Tarise

For the Sak language, see here. For the Tarise with Teeth, see here.

Phonology

The phonology of Tarise is fairly conservative, resembling that of the Gold language from which it originated. However, it went through vastly more sound changes than the Khulls branch, so although the superficial appearance is similar, lexical identities are few and the deep structure has been heavily reordered. Being west of Khulls, Tarise shares none of the common traits of the languages spoken to the north and east of Khulls, but shares some traits with Khulls itself.

The consonant inventory (if no dentals) was:

                       BASIC                             LABIALIZED  
Bilabials:             p   b   m   f   v                 bʷ  mʷ  fʷ  vʷ  w   
Alveolars:             t   d   n       l             tʷ  dʷ  nʷ          lʷ
Postalveolars:         č   ǯ           y                 ǯʷ    
Velars:                k   ġ   ŋ   h   g   ḳ             ġʷ  ŋʷ  hʷ  gʷ
 

Unlike Fojy, the tone of one syllable was not predictable from the syllable before it: two low tones could occur in a row, and there were more than two tones. Thus, in the sound change list below, descriptions like "after a high tone" are defined narrowly, rather than, for example, also applying before a low tone.

Pre-Tarise (1085) to Proto-Tarise (1900)

Note that the inherited fricatives /h hʷ/ are velars.

1. The voiced fricatives g gʷ shifted to Ø w. However, the fricative allophones remained, and therefore came to also replace original Ø~ʕ. For example, syllable final -u merged with original gʷ, and obtained the velar frication as an allophone after a stressed vowel.
2. The stops p t b d shifted to h s g z unconditionally, with palatalization and labialization both preserved. Preexisting č ǯ merged with the palatalized coronals. hʲ and sʲ were still distinct.
3. All unstressed syllables became CV only, with no tones.
4. The sequence ʷə shifted to ʷu.
5. The vowels ə i shifted to i yi unconditionally.
6. The long falling tone vowels ā ī ū became high tone à ì ù unconditionally. They did not acquire glottalization.

Note that labialization is preserved. The consonant inventory at this time was:

Labials:                   m  w              
Alveolars:           s  z  n  l
Palatals:                     y      
Velars:        k  ḳ  x     ŋ (Ø)     
Postvelars:          h  g       

Thus there were only two proper stops in the language: /k ḳ/. It is possible that /t d/ were preserved before [a], with a later /t/~/s/ contrast arising from the sound change of /sw/ > /s/. There would still be no [ti] or [tu] however.

The inherited /ki/ gap is filled by the shift of /kə/ > /ki/; primordial /ki/ by this time had shifted to /sʲi/.

There were three vowels: /a i u/, on two tones. A vowel could be followed by /i/ or /u/, even if another consonant was in the coda. (Unless /u/ + conso was removed when labialization was.)

Daughter languages

Proto-Tarise (~1900) to Golden Staircase

1. The fricatives s z shifted to t r before /a/.
2. The sequences sʷ zʷ hʷ w shifted to s z f v.
3. The labialized nasals mʷ nʷ ŋʷ all merged to m. The palatalized nasals mʲ nʲ ŋʲ shifted to ň.
4. The palatalized coronals sʲ zʲ lʲ shifted to š ž ł.
5. All unstressed vowels merged as Ø, pronounced in some cases with an epenthetic schwa.

Proto-Tarise (~1900) to Capital Territory (3900)

There might be some deletions of fricatives at some point here, besides the /g/, because if not the fricatives will be the dominant consonant type.

