Proto-Phwaim

Proto-Phwaim is a fictional language by Polka Dot. Proto-Phwaim is the reconstructed ancestor of the Phim-Hwan languages, a family spoken for the most part in the central region of Phwaim. It is estimated to have been spoken around 10.000 HW.

Phonology

Symbols in the transcription scheme used below can be taken as having their IPA value except when noted otherwise however, as usual with protolanguages, the exact phonetic values of these sounds are uncertain.

Consonants

The reconstructed consonant phoneme inventory of Proto-Phwaim, with 37 consonants, is shown in the table below:

Proto-Phwaim Consonantal Phonemes

		Bilabial	Dental, Alveolar		Postalveolar	Palatal(ized)	Velar	Uvular
			Central	Lateral
Nasals		*m [m]	*n [n]			*ń [nʲ ~ ɲ]	*ŋ [ŋ]
Stops	Aspirated	*ph [pʰ]	*th [tʰ]				*kh [kʰ]
	Voiceless	*p [p]	*t [t]				*k [k]
	Voiced	*b [b]	*d [d]				*g [g]
Affricates	Aspirated				*čh [t͡ʃʰ]	*ćh [t͡sʲʰ ~ t͡ɕʰ]
	Voiceless				*č [t͡ʃ]	*ć [t͡sʲ ~ t͡ɕ]
	Voiced				*ǧ [d͡ʒ]	*ǵ [d͡zʲ ~ d͡ʑ]
Fricatives	Voiceless		*s [s]	*ṣ [ɬ]	*š [ʃ]			*x[χ]
	Palatalized		*s' [sʲ]	*ṣ' [ɬʲ]	*š' [ʃʲ]			*x'[χʲ]
	Voiced		*z [z]	*ẓ [ɮ]	*ž [ʒ]			*ḥ[ʁ]
Semivowels		*v [w]				*y [j]
Trill			*r [r]			*r' [rʲ]
Lateral				*l [l]		*l' [lʲ ~ ʎ]

In the consonant system, palatalization, or palatal-laminal instead of apical articulation, was a phonemic feature, as it is in many modern Phim-Hwan languages.

Vowels

The Proto-Phwaim vowel system is traditionally reconstructed to have the following 10 vowel phonemes, contrasting two degrees of length, as shown in the table below:

		Front		Back
		unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	Short	i [i]	ü [y]	ï [ɯ]	u [u]
	Long	ii [iː]	üü [yː]	ïï [ɯː]	uu [uː]
Close-mid	Short	e [e]	ö [ø]	ë [ɤ]	o [o]
	Long	ee [eː]	öö [øː]	ëë [ɤː]	oo [oː]
Open	Short	ä [æ]		a [ɑ]
	Long	ää [æː]		aa [ɑː]

Syllable and root structure

A notable distributional feature was that *ŋ, *x, *x', *ḥ, *ṣ, *ṣ', *ẓ, *r and *r' could not occur word-initially. The nucleus is the only obligatory segment of the Proto-Phwaim syllable. The maximum syllable structure can be summarized as (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C).

The onset can be any single consonant or a cluster consisting of a sibilant followed by an obstruent or a nasal (SO or SN), a sibilant followed by a plosive and an approximant (SPA), or a obstruent or nasal followed by an approximant (OA or NA).

The coda can be any single consonant or a cluster consisting of an approximant followed by any consonant (AC), an approximant followed by a sibilant and a plosive (ASP), a fricative followed by a plosive or a sibilant (FP or FS), a nasal followed by a plosive or sibilant (NP or NS), or a plosive followed by an obstruent (PO).

A cluster formed by a coda and an onset coming into contact in a word-medial syllable had to conform to any of the patterns given above or one of the following, a cluster consisting of a resonant or a fricative followed by a sibilant and a obstruent or a nasal ( (R or F)S(N or O) ), a fricative or nasal followed by a plosive and an approximant (FPA or NPA), a plosive or approximant followed by an obstruent and a an approximant (POA or AOA), or an approximant followed by a nasal and an approximant (ANA).

Restricting the preceding, it appears that clusters were impermissible in word-final position and that vowels in hiatus were impermissible, and any hiatuses were broken by the insertion of a *y between the vowels.

Roots generally had the form (C)(C)V(C)(C)CV, with initial stress. A couple longer stems of the shape (C)(C)V(C)(C)CVC(V) are also attested. Shorter CV roots occurred in grammatical words such as pronouns, prepositions and the copula.

Phonological processes and Prosody

As Proto-Phwaim is a reconstructed language, it is probably impossible to discover detailed information about the language's allophonic processes. The Hwan family of languages seem to have exhibited a pitch-accent system, the Phim family of languages have a strong stress accent while isolates within Proto-Phwaim tend to be tonal.

The accentual system of Proto-Phwaim leads to many questions and the answers to them has been the subject of heated debate among linguists over the centuries. The most accepted theory is that Proto-Phwaim was a pitch accent or tone language and that at least the first and probably every syllable could have a high or a low pitch. However another commonly accepted theory is that Proto-Phwaim did not have tones, and that neither was there contrastive stress but that the first syllable was invariably stressed.