Hipatal
Hipatal is the name of the ocean covering the majority of the planet Teppala, and containing few islands. Those islands that do exist are volcanic, and have a range of diverse populations. Most inhabitants are descendants of the Mumba people who migrated eastward from Laba to Fojy, a journey of more than 10000 miles, and settled various tropical islands along the way. They are thus blonde and blue-eyed, like other Lenians, despite living near the Equator. They are the ancestors of the Dreamers, and all Dreamlandic languages are in fact an early-branching variety of HP-2.
Most settlements are in the tropics; there is no significant monsoon, so rainfall is concentrated along the Equator, and even at 10°N and °S the weather is dry for most of the year and forest growth is impossible.
There are no sprachbunds; each language grows and develops independently.
The Proto-Hipatal language is nearly identical with Tapilula and can be considered a dialect of Tapilula. Its original consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ bʷ mʷ mbʷ mpʷ w Spread bilabials: p b m mb mp (Ø) Alveolars: t n nd l Rounded alveolars: tʷ nʷ ndʷ Velars: k ḳ ŋ ŋġ h g
Here, the consonants /b bʷ/ correspond to standard Tapilula pharngralized voiceless stops, and /mp mpʷ/ correspond to standard /mf mfʷ/. The prenasalized stops can be eliminated from the phonology if they are considered as clusters; however, the analysis would need to be different for different stops.
The vowel inventory was /a e i o u ə/. The schwa vowel here is a high vowel, not a true schwa. Only four of the vowels can follow a labialized consonant: /ʷe ʷi ʷo ʷu/, with /ʷo ʷu/ being most common.
Proto-Hipatal (0) to HP-1 (~1500 AD)
This is a group set up for the blonde Lenian settlers of the large islands who left early on and were mostly swallowed up by an invasion of more powerful Lenians around 2600 AD. The existence of HP-4 proves that HP-1 must exist. However, unlike the superficial resemblance between HP-3 and the Sun language, there need not be any resemblance between HP-1 and the Rain languages.
The original consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ bʷ mʷ mbʷ mpʷ w Spread bilabials: p b m mb mp (Ø) Alveolars: t n nd l Rounded alveolars: tʷ nʷ ndʷ Velars: k ḳ ŋ ŋġ h g
- The high central vowel ə shifted to match the next vowel in the word. This also included the labialization of the initial consonant; thus, for example, /təpʷu/ > /tʷupʷu/.
- The voiceless aspirated velar stop k shifted to h unconditionally. Ejectives and labialized forms were unaffected by this change.
- The labialized consonants lʷ gʷ shifted to w .
- The labialized alveolars tʷ nʷ ndʷ shifted to kʷ m m̄.
- The nasals mʷ ŋʷ shifted to m.
- There may be a small vowel pushchain before this happens, perhaps /u/ > /ə/ > /i/.
- The voiceless velar ejective ḳ shifted to k unconditionally.
- The voiced prenasalized sequences mb nd ŋġ shifted to geminate nasals, spelled m̄ n̄ ŋ̄. The voiceless prenasal /mp/ came to be spelled p̄.
- Any remaining schwa shifted to i.
- The voiced velar fricative g disappeared to Ø.
The consonant inventory at this time was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ p̄ʷ bʷ w Spread bilabials: p m m̄ p̄ b Alveolars: t n n̄ l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ ŋ̄ h Labiovelars: kʷ
And there were probably five or six vowels.
The sound spelled /p̄/ may have already become a voiced bilabial stop by this time, but it contrasted phonemically with /b/, which may thus have been an approximant as in many other languages of the family. It is also possible that /p̄/ maintained some tone-dragging effect on the previous vowel, as it had when it had been a proper /mp/ cluster.
HP-1 (~1500 AD) to Blowup Raft
- Any vowel before a syllable beginning in one of p̄ʷ p̄ k m̄ n̄ ŋ̄ h bʷ l p took on a new "tense" tone, regardless of the tone of the following syllable.
- The sequence hy shifted to s.
- The nasals m̄ n̄ ŋ̄ shifted to m n ŋ.
- The voiceless velar fricatives h hʷ shifted to Ø w.
- The voiceless stops p k shifted to pʷ kʷ.
- The logic behind this is that the plain /k/ evolved from the earlier velar ejective, which could thus have remained more tense than the labialized form. But /p/ only follows because it needs a mate.
- The laterals l ly shifted to y.
- The fricative s shifted to Ø.
- The tense labials p̄ʷ p̄ shifted to bʷ b.
- The voiceless labialized stops pʷ kʷ shifted to plain stops p k.
- The voiced labialized sounds bʷ w shifted to b.
Bilabials: p b m Alveolars: t n Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ
It's unclear whether labialization is stable given that the five-vowel inventory is retained from the parent language. Thus, /bʷ w/ mostly occur after /o/ and /u/, while /b m/ mostly occur after /a e i/ with reduced presence after /o u/. Originally /pʷ/ was retained as a separate consonant as well.
The alveolar stop /t/ might split into /p/ and /k/, or /k/ could split into /t/ and /p/. But the former would be preferable because /k/ is reinforced whereas /t/ was not.
HP-1 (~1500 AD) to Mountains High
There may also be a palatalized series arising from /ig/ > /i/.
- Any vowel before a syllable beginning in one of /m̄ n̄ ŋ̄ p̄ k b l h/ (and possibly /kʷ/) took on a new "tense" tone, regardless of the tone of the following syllable.
- The voiceless labiovelar stop kʷ shifted to p.
- The nasals m̄ n̄ ŋ̄ shifted to m n ŋ unconditionally.
- The tense bilabial stop p̄ shifted to b unconditionally.
- The voiceless velar stop k shifted to t.
- The labial approximant w shifted to b.
