Babakiam/Sound changes

Gold to Papies (3100)

Alternate names: Pre-Proto-Pabappa; Pre-Pabappa; Pabappic Gold

Gold was the language spoken in the city of Beni-Iubaia (earlier Iūni-Iubāia) around 1900 AD. It evolved into a language called Papies within about 1000 years, and then further into Babakiam by 4100 AD.

Starting phonology: Cosnonants:

/p b m w t d n s z l č ǯ j k ġ ŋ h g ḳ ʕ/

The permissible final consonants are /k ḳ l n s ʕ/. Syllabic consonants /ṁ ṅ ŋ̇/ do, however, exist.

Any consonant other than /w/ can be labialized, but only in a syllable onset, meaning that they can be analyzed as clusters of consonant + /w/. However, this setup ignores the influence of the labialized conosnants tʷ dʷ nʷ, which are much more common than other labialized consonants, and evolve distinctly from them in all branches of the Gold family.

Note that all voiceless stops here are spelled the same regardless of whether they were aspirated or not. This is because Babakiam later merges all aspirated voiceless stops with their plain voiceless counterparts unconditionally, with there being no difference in outcome even in conditional environments such as after a closed syllable. The changes relating to aspiration are mentioned here only for the purpose of deriving loanwords from Babakiam into Khulls and other languages.

1. Sequences like /ʕaʕ/, /ʕiʕ/, etc. lost the first /ʕ/ regardless of whether it was in the same syllable or not. (Possibly move this back even into Gold.)
2. At this time, syllable-final /s/ was pronounced [h], as in Khulls. This allophone is actually a retention of the original pronunciation rather than an allophone. Now, this aspiration spread across a following voiceless stop, causing it to become aspirated. Note that since Babakiam later merges aspiration anyway, this change had no effect except for causing a small number of loanwords to appear in other languages with unexpected aspiration.
3. At the end of a syllable, /ʕ/ disappeared and changed the previous vowel to a high tone. It also voiced the following consonant. No new consonants arose from this change, but some voiced ones now became less restricted in their distribution.
4. The bilabial approximant w changed to ʕʷ (in internal reconstructions, also spelled "v") before a vowel. Note that words like "kua" were still /kua/ rather than /kwa/ and thus did not undergo this change.
5. Then l lʷ both became w (not ʕʷ) in all positions although it retained a rhotic allophone. /lʷ/ was very rare, occurring only from word-initial collapse of an earlier /ul-/ sequence.
6. The labialized consonants tʷ dʷ nʷ also took on this same rhotic allophone, unlike all other labialized consonants. Thus they became clusters tʕʷ dʕʷ nʕʷ, which can also be spelled "tv dv nv".
7. The rare labialized consonants kʷ ġʷ became p b unconditionally (not to be confused with the very similar shift below, which operated after a new wave of labialization!
8. Sequences of two vowels in which the first vowel was i or u became rising diphthongs. Then all clusters of a consonant followed by a semivowel came to be pronounced as coarticulated single consonants. Thus bua became bʷa, bia became bʲa, and so on. ñ was assimilated as nʲ.
9. The voiced labialized stops bʷ dʷ ǯʷ ġʷ changed to b between vowels.
10. The voiced palatalized stops bʲ dʲ ǯʲ ġʲ changed to ǯ between vowels.
11. The voiced stops b d ǯ ġ (including ones created by the previous two rules) changed to β ð ž g between vowels.
12. The voiced aspirated stops bʰ dʰ ǯʰ ġʰ (structurually [h] + consonant, plus sandhi) changed to f þ š x between vowels. <---Experimental change, requires replacing some roots
13. The clusters gj jg (where [j] is an allophone of /i/) changed to jj unconditionally. This new cluster sometimes became resyllabified into /ī/, but usually did not. (Because these clusters by definition could only occur between two vowels, the new /jj/ cluster was treated like an ordinary consonant cluster. However, /gj/ and /jg/ had sometimes occurred at word boundaries.)
14. The voiced fricatives ð z g became silent between vowels and occasionally in initial position (due to compounding). gʷ > w. Clusters like gj and jg (in baiga "temple") would change to a doubled /j/ instead of just a normal /j/. Thus doubled /j/ and /w/ were created.
15. βʷ changed to w.
16. žʲ became ž.
17. All aspirated consonants (except nasals) became voiceless, and the aspiration disappeared.

