Tsonboran

Attested in western Persia from around -5ka to -4.3ka as a language of one of the first major civilizations. Falls into disuse later, but not before contributing significant amounts of technical vocabulary to (…). Briefly re-emerges around -3ka before its apparent extinction some 500 years later.

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals	m	n
Voiceless plosivs	p	t	ts	k	q	ʔ
Voiced plosivs	b	d	(dz)
Voiceless fricativs	f	θ	s	x	χ	h
Voiced fricativs	v	ð	z
Approximants	w	l	r	j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Hi	i, y		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Lo	a~ɑ

Development from Proto-West Persian'

to Proto-Tsonboid

• hʀ → χ
• palatalization
  • k ɡ x → ʧ ʤ ʃ before /j/ & front vowels (incl. /a(ː)/)
  • labiovelars palatalized only before /yː/
• spirantization & more in obstruent clusters:
  • p t k⁽ʷ⁾ q → h θ x⁽ʷ⁾ χ before another obstruent
  • p → β before a sonorant
  • voiced stop clusters devoice
• o₁ː and o₂ː merge, then aː → o₃ː (the distinction's nature remains obscure)
• -h- lost
  • resulting iV uV → jV wV, V₁V₂ː → V₂ː, Va → aː, other V₁V₂ → V₁ː (?)
• vowel reduction
  • unstressed long vowels shortened in closed or final syllables
  • unstressed short vowels commonly reduce to shwa
  • …and are lost altogether in the pretonic position
• uvular coloring
  • i u ə(j) → e₂ o a(j) / _Q
• prenasal fortition
  • mɸ nɸ Nθ Nɬ Ns Nʃ Nx Nχ → mp ŋkʷ Nt Ntɬ Nts Nʧ Nk Nq
  • mw nw Nr Nl Nj → mb ŋɡʷ Ndr Ndl Nʤ
• related:
  • ɮ j w → dl ʤ ɡʷ also intervocally under certain conditions
  • in non-fortiting intervocalic positions β ð ɮ → w j l
  • morphological t + s ɬ l also change to ts tɬ dl, where still productiv
• hF → Fː, -χ- → χː

to Old Tsonboran

• kʷ ɡʷ → p b
• voiced dorsal stops lost
  • devoiced when adjacent to another obstruent
  • word-finally spirantized and devoiced
  • ɡ ɢ → ɡʷ ɢʷ → b / _{o u}
  • ɢ → ʁ → ð, ∅, (…)
• umlaut
  • i(ː) e₂(ː) → y(ː) ø(ː) / _(C)Cu/w, (original e(ː) = e₁(ː) unaffected)
  • e₂β → ø
  • ø(ː) → (j)o(ː)
• the distinction between e₁(ː) and e₂(ː), likewise o₁ː and o₃ː is lost
• word-final stops lost
• tj dj → ts dz
• Fː→ F
• tɬ dl ɬ → t d ʃ
• ɸ β → f v

to New Tsonboran

• do something w/ prenasality?
• some vowel breikage?
• ʧ ʤ ʃ → ts z s
• …

Para-Tsonboran

The remaining Tsonboid languages fall into two main branches: Oqomur in the South, near the Eufrat/Tigris delta (now extinct too), and the Northern Tsonboid languages. These are separated into three main groups on the basis of their obstruent correspondences. The palatalization of /t d/ to /ts dz/ affected all of these, as did the loss of lateral obstruents (but slightly differently in each). The loss of labiovelars and shibilants applied only sporadically and is in some cases dateable to the individual languages.

Side note: *lhaterals and *dr only occur medially. The evidence for *dr as distinct from *d is very feeble, based on transcriptions of New Tsonboran and a handful of group A lexemes.

PTs	*p	*t	*tɬ	*ts	*ʧ	*k	*kʷ	*q	*ʔ	*b	*d	*dr	*dl	*dz	*ʤ	*g	*gʷ	*ɢ	*f	*θ	*ɬ	*s	*s	*ʃ	*x	*xʷ	*χ	*h	*v	*ð	*z	*z	*l	*r
A	p	t	ks	ts	ʧ	k	kʷ	k	ʔ	b	d	d/g	g	z	ʤ	g	gʷ	g	h	s	x	x	s	ʃ	h	xʷ	x/h	h	v	z	z	j	l	r
B	f	ts	ts	θ	ʧ	x	k	k	h	b	dz	dz	l	ð	ʤ	g	g	ɣ	f	t	s	s	s	ʃ	k	k	k	∅	v	d	z	z	l	r
B'	f	ts	ts	ʧ	ʧ	x	k	k	h	p/w	ts/ɽ	ɽ	ɽ	ʧ/ʃ	ʧ/ʃ	k/∅	k/w	k/∅	h	t	s	s	s	ʃ	k	k	k	∅	f	t/l	s	s	l	t/l
C	p	ts	t	ts	ts	k	kʷ	q	ʔ	b	dz	dz	d	dz	dz	g	gʷ	ɢ	f	t	t	s	θ	s	k	kʷ	q	x	v	d	ð	z	x/∅	r
Oq.	p	t	tɬ	(t)	ʧ → ts	k	p	q	N/A	b	d	d	dɮ	(d)	ʤ → z	g	b	ʁ	h	h	ɬ	x	s	ʃ → s	x	f	χ	h	w	j	h	ɣ → g	l	r
Ts.	p	t	t	ts	ʧ → ts	k	p	q	ʔ	b	d	d	d	dz	ʤ → z	b	b	ð, ∅	f	θ	ʃ → s	(s)	s	ʃ → s	x	f	χ	h	v	ð	z	(z)	l	r

• Branch A, under Bustaxian influence, looses uvulars and most fricative distinctions. The development *tɬ *dl → ks g probably proceeds thru *tx *dɣ → *θx *ðɣ → *θk *ðg → *sk *zg and finally metathesis for the former. Additionally, initial *j *w become /x xʷ/.
• Branch B sees lenition of original voiceless stops, combined with fortition of spirants (an aspirate intermediate is likely involved somewhere). This leads to a cyclic chain-shift concerning the phonemes /θ t ts/, and similarly, /ð d dz/. The first step is the fortition of the interdentals to dental stops. The chain-shift in proper begins when the alveolar affricates lenite to laminal alveolar sibilants. These then take the place of the old interdentals. The chain becomes complete when the alveolar stops become new affricates (alveolar ~ retroflex), and the dental stops shift to the alveolar position.
  • Branch B' is a minor subgroup, displaying (in addition to a more recent devoicing tendency) some difference in treatment of certain consonants that may hint an erly split.
• Branch C resembles B in fortition of spirants and affrication of /t d/, but retains uvulars and most original stops. The old alveolar sibilants /s z/ become interdental. New /s/ is derived from /ʃ/ and /ʂ/, in modern-day languages also from the various affricate series.