- The lateral approximant l shifted to y.
- The voiceless velar fricative h disappeared to Ø.
Thus the consonant inventory was
Labials: p b m Alveolars: t n Palatals: y Velars: ŋ
Allophony is very strong. The alveolar stop /t/ is [č] before a front vowel and for at least some speakers, also [k] before some back vowels.
The language has four possible tone patterns for each word, as each of the two inherited tones split depending on the initial consonant of the tonic syllable. This new sandhi effect is expressed on the previous syllable, meaning that there are now two tonic syllables in many words. The speakers write these four tone patterns using the inherited two tone system, using, when necessary, two high tone marks on some words. These are not pronounced as a surface-level HH tone, but rather as a high falling tone that spreads over two syllables, which still has a different prosody from the HL sequence. HH, HL, LH, and LL all contrast, though the latter two can be thought of as simply H and L.
It is possible that the tone contrast soon collapses to a traditional three-way distinction with contrasts only on one syllable per word, or possibly to four tones on one syllable per word.
It is possible that there are more consonants ... the extremely simple inventory of just /p b m t n y ŋ/ is correct only if there were no hiatus-based conditional shifts mixed in with the unconditionals.
Hiatus happened twice .... once in the protolanguage with /g/ > /Ø/, and at the very last step here with /h/ > /Ø/. Thus it may be that the /h/ hiatus stays, but the /g/ shift would generate new consonants ... and probably new tones ... that will be mixed in with the unconditional shifts that just work on VCV. On the other hand, the /h/ > Ø shift is *dependent* on there being hiatus in the language left over from before, so if this second shift still happens, /h/ might be a weak consonant all along and not participate in the tonogenesis.
HP-1 (~1500 AD) to Ice Cream Truck
There may also be a palatalized series arising from /ig/ > /i/.
- Any vowel before a syllable beginning in one of /m̄ n̄ ŋ̄ p̄ k b l/ (and possibly /kʷ/) took on a new "tense" tone, regardless of the tone of the following syllable.
- The voiceless labiovelar stop kʷ shifted to p.
- The nasals m̄ n̄ ŋ̄ shifted to m n ŋ unconditionally.
- The tense bilabial stop p̄ shifted to b unconditionally.
- The voiceless velar stop k shifted to t.
- The labial approximant w shifted to b.
- The lateral approximant l shifted to y.
- A whole series of new consonants emerged from hiatus:
- Before a vowel, the sequences pi bi mi ti ni ŋi shifted to pʲ bʲ mʲ č ň ň and changed the tone of the following vowel to LH or LL (probably á & â).
- Before a vowel, the sequences pu bu mu tu nu ŋu shifted to pʷ bʷ mʷ kʷ ŋʷ ŋʷ and changed the tone of the following vowel to LH or LL (probably á & â).
- The vowel sequences aa ae ai ao au (if they still occurred), if the initial segment was accented, shifted to ā ē ē ō ō.
- The voiceless velar fricative h disappeared to Ø.
Grammar
HP-1 and HP-3 may have had gendered consonant insertion to break up hiatus in verbs, and possibly also nouns (i.e. a verb /yà/ becomes /pìpʷo/ when used with the epicene (/pʷ/) gender). Also, verbs may take a dislocated gendered suffix, such as -pʷ-o for verbs ending in /a/, due to analogy with compressed sequences like /aa/ > /a/. But note that these are two separate events; /aa/ > /a/ was very early in the parent language, thousands of years before the creation of the new hiatus sequences. A similar analogy happened in Dreamlandic, but not in the Gold branch. This could give rise to inherently gendered verbs both for humans and for animals.
Culture
The Lenians are most likely to be concentrated southward of the dark-skinned HP-3 tribes, nearer the Equator and to some extent even south of it. This kept them from reaching the mainland.
On the other hand, it is likely that the HP-1 Lenians were the first migration, preceding the dark-skinned HP-3 group by at least a few generations, and that the dark-skinned groups then settled on the islands where HP-1 people already lived. HP-2 would have set out at about the same time as HP-1, being mostly of the lowest economic status until they reach Dreamland and the situation inverts. Then, finally HP-4 sets out and settles mostly in HP-3 territory.
Proto-Hipatal (0) to proto-HP-2 (800)
- See Dreamlandic languages and Lenian languages for the most prominent members of this family.
Culturally, this branch of the family is confined to smaller islands where the sea can be heard from any point on the island. Genetically, however, it also includes the Dreamlandic languages spoken on the mainland.
This family began branching very early, with its initial phonology generated by the following sound shifts:
- Before a low tone, the fricatives h g were fortified to kʷ ḳʷ. Before a high tone, they disappeared. Thus the language became entirely free of fricatives.
- Before a low tone, the lateral approximant l shifted to r.
At this stage the consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ mʷ w Spread bilabials: p m b Alveolars: t n l r Rounded alveolars: tʷ nʷ Velars: k ḳ ŋ (Ø) Labiovelars: kʷ ḳʷ
There were six vowels, /a e i o u ə/, of which the last was a high vowel, not a true schwa. There were two tones. After a low tone, the stops were sometimes pronounced as fricatives in quick speech, but there was no phonemic contrast. The prenasalized stops /mbʷ mb nd ndʷ ŋġ mpʷ mp/ all occurred in root-initial position, but no classifiers began with a prenasalized stop, so very few words with initial prenasals were used. These are considered allophones of a homorganic nasal followed by a stop; however, they are of mixed origins.
The sequences /ʷe ʷi ʷo ʷu/ occurred, with the latter two being the most common. /kʷe kʷi/ were far more common than /nʷe nʷi/, etc, because of their origins.