1. In bisyllabic roots, if the vowel in the second syllable was /i/, then u in the first syllable changed to uj.
2. ai came to be prononced /ei/, which (when using the four-vowel syllabary common to the area) was spelled "ɜ" because this vowel had no other use.
3. The high tone vowels à ì ù shifted to æ ɪ ʊ. The spelling /e/ was also used for the /æ/. NOTE THAT THIS VOWEL DOES NOT BECOME /e/, EXCEPT IN DIPHTHONGS.
4. The voiced velar fricative g disappeared after a vowel, changing it into a long vowel.
5. All stressed vowels became high-tone; thus tones were eliminated. The tones left no effects on surrounding consonants, and the allophonic affricates that appeared for some fricatives did not survive.
6. Consonant clusters and final consonants were simplified and made the preceding vowel into a lax vowel.
7. Double consonants and affricates simplified to singles and also laxed the preceding vowel.
8. All unstressed short vowels were reduced to the set /ă ĭ u ə/ . If they had been lax, they also laxed the preceding vowel.

   NOTE ON POLITICS: This is about 3900 AD *if* the parent language was at 1900 AD.

Capital Territory (3900) to Castle Tarise (7950)

1. After a vowel, sĭ tĭ kĭ ḳĭ changed to š č č č .
2. Unaccented long vowels and diphthongs were reduced to the monophthongs a i u .
3. All long vowels became short; however, diphthongs such as /ai/ remained.
4. All final vowels in bisyllabic roots were deleted. If the vowel deleted was /ĭ/, the vowels in the first syllable changed from a æ ɪ ə to ei ei i ĭ.^{what is ĭ?}

   NOTE ON POLITICS: This is about 4800 AD *if* the parent language was 3900 AD.

5. In compound words and certain inflected forms, the second vowel in the word was deleted if the resulting consonant cluster was acceptable ("the Debra shift"). If the second vowel occurred between two labial consonants, the first labial consonant was deleted.
6. The lax vowel ʊ shifted to ʉ.
7. In clusters, and in word-final position, the labiodental fricatives f v became p b.
8. Before front vowels (including ʉ?), the velar stops k ġ were fronted to the postalveolar affricates č ǯ, which were considered single phonemes rather than clusters.
9. At the end of a closed syllable the bilabial stop b came to be pronounced as ə, with a common allophone of [w]; however there was no change in the native spelling.
10. At the end of a closed syllable the bilabial stop p came to be pronounced as ʔ, however there was no change in the native spelling. That is, the ligatures of vowel + /p/, which are transliterated with grave accents, continued to be used.
11. The labiodental fricatives f v became the bilabial stops p b in all positions, although at the end of a few words they disappeared completely. They were spelled with the letters for the "hard" /p b/ because in some writings the letters for the ordinary p b were used for /ʔ ə/.
12. Voiced stops became prenasalized after a tense vowel; lax vowels before voiced stops became allophonically tense but did not gain prenasalization.
13. The lax/tense distinction in vowels disappeared, leaving vowel quality alone to distinguish them and meaning that glottal stops after certain vowels were no longer pronounced. However, the changes that the earlier system had inflicted on the consonants still remained.
14. The old vowel ɪ came to be pronounced as e.
15. Unstressed ʉ became a true schwa. The script was now written with the old /ʉ/ series as the inherent vowel (previously it was schwa).
16. The low vowel a rounded to o (sometimes [ɔ]; and æ became a. Thus the six vowel system /a e i o u ə/ had emerged.
17. Letters with inherent vowels sometimes appeared as the onset of a stressed syllable (mostly in loans, but in a few

native words also). Previously the /u/ ones were pronounced with /w/, but that disappeared, and as it did so the ones with /a/ became velarised and in some cases (especially velars) also labialized.

Proto-Tarise (~1900) to Hawks' Nest Trail

This language is not likely to be the "cold" Tarise.

1. In unstressed syllables, u disappeared, forming consonant clusters. A yer-like rule prevented certain clusters from developing, but the epenthetic vowel was /i/, not /u/. Thus the language now distinguished only two vowels (/a i/) in unstressed syllables.
2. Any fricative occurring after a nasal became a stop.

Other info

k˖ k⁺ k₊ k̟

k˖  k⁺  k₊   k̟