Proto-Eteonoric

Proto-Eteonoric
Spoken in:	Austria, ca. 1000 BC
Conworld:	League of Lost Languages
Total speakers:	extinct (reconstructed)
Genealogical classification:	Eteonoric Proto-Eteonoric
Basic word order:	V2, SOV in subclauses
Morphological type:	agglutinating
Morphosyntactic alignment:	accusative, topic-prominent
Created by:
The group	2005-2012

Proto-Eteonoric is a diachronic conlang that forms a part of the League of Lost Languages. The language was built as a group effort (the main contributors being Jörg Rhiemeier, Roger Mills, Benct Philip Jonsson and Paul Bennett).

Proto-Eteonoric is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Eteonoric languages. It was probably spoken about 3000 years ago in central Austria, somewhere between Vienna and Salzburg.

An essential part of the project is the Proto-Noric Dictionary and Root Generator.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stops	Voiceless	*p	*t			*k	*q
	Voiced	*b	*d			*g
	Aspirated	*ph [pʰ]	*th [tʰ]			*kh [kʰ]	*qh [qʰ]
Affricates	Voiceless		*c [ts]	*č [tʃ]
	Voiced		*dz	*dž [dʒ]
	Aspirated		*ch [tsʰ]	*čh [tʃʰ]
Fricatives	Voiceless		*s	*š [ʃ]				*h
	Voiced		*z	*ž [ʒ]
Nasals		*m	*n
Lateral			*l
Rhotic			*r
Semivowels		*w			*j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	*i	*y [ɨ]	*u
Mid	*e		*o
Low		*a

All vowels except *y which is always short, may be short or long. Long vowels are marked with a grave accent: à è ì ò ù.

Accent

The Proto-Eteonoric accent may fall on any syllable and is marked with an acute accent (á é í ó ú ý) on the vowel, or a circumflex (â ê î ô û) if it is long.

Root structure

C(R)VC or CV(R)C

Words however are minimally C(R)VCV or CV(R)CV and must end in a vowel (or vowel + sonant?)

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns do not inflect much. The plural marker is *-my; the topic marker is *-tâ (which attracts stress). The plural topic marker is *-mytâ (also attracts stress). The genitive relation is expressed by the particle *nu placed between possessum and possessor, e.g. *atéga nu babâ (house GEN father) 'the father's house'. If such a NP is topicalized, the topic marker is appended to the final element: *atéga nu babàtâ.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

		Singular	Plural
1st person	Exclusive	*atê	*kímy
	Inclusive		*kórymy
2nd person		*iwká	*kakýmy
3rd person	Masculine	*jáša	*jášamy
	Feminine	*jáši	*jášimy
	Neuter	*atâ	*atâmy

Demonstratives and others

	Person	Thing	Place	Way	Reason
This	*thámi	*tháta	*tháši	*thákala	*thámada
That	*ními	*níta	*níši	*níkala	*nímada
Which?	*kémi	*kéta	*kéši	*kékala	*kémada
Some	*sémi	*séta	*séši	*sékala	*sémada
Every	*jômi	*jôta	*jôši	*jôkala	*jômada
No	*bêmi	*bêta	*bêši	*bêkala	*bêmada

Numerals

	Cardinal	Ordinal
1	ìqhá	ìqhádža
2	câhu	câhudža
3	ûba	ûbadža
4	šujú	šujúdža
5	ánta	ántadža
6	ýto	ýtodža
7	hátù	hátùdža
8	twatâ	twatâdža
9	dáqù	dáqùdža
10	áša	ášadža
11	ýče	ýčedža
12	ábì	ábìdža
20	udó	udódža
100	úkhi	úkhidža
1000	òjcí	òjcídža

Adjectives

Adjectives agree with their head nouns in number (the plural suffix is *-my, as with nouns). The degree of comparison is expressed by the suffixes *-kha (comparative, does not attract stress) and *-khatá (superlative; attracts stress). The latter two suffixes precede the plural suffix.

Prepositions

Proto-Eteonoric is a prepositional language.

Local prepositions

	At	From	To	Through
General	*ta	*do	*ke	*čhà
In	*qitá	*qidó	*qiké	*qičhâ
On	*satá	*sadó	*saké	*sačhâ
Under	*čhìtá	*čhìdó	*čhìké	*čhìčhâ
Near	*litá	*lidó	*liké	*ličhâ

Up	*hî
Down	*chó

Other prepositions

With (comitative)	*nîli
By/With (instrumental)	*dára
Without	*banî
For	*džúki
Against	*badžú

Verbs

The verb is inflected for tense and mood, and the person and number of the subject. There are also several subordinating suffixes.

Mood

Mood is expressed by a suffix on the verb. The following moods are distinguished:

Indicative	-∅ (no suffix)
Subjunctive	-ka
Optative	-kala
Imperative	-chí

The imperative suffix attracts stress and is never followed by any other suffix except the plural suffix *-my.

Tense

There are two tenses in Proto-Eteonoric: present (non-past) and past. Only the indicative and the subjunctive moods combine with the past tense. The present tense has no suffix, while the past tense is marked with the suffix *-še. In the subjunctive mood, the past tense suffix follows the subjunctive mood suffix.

Person and number

The personal prefixes are:

1st person	*ki-
2nd person	*ka-
3rd person	∅- (no prefix)

The plural is expressed by the suffix *-my in all three persons. This suffix follows the mood and tense suffixes.