There may still have been a rare /bʷ/.[1]
If the labialized consonants are treated as clusters, the phonology reduces to
Bilabials: p m w b Alveolars: t n l r Velars: k ḳ ŋ
- The consonants t n l r become palatalized to č ň y y before any /e/ or /i/.
- This originally included /k ḳ ŋ/ but they created gaps in the phonology.
- The sequences e i on all tones shifted to ye yi of the same tone.
Syllabary
The language was written in a 14x15 syllabary in which tone was considered a property of the vowel. There were about 152 syllables.
- NOTE This is for the post-labialization phase.
LOW HIGH
a o u ə á ó ú ə́
pa pe pi po pu pə pá pé pí pó pú pə́ pṅ pŋ̇
ba be bi bo bu bə bá bé bí bó bú bə́
ma me mi mo mu mə má mé mí mó mú mə́ ṁ mṅ mŋ̇
wo wu wó wú
ta te ti to tu tə tá té tí tó tú tə́ tṁ tŋ̇
na ne ni no nu nə ná né ní nó nú nə́ ṅ nŋ̇
ra ro ru rə lá ló lú lə́ lṁ lṅ lŋ̇
če či čé čí
ňe ňi ňé ňí
ya ye yi yo yu yə yá yé yí yó yú yə́
ka ke ki ko ku kə ká ké kí kó kú kə́ kṁ kṅ kŋ̇
ḳa ḳe ḳi ḳo ḳu ḳə ḳá ḳé ḳí ḳó ḳú ḳə́
ŋa ŋe ŋi ŋo ŋu ŋə ŋá ŋé ŋí ŋó ŋú ŋə́ ŋṁ ŋṅ ŋ̇
The prenasals were spelled as if they were sequences of a bare syllabic nasal and the corresponding stop.
All four of /te ti ne ni/ will be very rare, and it is perhaps possible to eliminate them.
The sequences /ke ki ḳe ḳi/ only occur on a low tone; they may be in complementary distribution with the null-onset /e i/, but as there are two sets opposed to one, they cannot be eliminated from the syllabary.
Note that this language was spoken only a few hundred years after the breakup of Tapilula and Hipatal. Dreamlandic broke off at this point, around 800 AD, meaning that the ancestors of the Dreamers were independent for at least 500 years before they discovered Dreamland.
Proto-HP-2 (~800 AD) to Lùge
This may be the language of Eled Island, the largest of a small chain of volcanic islands centered at around 45N. They are very warm for their latitude just as the equatorial islands are very cool for their latitude; all major land masses are far away, and ocean currents are the primary determinant of temperature all year round. Thus 45N is only about 12F cooler than the Equator. On the other hand, it looks too similar to Heha to be a northern branch.
I may make several "Eled" languages, including one that is a branch of Dreamlandic, and decide which of them is the most proper later on. It is likely that all of the islands speak the same language since they were required to row far out to sea to get food.
- Labialization was eliminated.
- The sequences če či ňe ňi, ignoring tone, shifted to te ti ne ni.
- The sequences wo wu, ignoring tone, shifted to bo bu.
- The stops b ḳ shifted to p k unconditionally.
- The prenasals mp mb nd ŋġ shifted to b b r ŋ unconditionally.
Proto-HP-2 (~800 AD) to Hĕha
- Labialization was eliminated.
- The sequences če či ňe ňi, ignoring tone, shifted to te ti ne ni.
- The sequences wo wu, ignoring tone, shifted to bo bu.
- The stops b ḳ shifted to p k̲ unconditionally.
- The prenasals mp mb nd ŋġ shifted to p̄ m̄ n̄ ŋ̄ unconditionally.
- This branch assumes influence from HP-3 or a related language. These are otherwise just dummy phonemes.
Proto-HP-2 (~800 AD) to B
- The consonants k ḳ ŋ became palatalized to t t n before any /e i/.
- Labialization was eliminated.
- The sound gaps of */re ri lé lí ké kí ḳé ḳí/ persisted, but several other holes had been plugged.
- The consonants č ň shifted to t n in all positions.
- After a high tone, all syllabic nasals, and all sequences of a nasal followed by one, collapsed to a single moraic ṅ.
- The sequences pṅ pŋ̇ tṁ tŋ̇ kṁ kṅ kŋ̇ lṁ lṅ lŋ̇ shifted to pən pən tən tən kən kən kən lən lən lən.
- This may or may not create a new /ň/ from /ny/.
Proto-HP-2 (~800 AD) to Hall Pass
This is a dummy language set up for Eled Island, and assumes that since the only viable labialized consonants were /kʷ ḳʷ/, they are the dominant ones. However, on the basis that a shift of /pʷ/ > /kʷ/ is unlikely, they instead "rescue" pʷ and make it viable.
- The labialized stops tʷ kʷ ḳʷ all merged as pʷ.
- The nasals m mʷ nʷ merged as m.
Proto-HP-2 (~800 AD) to Two Plain Bagels
Similar to Hall Pass but assumes /kʷ/ subsumes /ḳʷ tʷ/ instead of shifting to /pʷ/.
- The labialized stops tʷ kʷ ḳʷ all merged as kʷ.
- The rounded bilabials pʷ mʷ shifted to p m.
- The nasal nʷ shifted to ŋ.
Proto-Hipatal (0) to HP-3 (~2600)
- See Tropical_Rim#Southwestern_Tip_languages and Tropical_Rim#Pabahais for languages not detailed here.
This is a group set up for the dark-skinned settlers of the large islands who left early on and were mostly swallowed up by the HP-4 invasion around 2600 AD. The existence of HP-4 proves that HP-3 must exist, as this is part of the substratum.
