Proto-Cardial
Proto-Huamish is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Huamish languages. It is estimated to have been spoken around 5.500 BC.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Sibilants | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | |||||||
| Stops and affricates |
"Emphatic" | *pʰ | *tʰ | *(tʃ) | *(tʃ) | *kʰ | ||
| Fortis | *p | *t | *ts | *(tʃ) | *k | |||
| Lenis | *b | *d | *dz | *(tʃ) | *g | |||
| Fricatives | Fortis | *f | *s | *(ʃ) | *x | *h | ||
| Lenis | *z | *(ʃ) | ||||||
| Nasals | *m | *n | ||||||
| Laterals | Fortis | *ɫ | ||||||
| Lenis | *l | |||||||
| Rhotics | Fortis | *r | ||||||
| Lenis | *ɾ | |||||||
| Semivowels | *w | *j | ||||||
Emphatic Stops
The exact quality of "emphatic stops" is difficult to determine. For a time it was proposed to give ejective values, the comparison of cognates with Kartvelian and Tommian show correspondences affirmatives. Apparently the Macro-Kartvelian ejectives would be conserved like the "emphatic stops" that reconstructed for Proto-Huamish.
In the descendant languages there are no remains of "emphatic", but they show different reflexes depending on the language.
Originally voiceless and voiced stops merged into voiced stops, so that voiceless stops are a later development to avoid the loss of the final consonants after the vowel readjustment.
The matter of "ʃ" and "tʃ"
It seems that the readjustment of vowels caused the sibilants to palatizate in final position so as not to get lost and these words acquired a diminutive sense. The words that did not adopt a diminutive meaning, reversed the change becoming * z < *ʃ and * ts < *tʃ.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *i | *u | |
| Mid | *e | *ə | *o |
| Low | *a |
The middle vowel reflexes
The *ə phoneme is marginal and seems to be the cause of vowel readjustment. In the different groups it has the following reflexes:
| IPA | North-West | North-Central | Central-West | Central-Central | Central-East | South-Central | South-east |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *ə | *o > *u | *e | *u | *e > *∅ | *e | *u | *a |
Morphology
Noun and adjective declension
| Case | Singular | Plural | Indefinite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | *-(a) | *-n(a) | *-r(a) |
| Vocative | *-fo | *-no | *-ro |
| Ergative | *-m(a) | *-tʰ(a) | *-pəm(a) |
| Dative-Genitive | *-z(a) | *-pədz(a) | *-xəz(a) |
| Instrumental | *-ts(a) | *-pəts(a) | *-xəts(a) |
| Locative | *-x(a) | *-pəx(a) | *-xə |
| Adverbial | *-t(a) | *-pət(a) | *-xət(a) |
| Invertive | *-u(a) | *-bu(a) | *-xu(a) |
The *(a) can be eliminated for convenience
Honorific declension
Numerals
| Cardinal | Ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | *ərtʰu | *pʰiru |
| 2 | *ju | *juru |
| 3 | *sum | *sumuru |
| 4 | *ja | *jaru |
| 5 | *hustʰu | *hustʰuru |
| 6 | *sam | *samru |
| 7 | *samtʰu | *samtʰuru |
| 8 | *jo | *joru |
| 9 | *tʰusa | *tʰusaru |
| 10 | *hastʰu | *hastʰuru |
| 100 | *əz | *əzuru |
Clearly can see the lack of numerals that are not developed from others, and at a glance can reconstruct values for a previous system. It is as if the first speakers had arrived in the peninsula with a poor number system and developed a larger one later (See below: Bastuli System).
Bastuli system
| Numerals | Development in Proto-Huamish | |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 (half) | *hwərtʰu | *tʰu has the meaning of 1, *hw-ər (meaning: "Half of"); Conserved in *ərtʰu literally "of one" |
| 1 | *pʰi | It is preserved as "first" |
| 2 | *ju | Will form a apophonic dual for 4 and this in turn another for 8 |
| 3 | *sum | Will form a apophonic dual for 6 and this in turn another for 12 |
| 4 | *hus | Preserved as *hus-tʰu (4+1=5) that will form a apophonic dual for 10 and this in turn another for 20 |
| 5 | *iz | Will form an apophonic plural, only preserved in *əz as 100 |
| 10 | *sa | Preserved only in 9 as *tʰu-sa (1-10) |
The ancient numeral system is predictable because it is present in Bastuli (South-east), perhaps it was separated before the group, which forms the numbers in a different way. Three options are speculated:
1. The Bastuli system gave rise to the Proto-Huamish system.
2. The Bastuli system is an archaism that is preserved while the other languages developed a later system together.
3. Both numerical systems coexisted together and only one is preserved in bastuli
The most likely hypothesis is the 2.
Verbs
The structure of the polysynthetic verb is:
| (Negation | Adverb) | - | Subject | VERB STEM | Tense | Object | - | (Subject | Case) |
the parts of the verb after the hyphens and between parenthesis can be eliminated and exchanged, the VERB STEM and its complements must always be obligatory.
Pronouns
The following pronouns can be reconstructed as suffixes for the verbs, as much as objects as subjects.
Personal pronouns
Only has two persons, the rest are named as a demonstrative pronoun according to the distance of the subject or object.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Exclusive | *me | *tsi |
| Inclusive | *na | ||
| 2nd person | Familiar | *zi | *zin |
| Polite | *si | *tʰi | |
A differentiation is presupposed as "polite" and "familiar" for Proto-Huamish, but no descendant language shows this differentiation although depending on the group loses one of these two pronouns. Know the value of the ancient "polite" and "familiar", because the daughter languages that have conserved the second person as "polite", also conserve an honorific declension.
Demonstrative pronouns
Some linguists include them in the system of personal pronouns, but to avoid an uncomfortable system of five grammatical persons, they separate. They also show the declination characteristics for an indefinite number, used as an interrogative.
| Singular | Plural | Indefinite/Interrogative | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Person" | "It" | *he | *hen | *ma |
| "Thing" | "This" | *hi | *hin | *su |
| "That" | *xa | *xan | *sa | |
What is referred to as "person" or "thing" is no more than an adaptation to the English language this differentiation only exists in Proto-huamish for the interrogatives as "Who" (Person) and "What" (Thing).
