels. Sometimes there were more than two vowels, which resulted in either a sequence of vowels or a reduplication of one of the root consonants. Also, there were consonantal prefixes and suffixes which could be considered as pseudo-allophones of these vowels, and which were written with separate letters in the Star script.

There were also pairs of consonants that stuck together, and which were forbidden to occur together when a vowel is left out. Thus /mp/ was not /m/+/p/, but rather behaved as though it were a single consonant. Most and perhaps all of these sticky sequences are homorganic.

Cultural contacts

Many Stars married into the Lenian families, meaning that in later periods, the Lenians of this area such as the Players were slightly darker than their original close kin, the Dreamers. But actually, this was primarily due to intermarriage with Andanese and not with the Star aboriginals. On the other hand, the Stars also married into Andanese families.

In the extreme west, in Atlam, the Stars had taken over the territory of the Kxel aboriginals, who had a different body type and a very different language family. The Stars of Amade were colonized by immigrants speaking Tropical Rim languages, but retained their Star identity to some extent, because the colonists introduced a system in which politics, not tribe, was the basis of citizenship and voting rights, so it was possible to be ethnically Star but not a member of the Star political party. Nonetheless, the Star languages were not passed down.

Notes

Retrieved from "http://www.frathwiki.com/index.php?title=Star_languages&oldid=154899"