The original consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ bʷ mʷ mbʷ mpʷ w Spread bilabials: p b m mb mp (Ø) Alveolars: t n nd l Rounded alveolars: tʷ nʷ ndʷ Velars: k ḳ ŋ ŋġ h g
- The high central vowel ə shifted to match the next vowel in the word. This also included the labialization of the initial consonant; thus, for example, /təpʷu/ > /tʷupʷu/.
- The velar fricatives g h shifted to Ø ḥ unconditionally.
- The voiceless velar stops ḳ k shifted to k kh unconditionally. The rare labialized versions ḳʷ kʷ likewise shifted to kʷ khʷ. Then, the other voiceless stops deaspirated.
- The labialized alveolars lʷ tʷ nʷ ndʷ shifted to w kʷ m mm. The /kʷ/ was no longer aspirated, due to the shift above.
- The vowel o shifted to a.
- The prenasalized labial stops mbʷ mb merged as mm.
- The prenasalized sequence nd shifted to nn.
- The labial stops p pʷ b bʷ all merged as b. This includes the creation of /mb/ from earlier /mp mpʷ/.
- The voiceless alveolar stop t shifted to d.
- The sequence kh shifted to h.
- NOTE ON POLITICS: Pabahais breaks off here.
- This branch does not have grammatical aspiration, so these shifts completely eliminate all /p t/ from the language, even allophonically. For the time being, the only voiceless stops are the velars /kʷ ḳ/, and there is no plain /k/.
- The velar stops k kʷ shifted to t k.
- The geminate nasals mm nn came to be spelled m̄ n̄.
- The voiceless velar fricative ḥ became voiced to g.
- The voiceless velar stop k shifted to t before any /e i/. Note that it was already rare in this position. A similar change may have affected /g h/, but it is not clear that it would be phonemically significant.
- The cluster mb came to be spelled b̲.
Thus the consonant inventory was
Labials: b m m̄ w Alveolars: t d n n̄ l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ ŋ̄ g h
There will need to be more vowel shifts, perhaps the very same ones that happened independently in other branches, because both sets of changes have the same trigger.
This period may be anywhere between about 1200 AD and 2600 AD, leaning towards the later date.
This language had a very different sound from its neighbors, because there was no /p/, but /b/ was common, and because the voiceless velar stop /k/ was fairly rare, but the voiced velar fricative /g/ was very common. Thus voiced sounds dominated the language to a greater extant than any other. It is possible that some daughter languages will shift all of the obstruents to voiceless, perhaps merging /t d/ or perhaps making /t/ into an /s/ in at least some positions.
HP-3 (~2600) to Blue Oyster
This is a dummy section to account for the possibility that some of these people reached the mainland (but in the desert, not Dreamland) and introduced their language to FILTER, which later absorbed a party called the Swords and became the Oyster party. If anything, though, they reached the mainland well before 2600 AD, so rather than a daughter of HP-3, Blue Oyster is simply a daughter of Hipatal and will need a list of sound changes that starts from the beginning. (As a third possibility, HP-3 could simply be redefined to have a much earlier ending date.)
The consonant inventory was
Labials: b m m̄ w b̲ Alveolars: t d n n̄ l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ ŋ̄ g h
- The voiced stops b b̲ shifted to p p̄.
- The alveolar stops d t shifted to t ṭ.
- Note the use of the dot diacritic, because this distinction pairs oppositely from the above.
- The nasals n n̄ shifted to n ṇ.
- The nasal ŋ̄ merged into ŋ.
Thus the phonology was
Labials: p m w Labial-velars: p̄ m̄ Dentals: ṭ ṇ Alveolars: t n l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ g h
The sound spelled /p̄/ is IPA /k͡p/, even though the b̲ it grew from was probably not IPA /g͜b/.
Tapilula (0) to HP-3B (2600)
- The high central vowel ə shifted to match the next vowel in the word. This also included the labialization of the initial consonant; thus, for example, /təpʷu/ > /tʷupʷu/.
- The velar fricatives g h shifted to Ø ḥ unconditionally.
- The voiceless velar stops ḳ k ḳʷ kʷ shifted to k kh kʷ kʷh unconditionally. The labialized forms had a very restricted distribution, because the shift /tʷ/ > /kʷ/ did not happen here. Other voiceless stops deaspirated.
- The sequences nd nn shifted to n̄.
- The sequences mbʷ mb mm merged as m̄.
- The cluster mp shifted to b̲.
- The labial stops p pʷ b bʷ all merged as b. This includes the creation of a secondary /mb/ from earlier /mp mpʷ/.
- The labialized alveolars lʷ tʷ nʷ ndʷ shifted to w p m mm.
- The vowel o shifted to a.
- The sequences kh kʷh merged as h. However, kʷ shifted to p.
- The fricative ḥ shifted to g.
- Culture
The Blue Oysters were dark-skinned, but with visible admixture from Lenians, and a physical appearance unlike the dark-skinned aboriginals they settled among. Their initial settlement may have been a violent conquest, but would have been subsumed into a much wider war, and they could have quickly mended ways with their victims.
Their language is so conservative that it could have been easily mistaken for a Tropical Rim language, that being a family spoken on the opposite side of a mountain range within the same empire. This would be further helped by the fact that the Tropical Rim had also had significant admixture from both light- and dark-skinned peoples.
It is also possible that this language really did displace Oyster at least locally, and then survived to be the language spoken in Kxesh when the River People rescued and brought orphans there. This would mean that the orphans' colony was not in aboriginal territory after all, or at least that the aboriginals had at some time in the past submitted to the Blue Oyster colonists and adopted their language.
