Techomonic

CBBic is the provisional designation of a collaborative project on the Conlanger Bulletin Board aimed at the construction of a fictional branch of the Indo-European language family. The chief contributors are Üdj, WeepingElf (Jörg Rhiemeier) and Salmoneus.

Setting

The languages are meant to descend from the language of a group of people who were "dropped off" along the way by the people who trekked eastward along the Eurasian steppe to become the ancestors of the speakers of Tocharian. The languages will be written in conscripts derived from the Kharoshthi script.

Proto-CBBic phonology

Consonants

In the IPA:

	Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Aspirated stops	*pʰ	*tʰ		*cʰ	*kʰ
Neutral stops	*p	*t		*c	*k
Voiced stops	*b	*d		*ɟ	*ɡ
Sibilants		*s	*ʂ	*ɕ
Nasals	*m	*n		*ɲ	*ŋ
Liquids		*l	*r
Semivowels	*w			*j

In an IAST-derived notation, which may be easier for most people to type:

	Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Aspirated stops	*ph	*th		*ch	*kh
Neutral stops	*p	*t		*c	*k
Voiced stops	*b	*d		*j	*g
Sibilants		*s	*ṣ	*ś
Nasals	*m	*n		*ñ	*ṅ
Liquids		*l	*r
Semivowels	*w			*y

Vowels

	Front unround	Front round	Back unround	Back round
Close	*i	*y (ü)	*ɨ (î)	*u
Mid	*e	*ø (ö)	*ə (ê)	*o
Open	*æ (ä)		*a

All vowels can be short or long. Long vowels are doubled.

Stress

Proto-CBBic had penultimate stress on most words. However, since this was a recent innovation, some more common words may still retain older stress, depending on the dialect. The daughter languages will most likely vary in this.

Sound changes from PIE

(Note: for these changes, I've used the IPA instead of the IAST-derived notation.)

• Nasal assimilation with obstruents
• h₂w > h₃
• ej, eje, ow, owo > i, e:, u, o:
• ew, ewe, oy, oyo > u, o:, i, e:
• uwo, iye > u:, i:
• Laryngeals "as usual", but with triple reflex as in Greek:

• *h₁e > *e, *h₂e > *a, *h₃e > *o
• *eh₁ > *e:, *eh₂ > *a:, *eh₃ > *o:
• Syllabic and initial before a consonant: *h₁ > *e, *h₂ > *a, *h₃ > *o
• *Hi > *i, *Ho > *o, *Hu > *u (*H = any laryngeal)
• *iH > *i:, *oH > *o:, *uH > *u: (*H = any laryngeal)
• *R̥H > *Ra: (*R = resonant)

• Syllabic resonants develop *ə as prop vowel before the resonant
• Clusters of stop + nasal, stop + stop, nasal + stop, or nasal + nasal develop *ə as prop vowel between the two segments, except intervocalically (so *ǵʰmṓ is affected, but *séptəm̥ is not)
• Labiovelars lose labialization, with rounding of following vowel, e.g. *kʷe > *kø
• Final *d, *dʰ > *l
• *w causes rounding of a following vowel, but is not lost, e.g. *we > *wø, *twe > *twø
• Palatovelar stops become palatals, e.g. *ǵ > *ɟ
• *s > *ʂ after *r, *u, or dorsal consonants
• *s > *ɕ after *i or palatal consonants
• *e lowered to *æ when unstressed except before an *i in the following syllable or when after palatals (incl. the approximant *j)
• Dental stops become velars before *w, e.g. *dw > *ɡw; also, *sw > *ʂw
• Dentals become palatals before *j, e.g. *tj > *c; also, *sj > *ɕ (Note: the *j is deleted.)
• Voiceless and voiced-aspirated stops merge as aspirated stops in stressed syllables or word-initially and as unaspirated in unstressed syllables, word-finally, or after sibilants, e.g. *tána > *tʰana, *bʰaná > *pana, *skána > *skana.
• Grassmann's Law: aspirated stops lose aspiration before another aspirated stop in the next syllable
• Front vowels are centralized before velars, *r and *ʂ, e.g. *ek > *ək
• Nasal assimilation with obstruents
• Final cɕ, kʂ > ɕ, ʂ
• w, j lost after consonants
• Stress shifts to the penultimate syllable

Proto-CBBic morphology

(not determined yet)

Proto-CBBic lexicon

(Meanings subject to change.)

• *asor n. ─ woman, wife (< PIE *h₁esor)
• *añêc adj. ─ narrow (< PIE *h₂enǵʰ) (Opposite is *stälos)
• *anêêr n. ─ man, husband (< PIE *h₂nḗr)
• *chêmoo n. ─ human (< PIE *ǵʰmṓ)
• *dêlaakhos adj. ─ long (< PIE *dl̥h₁gʰós)
• *maathêêr n. ─ mother (< PIE *méh₂tēr)
• *mejas adj. ─ big (< PIE *méǵh₂s)
• *mi adj. ─ small (< PIE *mey)
• *mrêkuṣ adj. ─ short (< PIE *mréǵʰus)
• *phoo adj. ─ few (< PIE *peh₂w)
• *stälos adj. ─ wide (< PIE *stelh₃ós) (Opposite is *añêc)
• *thêguṣ adj. ─ thick (< PIE *tégus) (Opposite is *thenuṣ)
• *thenuṣ adj. ─ thin (< PIE *ténh₂us) (Opposite is *thêguṣ)

Proto-CBBic numerals

• *inos num. ─ one (< PIE *óynos)
• *gos num. ─ two (< PIE *dwó) *Acquired a final -s via analogy.
• *threes num. ─ three (< PIE *tréyes)
• *khores num. ─ four (< PIE *kʷetwóres) *The first syllable was deleted.
• *phêṅkös num. ─ five (< PIE *pénkʷe) *Acquired a final -s via analogy.
• *ṣöśêm num. ─ six (< PIE *sweḱs) *Acquired a final -êm via analogy.
• *septêm num. ─ seven (< PIE *séptm̥)
• *octum num. ─ eight (< PIE *h₃eḱtou) *Acquired a final -m via analogy.
• *num num. ─ nine (< PIE *néun) *Final -n became -m via analogy.
• *decêm num. ─ ten (< PIE *deḱm̥)