Subordinating suffixes

The verb of a subordinate clause takes a suffix which expresses the relation between the subordinate clause and the main clause. This suffix is always the last in the verb complex and attracts stress. The following subordinating suffixes can be reconstructed for Proto-Eteonoric:

Relative	*-máchi
Complement	*-mâ
If	*-čhî
When	*-tatá
Before	*-kêmi
After	*-dôthi
Because	*-gûru
Though	*-nîlu

Conjunctions

Proto-Eteonoric has only coordinating conjunctions, as subordination is done with verb suffixes (see above).

And	*ki
Or	*čha
Not	*be
Thus	*da

Syntax

Morphosyntactic alignment

Proto-Eteonoric is a nominative-accusative language. Subjects and direct objects are not marked for case, but the subject always precedes the object unless the object is topicalized (see below). The verb inflects for the person and number of the subject. Overlaying this, Proto-Eteonoric is a topic-prominent language; in many sentences, one argument is topicalized.

The Noun Phrase

Adjectives precede the noun, while possessors and relative clauses follow. The topic marker is always suffixed to the last element in the NP.

The Clause

In main clauses, the verb is always in the second position. If a noun phrase is marked as topic, it comes first in the sentence. Otherwise, the subject precedes the verb and the object follows the verb. Subordinate clauses have Subject Object Verb word order.

Main clause without topic

In a main clause without topic, the subject is placed before the verb and the object after it:

(1)	amâ bíli rúnthu
	mother love child
	'The mother loves the child.'

Proto-Eteonoric is a pro-drop language, i.e. the subject pronoun can be omitted if the verb is inflected for a person other than third person singular:

(2)	rúnthu kibíli
	child 1SG-love
	'I love the child.'

As the example shows, the object moves into the first position in such a clause due to the V2 constraint (in a main clause, the verb is always in second position).

Main clause with topic

If a noun phrase is topicalized, it is placed before the verb, and everything else after the verb. If the topicalized noun phrase is the subject, the word order does not change, and no other marking is necessary:

(3)	amàtâ bíli rúnthu
	mother-TOP love child
	'As for the mother, she loves the child.'

If the object is topicalized, a pronoun is placed after the subject:

(4)	runthutâ bíli amâ jáša
	child-TOP love mother 3SG:M
	'As for the child, the mother loves him.'

Prepositional phrases can also be topicalized. In this case, the noun phrase is placed first without the preposition, and a pronoun is placed after the preposition:

(5)	babàtâ méta amâ láki ke jáša
	father-TOP give mother fish to 3SG:M
	'As for the father, the mother gives a fish to him.'

Subordinate clause

In a subordinate clause, the subject precedes the object, and the verb goes last.

(6)	lìčú líntu čankašedôthi pínčhiše mísa atâ
	fox bird catch-PAST-after steal-PAST cat 3SG:N
	'After the fox caught the bird, the cat stole it.'

This is also true for relative clauses:

(7)	lìčú líntu čankašemáchi sélmaše atâ
	fox bird catch-PAST-REL eat-PAST 3SG:N
	'The fox that caught the bird ate it.'

Vocabulary

ábì	Num	twelve
ábìdža	Num	twelfth
ašá	Num	ten
ašúdža	Num	tenth
amâ	N	mother
ánta	Num	five
ántadža	Num	fifth
atê	pron	I (1st pers.sing.)
atéga	N	house, dwelling
babâ	N	father
bádi	adj	yellow
bánki	N	hill
bíli	V	love
bnegâ	adj	big, large
câhu	Num	two
câhudža	Num	second
châqho	N	chamois
chó	adposition	down
cholcí	N	marten
cìbý	N	Alpine cough
dáqù	Num	nine
dáqùdža	Num	ninth
dáwno	N	river
-dža	suffix	derives ordinal numbers from cardinals
džèlê	N	red deer
gwîno	N	wine
gýrdy	N	enclosure, courtyard
hátù	Num	seven
hátùdža	Num	seventh
-ima	suffix	denotes inhabitant of X
ípe	N	partridge
ìqhá	Num	one
ìqhádža	Num	first
iwká	pron	(2nd pers.sing.) thou
îwsi	N	garden, field
jûlthè	N	cow
kántu	V	hold
khórja	N	star; a constellation?
khrèthá	N	roe deer
kôri	N	tree bark
kórpi	N	forest
kûrdo	adj	deaf
kýrsa	N	bread
láki	N	fish
líntu	N	bird
lìčú	N	fox
méta	V	give
méthu	N	mead
mísa	V	eat
mîtho	N	badger
múto	V	cut
nòla	N	wood
nolčî	N	tree
òjcí	Num	one thousand
òjcidža	Num	one thousandth
páli	N	mountain
pâre	V	show
pása	N	anger
pásima	N	barbarian
phlóka	N	cloth
pínčhi	V	steal
qímà	N	sky
qúnà	N	mountain
qý-	prefix	place for X, place with X
qýlaki	N	pond
qýnolčì	N	coppice, grove, forest
qýchima	N	valley dweller
qýcho	N	valley
rêsi	N	grain, cereal
riwgú	N	marmot
ríwma	N	squirrel
rúnthu	N	child
sélta	N	bridge
sélma	V	eat
šérka	N	ox
šôli	V	heal
šôphè	N	human being
šujú	Num	four
šujúdža	Num	fourth
tandú	N	ibex
têrzo	N	tree
tôši	N	rope
twatâ	Num	eight
twatâdža	Num	eighth
týlpa	adj	mute
ûba	Num	three
ûbadža	Num	third
udó	Num	twenty
udódža	Num	twentieth
úkhi	Num	one hundred
úkhidža	Num	one hundredth
úrnò	N	man
wárda	N	clan-house
wèwga	adj	wide
ýče	Num	eleven
ýčedža	Num	eleventh
ýto	Num	six
ýtodža	Num	sixth
zíwy	N	hare
zulkâ	N	aurochs
žulê	N	pheasant