Grammar
HP-1 and HP-3 may have had gendered consonant insertion to break up hiatus in verbs, and possibly also nouns (i.e. a verb /yà/ becomes /pìpʷo/ when used with the epicene (/pʷ/) gender). Also, verbs may take a dislocated gendered suffix, such as -pʷ-o for verbs ending in /a/, due to analogy with compressed sequences like /aa/ > /a/. But note that these are two separate events; /aa/ > /a/ was very early in the parent language, thousands of years before the creation of the new hiatus sequences. A similar analogy happened in Dreamlandic, but not in the Gold branch. This could give rise to inherently gendered verbs both for humans and for animals.
Culture
It is possible that these people will make it to Kxesh and be part of the Sheath party.[2] Their tribal name is cognate to both that name and to that of the original FILTER party.
Proto-Hipatal (0) to HP-4 (2600 AD)
HP-4 is known as Rainbow, although this was neither a tribal name nor a party name, as they were a collection of tribes and did not at the time practice politics.
The speakers of at least one of these languages are part ofthe same culture as those of Dreamlandic_languages#Western_languages, but it is possible thatHP-4 simply drives out that other language.
Early Rainbow sound changes
This language is spoken in tropical rainforests of a chain of larger islands. It is one of the few groups to contain people who live more than a mile away from the seashore. It is the descendant of the language of Saffaslujje, the city from which earlier migrations had long ago set out. These people were Lenians who identified as Labans,[3] and they swarmed over the previous three groups, but did not invade Dreamland because Dreamland was far stronger than Saffaslujje.
This may in fact be the only true use of the name Pejo, but the name was adopted by many other groups as well.
The original consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ bʷ mʷ mbʷ mpʷ w Spread bilabials: p b m mb mp (Ø) Alveolars: t n nd l Rounded alveolars: tʷ nʷ ndʷ Velars: k ḳ ŋ ŋġ h g
- The high central vowel ə shifted to match the next vowel in the word. This also included the labialization of the initial consonant; thus, for example, /təpʷu/ > /tʷupʷu/.
- The voiceless aspirated velar stop k shifted to h unconditionally. Ejectives and labialized forms were unaffected by this change.
- The labialized consonants lʷ gʷ shifted to w .
- The labialized alveolars tʷ nʷ ndʷ shifted to kʷ mʷ mmʷ.
- Schwa disappeared between a nasal and a following stop or fricative; if there was a fricative, it became a stop.
- Initial schwas disappeared.
- The ejective stops ḳ ḳʷ shifted to k kʷ.
- Any remaining schwa ə shifted to i.
- The rounded vowel o shifted to a unconditionally. /u/ became unrounded, but there was no change in spelling.
- The mid vowel e shifted to ə unconditionally.
- The prenasalized voiced stops mbʷ mb nd ŋġ ŋġʷ shifted to the double nasals mmʷ mm nn ŋŋ ŋŋʷ.
- The voiced velar sounds ŋ g disappeared to Ø Ø. This did not affect the geminate /ŋŋ/.
- If the Sun languages diverge before the Rain languages, this would be a good spot to do it, because it is necessary that they lose the inherited /g/ in order to make a new one.
- The labialized approximant bʷ shifted to w .
- Double nasals were reduced to singles.
Thus the consonant inventory of HP-4 was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ mʷ w Spread bilabials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ (Ø) h Labiovelars: kʷ
The vowel inventory was /a i u ə/, with the labialized stops /pʷ kʷ/ appearing before all four vowels. There were syllabic nasals /ṁ ṅ ŋ̇/. The voiceless fricative /h/, the only fricative in the language, was highly variable in pronunciation, often being labialized or palatalized or both.
An alternative analysis removes the labialized consonants and analyzes /y w/ as vowels. This leaves a consonant inventory of just
Labials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Velars: k ŋ h
Although the /h/ is voiceless, it may have been evolving towards a voiced pronunciation, meaning the consonant inventory can be analyzed as a matrix where the only variables are place of articulation (labial/alveolar/velar) and manner of articulation (stop/nasal/approximant). The syllable structure was entirely CV except for the syllabic nasals, so the stop allophone of /b/ would have been rare. The velar nasal /ŋ/ is rare enough that it could shift to /n/ in every daughter language.
Rain languages
Rainbow daughter languages are grouped into Rain and Sun branches, corresponding to phonology, not climate. The Rainy languages are the ones in which /h/ remained voiceless and then went on to create sibilants. These languages diverged into four (or more) branches at the same time, with no shared traits at all, because the four groups of migrants settled new islands at the same time (or possibly four areas on a larger island, etc).
This means that the Sun branch is either nested with the Rain branch, or more likely that the Sun branch is actually slightly older than the Rain branch and a new proto-language will need to be drawn up. Below assumes that the Rain-Sun division is older than the internal Rain splits.
The presence of /s/ and in some cases persistence of /h/ gave these languages a "wet" sound.
It is possible that one of these languages is actually the Laban mainland dialect, just as Rain/Sun (HP-4) was the language of the people who had never left the Laban mainland during the earlier migration. This means that "West Dreamlandic" can probably be discarded except for placenames.
Rain (2600 AD) to Proto-Umbrella (Pamā)
This is the numerically dominant group among the conquerors, unless Hunting Vest is; Hunting Vest in any case survives to eventually reach Dreamland.
This branch shifts all of its labialized consonants to pure labials, and then grows new labialized consonants from sequences like /awa/ and /ua/.
The original consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ mʷ w Spread bilabials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ (Ø) h Labiovelars: kʷ
The vowel inventory was /a i u ə/, with labialized consonants appearing before all four vowels. There were syllabic nasals /ṁ ṅ ŋ̇/.
- The labiovelar stop kʷ shifted to p̄ʷ.
- NOTE, this is probably not the first shift in the history, but I am putting it here to fill out the sketch. There may be a distinction between two types of /p/ if enough HP-1 languages retain such a distinction and then impress the conquerors.
