Macro-Pabap languages

The Macro-Pabap languages are regional languages descended from Gold but further apart from Pabappa and Poswa than those two are to each other. They could be considered a stem group of Pabappa.

Yeisu Kasu (3100) to Mevumep (4100)

Spoken in Mevumep.

Thus the language now had the consonants

Labials:        /p ṗ b m f β w/
Dentals:        /þ/
Alveolars:      /t d n s z/
Postalveolars:  /č ǯ ž/
Palatals:       /j/
Velars:         /k ḳ ġ ŋ h g/
Pharyngeals:    /ħ ʕ/

Voiced stops had an odd distribution, occuring almost entirely in word-initial position. Word-internally, the contrast was not between voiced and voiceless stops but between single and double voiceless ones. These two contrasts were not related to each other, but loans from Babakiam into CV languages often treated the single voiceless stops as voiced stops in intervocalic position.

There may have also been a marginal /š/ and /x/.

1. Inherited schwa comes to be spelled ə. (A spelling change to distinguish it from IPA /e/).
2. The inherited voiced spread bilabial fricative β shifted to v.
3. The voiceless ejective stops ṗ ḳ became plain voiced stops b ġ between vowels or after a nasal. The voiced velar stop /ġ/ was not contrastive with the voiced velar fricative /g/, however, because they occurred in complementary environments. Therefore, in some word roots, they merged.
4. Vowel sequences collapse: ài àu became ē ō, and əi əu become ī ū. Likewise, ăi ău became ĕ ŏ; there was no fourth set because all diphthongs containing schwa had been moved to the low tone during the changes of the parent language. The sequences ăa əa shift to ă.

   This relies on the idea that a short rising tone is likely to become low, and a short falling tone is likely to become high.

5. Further collapse: àə ìə ùə əə shifted to ā ī ū ə̄. (Nasal?)
6. The voiceless fricatives f þ s h ħ became v d z g Ø between vowels. This also removes ʕ.
7. The clusters sf ss sh became the single consonants f s h. (Note the lack of */sþ/ and */sħ/ inherited from the parent language.)
8. The voiced fricative g became v adjacent to a labial vowel in either direction.
9. The voiced fricatives d z g became ž adjacent to a palatal vowel in either direction.
10. The voiced stops d ġ became the approximants r g unconditionally (not just intervocalically).
11. The voiceless stops p t č k became the voiced stops b d ǯ ġ intervocalically. This shift was ignored in compounds because the only compounds in which it could occur were those which also had a grammatical alternant form with a doubled stop, which did not undergo the shift.
12. The voiceless ejective stop ṗ became p before another stop.
13. The clusters pp pt ps pk changed to p t c k unconditionally. These could not occur after a breve tone.
14. The voiced velar fricative g disappeared between vowels.
15. The clusters mb nd ŋġ became mm nn ŋŋ.
16. The voiced velar stops ǯ ġ became ž g unconditionally. /d/ was also a fricative in some environments, but this was not a phonemic contrast.
17. The clusters mp nt nč ŋk became mb nd nǯ ŋg.
18. The voiceless fricative s disappeared before any stop or nasal.