NOTE ON POLITICS

This time period is 3138 AD, the beginning of the "Era of Happiness". The branches of the language that fork off from mainline Bābākiam in 3138 all die out, and therefore all of their names in the history are written in Babakiam, but they could be revived as minor local languages, and there would be quite a lot of them.

Thus the language now had the consonants p b m f v w β t d n s z ð č ǯ š ž j k g h ɣ r and the vowels a i u ā ī ū e, the last of which was a schwa. Of the consonants, all but w β ð č ǯ š ž j could be palatalized or labialized. In final position, p m s w j could occur, although p m were pronounced as glottals. This language was spoken on Fox Island, although the people were beginning to be pushed out by others. Some left and founded what became Bābā, others stayed on the southern tip of the island.

Papies (3100) to Bābākiam (4100)

Alternate names: Proto-Pabappa; Pabappa (in historical texts)

1.   The cluster ps changed to ts, thus merging with frontalized k. pš became č.
2.   A nasal in a cluster following p or s disappeared.
3.   The glottal stop ʔ disappeared in all positions. (But not ʕ or ʢ or ĥ.)
4.   The voiced fricatives β v z ž ɣ changed to b b d ǯ g before a high tone.
5.   A voiced sound in a cluster following p or s changed to ɣ. (appears in many verb forms)
6.   The post-velar fricative consonants ħ ʕ changed to f β. Note that this was the (rare) "true" /h/, not the common {h} which is /x/.
7.   The clusters pɣ sɣ changed to the ejectives ṕ ś, but this shift did not affect the labialized or palatalized versions. (These are the same consonants that became clicks in some Kxel languages.) Note: really this should not just be /p/ and /s/, but really all voiceless sounds. What happened to sequences like mk or pk?
8.   The velar fricatives h ɣ were fronted to š ž unconditionally. šʲ žʲ became š ž.
9.   The voiced stops bʷ dʷ ǯʷ gʷ changed to b.
10.   The voiced stops bʲ dʲ ǯʲ gʲ changed to ǯ.
11.   The voiced stops b d ǯ g changed to p t č k (except when in clusters).
12.   The voiced fricative ð changed to β. (ð had been revived due to loanwords.)
13.   The voiced fricatives v vʷ zʷ žʷ changed to β.
14.   The voiced fricatives vʲ zʲ žʲ changed to ž.
15.   βʷ changed to w.
16.   žʲ became ž.
17.   Tones were eliminated. However the stress accent (nouns on the penultimate syllable, verbs on the ultimate) remained and became regularized.
18.   The voiced stops d ǯ g changed to n nʲ ŋ unconditionally.
19.   The cluster pb became pp.
20.   β changed to b.
21.   z changed to s.
22.   The ejectives ṕ ś became plain.
23.   The postalveolar affricate č was softened to š unconditionally.
24.   Newly created vowel sequences beginning with i or u collapsed into rising diphthongs, thus creating a new series of palatalized and labialized consonants.
25.   The labialized consonants bʷ žʷ changed to b unconditionally.
26.   The palatalized consonants bʲ žʲ changed to ž unconditionally.
27.   The stress was shifted to the first syllable in all words. Thus the language had the consonants p m f b w t n s k ŋ š ž j and the vowels a i u ə, the last of which was a schwa. Of the consonants, all except b w ž j could be followed by a semivowel w or j, when occurring at the beginning of a syllable. At the end of a syllable, only p m w s j could occur. This stage of the language is referred to as Bābākiam, "city language".  Spoken around the year 4100, not only in the city of Bābā but a significant amount of territory away from it in all directions.