- The syllabic nasals ṃ ṇ , when between two vowels, shifted to m̄ n̄. There were probably other sources of this sound as well, such as /ŋʷ/ (which comes later). It is not clear if this branch retained an intervocalic syllabic /ŋ/, as it may have been seen as /ŋŋ/ and thus shifted to plain /ŋ/.
- The vowel sequences u ua ui uə shifted to ʷu ʷa ʷi ʷə.
- The vowel sequences i ia iu iə shifted to ʲi ʲa ʲu ʲə. Thus, all consonants were palatalized before any /i/ and labialized before any /u/, except when the opposite coarticulation had been introduced.
- The laterals lʷ lʲ shifted to w̄ y.
- The palatals hʲ tʲ kʲ bʲ became s s č r.
- The sequences ʲu ʷi shifted to u i.
- The sequences pʲi pʲu shifted to ti tu. Any other pʲ shifted to f.
- The sequences hʷ tʷ bʷ shifted to fʷ kʷ w.
- This might be omitted, as it would only occur before /a ə/ since this shift occurred *after* ʷi > i.
- The sequences m̄ʲ n̄ʲ, which were very rare, shifted to m̄ n. Note the asymmetry of the nasals.
- The nasals nʷ n ň mʲ shifted to ŋʷ n̄ n m.
- The sequences u ʷu came to be spelled ʉ u, except after alveolars. There was no difference in pronunciation.
Thus the maximal consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ mʷ w fʷ Bilabials: p m b f m̄ Alveolars: t n l r s n̄ Palatals: č y Velars: k ŋ (Ø) h Labiovelars: kʷ ŋʷ w̄ p̄ʷ m̄ʷ
However, the palatalized labials are unlikely to survive even to the proto-language as true coarticulates. What may be is that they affect the pronunciation of the following vowel. Some of the other contrasts here might not be real. Need to start deriving words for to find out which is rarest.
Play-style diphthongs such as /ai əi au əu/ were common. Labialization and palatalization are each distinct only before /a ə/, which may mean that the diphthongs will trigger new distinctions such as /ʷe/ from /ʷai/ and /ʷəi/. But this had not happened yet in the proto-language.
Note that /tʷi/ > /ti/, not */kʷi/.
Saponification
A "wide syllabary" could be formed, or perhaps a smaller one. The effective vowel inventory is /a i u ə ʷa ʷu ʷə ʲa ʲi ʲə/ plus /ai əi au əu ʲai ʲəi ʲau ʲəu ʷai ʷəi ʷau ʷəu/. These are listed separately because of how the syllabary is built. Vowel sequences exist too but /ī ū/ did not form because they were PROBABLY shifted to /ʲi ʷu/ early on.
- UMBRELLA SYLLABARY (CRIB REFORM)
A I Ǝ WA U WƎ YA YI YƎ Ʉ Ø a i* ə wa wu wə ya yi yə ʉ* P pa pi pə pwa pu pwə M ma mi mə mwa mu mwə F~H ha hi hə fwa fu fwə fa fi fə P̄ p̄i p̄wa p̄u p̄wə B ba bi bə M̄ (FILL THIS IN LATER) T ta ti tə tu N na ni nə nu L la li lə lu R ra ri rə ru S sa si sə su N̄ (FILL THIS IN LATER) (Y) yʉ K~Č ka ki kə kwa ku kwə ča či čə čʉ Ŋ ŋa (ŋi) ŋə ŋwa ŋu ŋwə
* Bare /i u/ are only distinct in coda position and could thus be considered as glides. They otherwise appear as /yi wu/.
This might suggest a shift of /ču/ > /ku/ is likely, or that /ču/ never arose to begin with. On the other hand, the /ku ŋu/ gaps cvorrespond well to the /pu bu/ gaps.
Rain (2600 AD) to Yellow Shoes (Nannapànnu)
The original consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ mʷ w Spread bilabials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ (Ø) h Labiovelars: kʷ
The vowel inventory was /a i u ə/, with labialized consonants appearing before all four vowels. There were syllabic nasals /ṁ ṅ ŋ̇/.
- The alveolars t n l shifted to f m w.
- The velars k ŋ h shifted to t n s.
- Labialization was lost.
At this point the phoneme inventory was
Labials: p m f b Alveolars: t n s Palatals: y Velars: k
It is not clear if the delabialization shift implies /w/ > /b/ or not, so tentatively there could be a separate /w/ sound alongside the inherited /b/.
Rain (2600 AD) to Hunting Vest (Lākaha)
End time is 4400 AD. These people might settle Dreamland after the collapse of civilization on the mainland.
The original consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ mʷ w Spread bilabials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ (Ø) h Labiovelars: kʷ
The vowel inventory was /a i u ə/, with labialized consonants appearing before all four vowels. There were syllabic nasals /ṁ ṅ ŋ̇/.
- The velars k ŋ h shifted to č ň š unconditionally.
- Labialization was lost.
- The sequences àa àə ə̀a shifted to ā. Then ăa ăə ə̆a shifted to â, and ə̀ə ə̆ə shifted to ə̄ ə̂.
- The postalveolar fricative š shifted to s.
- The sequences ìa ìə ùa ùə (where the first vowel has a high tone) shifted to èa ìe òa ùo.
- The vowel sequences ìi ùu became ī ū.
- The vowel sequences ĭə ŭə (equivalent to /iə̀ uə̀/) shifted to yè wò.
- Before a vowel, remaining i u shifted to y w.
- The vowel sequences ài ăi àu ău shifted to ē ê ō ô.
- The vowel sequences ə̀i ə̆i ə̀u ə̆u shifted to ī î ū û.
- The sequences ky ŋy ty ny sy ly shifted to č ň č ň š y.
- The sequences tw nw sw lw shifted to p m f w. All other consonants preceding /w/ shifted to labials.
