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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 = c2002 CE
| background = white
| headingbg = olivedrab
| width = 25%
}}
==History==
Commonly known as Verat, this was the language spoken by the southern Khelivega tribes, those who's clans entered union at Terek, in particular. Old Verat is the langauge spoken by Undun and his compatriots, as opposed to the slightly younger and only slightly changed Terek Verat. These can be considered dialects of the same language, only differing slightly. Genetically, Verat is an old Indo-European language, an early branching-off, indicated by some archaic and otherwise unusual features. It shares many traits with the Indo-Iranian languages in particular, but is very clearly not a member of that family.


Old Verat was spoken in the south and east, especially at Terek, presumably as far north as Kuban. So-called Terek Verat, on the other hand, became the lingua-franca of most of the cis-Caucasian territory, incorporating a large number of loans from its North-Caucasian counterparts.
==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.


==Orthography and Phonology==
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).
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.


===Consonants===
===Major Historical Developments===
{{Bordertable|#fff}}
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]].
!  !! Labial !! Alveolar !! Palatal !! Velar
 
====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.
{| cellpadding="2"
|''*h₂ab-ōl-'' || → || '''haboːl-''' || "fruit"
|-
|-
!Voiceless Aspirate
|''*h₂euh₂-os'' || → || '''haːu-os''' || "grandfather"
| p [pʰ] || t [tʰ] || || k [kʰ] 
|-
|-
!Voiced Plosive
|''*h₃estH-'' || → || '''hostə-''' || "bone"
| b [b] || d [d] || || g [g]
|}
 
The laryngeals then merge completely, and are preserved as a single vowel /ə/ between consonants and at word-boundaries:
{| cellpadding="2"
|''*h₃rēǵ-'' || → || '''əreːɟ-''' || "chief"
|-
|-
!Nasal
|''*ph₂-tēr-'' || → || '''pʰəteːr-''' || "father"
| m [m] || n [n] || ||  
|}
 
====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 {{IPA|/u/}} after labiovelars, and /ə/ elsewhere.
 
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" class="wikitable"
|+ PIE forms and KK Reflexes
|-
|-
!Voiceless Fricative
! || C_C || (C.)C_V || Cʷ_C || (C.)Cʷ_V
|   || s [s] || ş [ɕ] ||
|-
|-
!Voiced Fricative
!''*rH''
| v [v] || ð [ð] || || kh [ɣ]
|əːr || ər || uːr || ur
|-
|-
!Sonorants
!''*lH''
|  || r [r,ɾ] l [l] || j ||
|əːl || ə || uːl || ul
|}
 
===Vowels===
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.
 
{|
|+Short Vowels
|i [ɪ̝]||&emsp;||&emsp;||u [ʊ]
|-
|-
|&emsp;||e [ɛ̝]|| ||o [ɔ]
!''*r''
| ər || r || ur || r
|-
|-
| ||||a [ɐ]||&emsp;
!''*l''
| əl || l || ul || l
|-
|-
|}
!''*mH''
 
| əː || əm || uː || um
 
{|
|+Long Vowels
|ī [iː]||&emsp;||&emsp;||ū [u̞ː]
|-
|-
|&emsp;||ē [eː]|| ||ō [oː]
!''*nH''
| əː || ən || uː || un
|-
|-
| ||ā [aː]|| ||&emsp;
!''*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.
 
===Class===
Text
 
===Number===
Text
 
===Case===
Text
 
==Verb==
As an Indo-European language, Verat has a fairly complicated verb system with an ablaut. Conjugational and inflectional patterns of the so-called tenses are grouped into three systems by aspect: Imperfective in the Present, Perfective in the Aorist, and Perfect in the Perfect.
 
===Ergativity===
 
====Split-S====
Text
 
====Active vs. Middle====
Text
 
===Morphology===
 
====Augment====
The augment, very simply, is the prefix '''jé-''' on a verb stem, indicating that the verb has the Past-time. Historically, the augment is derived from PIE ''*h₁é-''.
 
