Play substratum languages

This family could be called Paleo-Pabappa but I may want to repurpose that name since Pabappa is so far in the future from when this family dies out that it may imply a connection that is actually not there.

The Play substratum languages are a branch of the Lenian languages, also known as the Dreamlandic languages, spoken by people who sailed in the opposite direction and ended up with a smaller but more bountiful piece of land to live on as compared to the Dreamers who won control of a large span of land that had abundant seacoast and good fishing but was mostly too dry for agriculture.

It is possible that the "PDP" languages will be added somewhere in here, as their sound changes are no longer appropriate for their location in Dreamland now that the history of Dreamlandic has been shifted back 800 years. PDP could even be the new Thaoa.

They can be called the Pàndu languages, but this is simply a mnemonic term of convenience that happens to begin with the same letter as Play and Pabappa. The native cognate of this name is fianku and neither this name nor their full name begins with or contains the letter p.

Early evolution

Shape of the proto-language

The phonology could be analyzed as

                       CONSONANTS                 VOWELS

Rounded bilabials:     pʷ  mʷ      w              a i u ə
Plain bilabials:       p   m   f  (Ø)             a i u              
Spread bilabials:      pʲ  mʲ  fʲ  y              a i   ə
Alveolars:             t   n   s   l   r          a i u               (/ta ci cu/)
Postalveolars:         č   ň   š  *l  *r          a i   ə             (/ča či čə/)
(Palatals:             ć   ń   ś    )             a i   ə
Velars:                k   ŋ   h                  a i u
Labiovelars:           kʷ  ŋʷ  hʷ                 a i u ə

Though it is possible that PSL had followed Nuclear Dreamlandic in shifting the schwa vowel /ə/ to merge with /a/. The list up above showing it occurring after labialized consonants is probably a mistake, and in fact it only occurs after palatalized consonants. (If it is not a mistake, it is talking about the extremely rare /ʷe/ of the proto-language.)

A minimal phonology, and the one used by the Dreamers in their script, is

p  m  f
t  n  s
k  ŋ  h
r  Ø  l

a  i  u

Possible paths

Contact with Andanese

The PSL speakers lived with the Andanese people, who were a minority except in the far west where they became a majority early on. (Though these people were descended mostly from aboriginals who adopted an early branch of the Andanese language family.) The Andanic languages at this time were Lava Bed languages and thus quite difficult to learn; it may be that few PSL speakers ever learned to speak any Andanic languages and that influence in both directions was minimal.

Proto-PSL (500 AD) to Shining Wave (1900 AD)

This is the dialect of the capital city. It is monolithic and with little dialectal variation for at least the first 1,400 years of its existence because the central government is very strong. After 1,400 years, the central government is the first to switch to speaking Gold, thereby freeing the outlying areas to develop dialects. But most of these areas soon also switch to Gold and therefore the language becomes the substratum of the developing Play language.

1. The voiceless non-sibilant fricatives f fʲ h hʷ shifted to Ø Ø Ø w.
2. The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ shifted to p m.
3. Before any of /a ə u/, the sequences ky ŋy ly shifted to ṭ ṇ ḷ. (That is, every vowel but /i/.) It also happened, even before /i/, when an [u] (including /au/) preceded.

   NOTE that the shift is given differently in Slime Forest for the sake of convenience; Slime Forest had dentals too, but they unconditionally shifted later on to alveolars whereas in this language there was a conditional shift.

4. The prenasals mp nt ŋk (including coarticulated forms) shifted to mb nd ŋġ.
5. When padded in both directions by at least two voiced sounds, the singleton voiceless stop p shifted to b. This probably also covers situations like /mupa/ > /muba/.
6. When padded in both directions by at least two voiced sounds, the singleton voiceless stop k shifted to ġ.

   Note that these shifts occurred separately and may have had slightly different conditions.

7. When padded in both directions by at least two voiced sounds, the singleton voiceless stops t ṭ shifted to d ḍ. (Unless /ṭ/ is behaving as /tt/.)
8. Prenasals in absolute word-initial position wore down to plain voiced stops.
9. All geminate stops (but not nasals) became singletons.

   NOTE ON POLITICS: It is possible that the family splits here.

10. The dentals ṇ ḍ ḷ shifted to m b b when not facing another labial. (True labials, not labiovelars.)
11. The sequences kw ŋw ġw pw mw bw w shifted to p m b p m b Ø.
12. The sequences kyi ŋyi ġyi shifted to tyi nyi dyi, too.
13. Before any "hard" consonant, the syllables pu bu mu shifted to t t n, which assimilated to the following consonant.
14. The affricates c cc merged as ss, which in initial position or after a closed syllable shifted to s.
15. The affricates č čč merged into šš, patterning as above.
16. λ > y.
17. ə > u.
18. ṭ ṇ ḍ ḷ > t n d l.

At this point, reached around 1900 AD, AlphaLeap invaded and introduced the Gold language, which began to drive out Shining Wave since Gold was the language of the sea.

All syllables could end in a vowel, /t/, or /n/, and that vowel could be long even if there was a coda. Therefore a syllabary was no longer of great use in writing the language, but nonetheless the syllable inventory could be presented as

 a    i    u     
pa   pi   pu
ma   mi   mu
ba   bi   bu
ta   ti   tu             
na   ni   nu            
da   zi   zu           
sa   si   su            
la   li   lu                 
ra   ri   ru            
ča   či   ču
n̆a   n̆i   n̆u
ǯa   ǯi   ǯu
ša   ši   šu
ya   yi   yu
řa   ři   řu
ka   ki   ku         
ŋa   ŋi   ŋu          
ġa   ġi   ġu

Proto-PSL (500 AD) to Slime Forest (~2500)

This is the replacement language for Thaoa. There will be one standard language and a crop of dialects spoken further north and east. The maturation date here is a guess based on the fact that this list was originally about the same length as one that ended around 2500 AD.

1. The voiceless non-sibilant fricatives f fʲ h hʷ shifted to Ø Ø Ø w.
2. The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ shifted to p m.
3. Before any of /a ə u/, the sequences ky ŋy ly shifted to t n l. (That is, every vowel but /i/.) It also happened, even before /i/, when an [u] (including /au/) preceded.
4. Any remaining ky ŋy ly then shifted to č n̆ l.
5. cu > tu.
6. kw ŋw w > p m Ø .
7. ř š > l r s.
8. ku ŋu > Ø (or maybe /t n/), but sometimes turns the following consonant into a dorsal.

   a    i    u    ɜ
  pa   pi   pu   pɜ
  ma   mi   mu   mɜ
  ta   ti   tu   tɜ
  na   ni   nu   nɜ
  sa   si   su   sɜ
  la   li   lu   lɜ
  ra   ri   ru   rɜ
  ča   či   ču   čɜ
  n̆a   n̆i   n̆u   n̆ɜ
  ka   ki   ku   kɜ
  ŋa   ŋi   ŋu   ŋɜ

Proto-PSL (633 AD) to Proto-Western PSL

This branch is more diverse than the others, fracturing early. It can be compared to Slavic languages if Capital PSL is Russian and Eastern PSL is Siberian.