- Remaining post-consonantal /w/ and /y/ were deleted.
- The sequences èa ìe òa ùo shifted to ya ye wa wo. (Tone may have been influenced by surrounding syllables.) Meanwhile ùi ìu shifted to wi yu.
- All sounds preceding a /w/ again became labials.
- All post-consonantal /w/ and /y/ were deleted.
The circumflex is an ad-hoc symbol for a long low tone. However, it may make sense to retain the circumflex vowels as sequences, as there are other sequences that would arise at morpheme boundaries.
Thus the consonant inventory was
Bilabials: p m b f w Alveolars: t n s l Palataloids: č ň š y Velars: k
And there were six vowels, on two tones, and could be short or long.
Rain (2600 AD) to Baseball Cap (Hahakànna)
The original consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ mʷ w Spread bilabials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ (Ø) h Labiovelars: kʷ
The vowel inventory was /a i u ə/, with labialized consonants appearing before all four vowels. There were syllabic nasals /ṁ ṅ ŋ̇/.
- Before a vowel, i shifted to y.
- Labialized consonants defeated any following /y/.
- The velar sequences ky ŋy hy shifted to č ň š. The alveolar sequences ty ny ly also shifted to č ň ł.
- Labialization was lost.
- The postalveolar fricative š shifted to s.
- The sequences py my by shifted to č ň y.
Thus the consonant inventory was
Labials: p m b w Alveolars: t n l s Palataloids: č ň ł y Velars: k ŋ h
Rain (2600 AD) to Puddle Hopper (Tākapi)
The original consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ mʷ w Spread bilabials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ (Ø) h Labiovelars: kʷ
The vowel inventory was /a i u ə/, with labialized consonants appearing before all four vowels. There were syllabic nasals /ṁ ṅ ŋ̇/.
- Single nasals metathesized across a vowel to form clusters with the next consonant. These all became homorganic; here, a /w/ behaved as a labiovelar, thus the resulting cluster was /ŋw/.
- The clusters ŋw ŋh nl shifted to ŋʷ h l. /mb/ remained.
- Double nasals shifted to singles.
- The syllabic nasals ṁ ṅ ŋ̇ shifted to um un uŋ unconditionally.
- The sequences aa aə əa , on all tones, merged as ā. əə shifted to ə̄.
- Any h bordering an /i/ in either direction shifted to s.
- The sequences ii uu shifted to ī ū if the first tone was high; otherwise they shifted to yi ʷu.
- Any low-tone i before a vowel became a palatal approximant y.
- The sequences ty ky ny ŋy sy ly shifted to č č ň ň š ł. (/hy/ > /sy/ earlier.)
- Labial and labialized consonants swallowed a following y.
- The approximant lʷ shifted to w. The alveolars tʷ sʷ nʷ changed in a split shift to kʷ hʷ mʷ.
Thus the consonant inventory was
Rounded bilabials: pʷ mʷ bʷ w Spread bilabials: p m b (Ø) Alveolars: t n l s Palatals: č ň ł y š Velars: k ŋ (Ø) h Labiovelars: kʷ ŋʷ hʷ
The four-vowel inventory remained, but there were many more long vowels and vowel sequences than there had been before. The falling diphthongs were /ai au əi əu/. These could be analyzed as /ē ō e o/, giving the language a six-vowel inventory with no (falling) diphthongs and a two-way length contrast on all six vowels, but the orthography nevertheless used four vowels.
Sun languages
These languages are derived from HP-4 but shifted /h/ into a voiced fricative. The first Sun people were a dark-skinned tribe who either rebelled against or invaded the Lenians who had recently conquered the sea. These conquerors came to be called the Rain people; their languages were closely related, and the hostility may not have lasted long.
Early shifts
This language assumes Sun branches earlier than the six Rain languages.
The original consonant inventory was
Labials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Velars: k ŋ g
The vowel inventory was /a i u ə/, with /w/ permitted after any of /p m k/ before all four vowels. There were also standalone approximants /w y/ which could be analyzed as independent consonants or as allophones of the vowels (there was hiatus, but this too could be analyzed as /uwa/, etc).
- When not labialized, the obstruents p m k shifted to f m₃ k₂.
- This is a dummy shift and it is likely that /ṃ ḳ/ will just shift back to the regular forms, or to /m č/.
- The nasal sequences mm nn shifted to m₂ n₂.
- This is another dummy shift ... see below.
- The labial approximant w shifted to g in at least some environments (perhaps after a high tone).
The phonology at this stage was
Labials: p m₁ m₂ m₃ b f Alveolars: t n₁ n₂ l Palatals: y Velars: k₁ k₂ ŋ g
If double nasals were inherited from the parent language (unlike Rain), then it is possible that they could split into duplicate sounds as well, so that there would be, e.g. /m₁ m₂ m₃ n₁ n₂ ŋ/. There would be only one /ŋ/ because it occurred *only* when doubled.
It is almost certain that /mʷ/ would merge with /mm/, however. It is possible that the fortis nasals turn back into prenasalized voiced stops, and if the shift happens early enough, it could be that this is a dialect where they never really changed in the first place, even if the other Sun languages do not do that.
This branch then might go two ways: one path shifts /f/ > /b/, possibly thus ending up with the same phonology it began with. The other branch shifts /f/ > /h/, while keeping /g/, thus having two velar fricatives and no other fricatives.
It is not clear whether m₃ or m₁ is the more marked phoneme. Theoretically there could have even been a fourth one, from /mbʷ/, but this would have been so rare as to possibly never arise in the parent language.
Note that /k₁/ is marked, not k₂. If /k₂/ is /č/, it could probably best be represented as /t/. It could also be such as
- /k₂/ shifts to /t/ before /i/, and remains as /k/ elsewhere.