====Reduplication====
This phenomenon repeats the first consonant or consonants of a root: C(é)RC- > Cé-C(e)RC. Were the accent to shift away from the reduplicated vowel, it would become '''-i-''': Cé-CoRC- > jé-Ci-CoRC, as we might see in the Perfect and Pluperfect tenses.
 
Because of Grassmann's Law, reduplication occurs as *Cʰé(R)Cʰ > Cé(R)Cʰ, which has the consequence of the reflex of ''*gʰóur-o'' > ''*gé-gʰour-o'' becoming '''kōr-o-''' > '''ɣé-kōr-o''' «to fear». Therefore, we see, in reduplicant morphemes the following occur: '''k''' > '''ɣ''', '''t''' > '''ð''', '''p''' > '''v''', and in some cases '''ɕ''' > '''j'''. This final change occurs only 'in some cases' becuse '''ɕ''' is the reflex of both ''*ḱ'' and ''*ǵʰ'', of which only the latter will change because of Grassmann's Law.
 
====Preverb====
Verbs can take a directional preverb, which is prefixed onto the stem, such that it will lie between any augment and any full stem. These preverbs are the identical with many adverbs, such as '''ɕō''' ‹towards›, '''en''' ‹in›, '''bel''' ‹beyond›, and '''ubo''' ‹from under›.
 
===Present System===
Verbs in the Present System are characterized by the Imperfective aspect, representing actions which are ongoing. There are five possible non-productive stem formations:
 
=====Stem Formation=====
 
 
'''Root Stems'''
 
These are, of course, bare roots with no suffix, and make up the vast majority of verbs. These can either be Thematic, such as '''veme-''' ‹to vomit›, or Athematic, like '''jes-''' ‹to be›.
 
 
'''Reduplicated Stems'''
 
These stems utilize the reduplication of the first consonant(s) of a root. These are rare and athematic, as only the front of the stem is altered; no suffix is present to thematize the stem. For examples of this we have '''si-se-''' < se ‹to sow›, and '''jé-ɕev-''' < ɕev ‹to pour›. The latter of these is one of the so-called irregular ɕ-reduplications.
 
 
'''Suffix -(e)i-'''
 
These stems are generally athematic, and exist as both primary and secondary derivations. Among the primary verbs, we see '''mun-ei'''‹to think› and '''speɕ-je''' ‹to see›, the latter of which is actually thematic.
 
 
'''Suffix -(e)s-'''
 
This is an athematic suffix found in a number of stems, such as:  '''ɕlōs'''- ‹be obedient›, '''ajes-''' ‹to carry›, and '''aveks-''' ‹to grow›.
 
 
'''Nasal Stems'''
 
There are a number of present stems which actually have an infixed '''-n-''' before the final consonant. In ablaut, the full-grade vowel is actually shifted from the center of the root to after the infix. For example, we see: '''lineb-''' < '''lēb-''' ‹to let, allow›, '''gunes-''' < gus- ‹to kiss›, ðunā < ðuma ‹to subdue› (ðuma is clearly irregular, due to assimilation: *dṃh₂- > *dṃ-n-eh₂ > *dum-nā > '''ðunā''').


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


====Present Tense====
====Grassmann's Law====
The Verat Present Tense is roughly equivalent to the English Present Progressive, which is to say, it tells of something which is in progress at the time of the utterance.
This is a sound law governing the distribution of aspirated plosives within a root, as seen in Greek, Sanskrit, and Kuma-Koban.


====Imperfect Tense====
===Allophony===
The Imperfect Tense is roughly equivalent to the Imperfect of Spanish, describing an event which was ongoing at some time in the past.


===Aorist System===
This system is characterized by the Perfective aspect, referring to a single, complete event.


====Stem Formation====
==Morphology==
Text


====Aorist Tense====
Text


===Perfect System===
==Morphosyntax==
This system is characterized by the Perfect aspect, referring to an event which is complete and relevant.


====Stem Formation====
Text


====Perfect Tense====
==Syntax==
Text


====Pluperfect Tense====
[[Category: Conlangs]]
Text

Latest revision as of 13:17, 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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