Proto-Centropic
Proto-Tommian is the (intrafictionally) reconstruced common ancestor of the Tommian language family constructed by Jörg Rhiemeier.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Sibilants | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Mid | Back | |||||||
| Stops and affricates |
Voiceless | *p | *t | *c | *ć | *č | *k | ||
| "Emphatic" | *p' | *t' | *c' | *ć' | *č' | *k' | |||
| Voiced | *b | *d | *dz | *dź | *dž | *g | |||
| Fricatives | Voiceless | *s | *ś | *š | *h | ||||
| Voiced | *z | *ź | *ž | ||||||
| Nasals | *m | *n | |||||||
| Laterals | *l | ||||||||
| Rhotics | *r | ||||||||
| Semivowels | *w | *j | |||||||
The exact quality of the "emphatic" stops is hard to ascertain. Ejective is a good guess, as the corresponding Kartvelian phonemes are ejective, too; yet, no extant Tommian language has ejectives. In both Midori and Kreluri, they have merged with the voiceless stops; in the Nonian languages, their reflexes vary, while in Trypillian they are pharyngealized.
Consonant clusters
In a syllable onset, a stop or affricate may be followed by a liquid (*l, *r). Any consonant except a labial may be followed by *w (possibly, these were labialized consonants rather than clusters). A stop/affricate+liquid cluster may also be followed by *w.
In a syllable coda, no clusters may appear.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *i | *u | |
| Mid | *e | *o | |
| Low | *a |
The position of the vowel *o is marginal. It occurs only in very few words, though some of these are quite common. None of these words appears to have a Kartvelian cognate; most of them are similar to some Eteonoric words. Hence, it is believed that these words were borrowed from a (Mesolithic?) language related to Eteonoric, or both families borrowed them from an unknown third source.
