Lenian languages

The Lenian languages are a polyphyletic cultural grouping of related languages that descend from Tapilula but exclude branches that acquired divergent characteristics. Included branches are:

1. Hipatal, including all of

   Fojy and its children:

   Western Fojy

   Central Fojy

   Dreamlandic and its children

   North Dreamlandic

   South Dreamlandic (sometimes "East")

   HP-1

   HP-2

2. Subumpamese languages, including all of

   Kava

   Central Subumpamese

   Eastern Subumpamese

3. Paleo-Pabappa, and its children

   Paleo-Pabappa A (Punsam)

   Paleo-Pabappa B (Pombi)

   Paleo-Pabappa C (Pipapi)

   Paleo-Pabappa D (Northern Mountains Dialect)

4. Olati, culturally Western Subumpamese but genetically Andanese, and its children

   Olati A

   Olati B

   Olati C

   Olati D

By contrast, the Lenian languages exclude Thaoa, Tarise, and Gold, even though these three branches descend from Tapilula and Tapilula is the most recent common ancestor of all the Lenian languages. Since Pabappa and Poswa are Gold languages, they are not Lenian languages despite their culture and geographical spread.

Linguistic characteristics

The Lenian languages retain the classifier prefixes of Tapilula and have generally simple rules of grammar. Even the most complex nominal morphology is simpler than that of Pabappa. Verbal morphology is highly variable; some languages are extremely simple, while others retain much of the early Tapilula system, which is, nevertheless, fairly simple by comparison to that of Gold and the Tarise-Thaoa supergroup.