This could be problematic, though, since there was little /k₁1/ in the parent language.
Sun to Sparc
The original consonant inventory was
Labials: p m₁ m₂ m₃ b f Alveolars: t n₁ n₂ l Palatals: y Velars: k₁ k₂ ŋ g
Sun to TRU64
The original consonant inventory was
Labials: p m₁ m₂ m₃ b f Alveolars: t n₁ n₂ l Palatals: y Velars: k₁ k₂ ŋ g
Sun to Deskjet
The original consonant inventory was
Labials: p m₁ m₂ m₃ b f Alveolars: t n₁ n₂ l Palatals: y Velars: k₁ k₂ ŋ g
Sun to Impresario
The phonology at this stage was
Labials: p m₁ m₂ m₃ b f Alveolars: t n₁ n₂ l Palatals: y Velars: k₁ k₂ ŋ g
- The labial fricative f shifted to b unconditionally.
- Before any /i/, the velar stop k₂ shifted to t.
- The rationale for this is that this branch had more /ʷi/ than the parent language did. However, there was still markedly less of it than before other vowels, and so this shift would make /ki/ quite rare.
- The nasals m₂ n₂ (the ones that arose from geminates) shifted to mb nd.
- The labial nasal m₃ also shifted to mb.
- The sequences mb nd came to be spelled b̲ r.
The phonology at this stage was
Labials: p m b̲ b Alveolars: t n l r Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ g
Sun culture
It is possible that these are the languages spoken by dark-skinned people, in which case the presence of /s/ came to be seen as a stereotypically Lenian trait. However, it is also possible that there is no correlation between tribal identity and position in the linguistic tree, and even that there is no genetic grouping based on the /h/ > /g/ sound change at all, since the Wet languages begin diverging from each other almost immediately.
Consider also a satem/centum like split, where one side of the divide really is genetic (marked by a single shared change), while the other side is not (marked by preserving the old state and then dividing only later on). Since the Rain languages all split at the exact same time, they share no changes (though sometimes the same shift occurs at different times in two Rain languages), which would mean that the Sun branch is the one that is truly genetic. It may have split off earlier than the Rain languages did and therefore have a slightly different starting phonology, but the shift of /bʷ/ > /w/ is likely to have occurred independently, and even if the double nasals are retained, the phoneme inventory will still be the same.
Alternatively, Sun splits off very early from within one of the Rain branches, or is a seventh branch of the tree that came to be considered different only for superficial reasons.
Becuase of the recent loss of the primordial velars, /g/ is likely to remain as a stable sound rather than following the others into hiatus. There is also a possibility that it could merge with /ŋ/, in either direction. The voiced labial /b/ was an approximant except after a syllabic nasal. Syllabic nasals themselves may well disappear.
This branch is likely to be more conservative than the Rainy branch, which itself is more conservative than most other Tapilula languages. Tone is likely to remain, as with Rain.
Geography and climate
According to a writeup from maybe 2016 or so, the climate in Hipatal generally is surprisingly cold for the latitude, with one town at 2°N having an average temperature of only 61°F and no meaningful seasonal change in either temperature or rainfall because it is very far from any large landmass.
Teppala is on general colder than Earth, but this is a surprisingly wide gap considering that southeastern Laba at the same latitude has an average temperature of 78°F. I may have been thinking of the Pacific Ocean and how the cold current curls up near the Equator and starts flowing west.
I seem to have deleted the references to islands at 45-48N, which were intended to be politically part of Dreamland, but which would be more likely to have been settled by the Hipatal tribes if they still exist. The Leaper name of the islands was Lan and perhaps the cognate of that name could be pushed into Hipatal or Dreamlandic or both. I may have deleted the islands because I had been working on a writeup in which they were bigger, whereas on the map they still appear but are small.
History
A short timeline:
- Both light and dark skinned people set out from the city of Saffaslujje (also Tapaluka, etc) around 600 AD and sail eastward through the vast Hipatal ocean. They mostly settle large islands and leave smaller islands alone. There were two light-skinned groups, here HP-1 and HP-2. The dark-skinned group was HP-3. Culturally, HP-1 and HP-3 had the most in common despite their appearance, because they were the stronger ones, who were able to take the best islands for themselves. The two groups were initially separate, but likely had many intimate contacts throughout the years. The distinction thus is linguistic. Nevertheless, clear racial differences persisted from one island to the next, and for the larger islands even between different shorelines, because of the different paths the two groups had initially set out on.
- HP-2 was forced to migrate longer distances and settle islands in poorer natural habitats, but their ultimate goal was not the islands but Dreamland, which they reached around 1700 AD.[4]
- After the discovery of Dreamland, HP-2 rises and becomes numerically superior and vastly stronger and richer than the other two groups, but only a few of these people, who by then called themselves Dreamers, were interested in returning to the islands. Additionally, a small number of HP-2 people had remained on the islands all along and did not move to Dreamland. These people lost their cultural identity and came to associate with the blonde HP-1 settlers.
- Around 2600 AD, a new group of blonde Lenian settlers, here known as HP-4, migrates eastward from Saffaslujje and swarms over HP-1 and HP-3 territory, subjugating both equally. (They also conquer the few remaining HP-2 islanders to better control the seas.) Some HP-1 and HP-3 languages survive, but HP-4 becomes numerically dominant even during the early period in which there was only one HP-4 language.
- The HP-4 conquerors were stronger than the islanders, but much weaker than the Dreamers, so they never manage to invade Dreamland. Additionally, at least one group of their subjects either rebels or actually invades them, and these people become the Sun people. The Sun people were of the dark-skinned group, but friendly to the Lenians who had been on the islands all along (the Rain people), and hostile to the Lenian conquerors newly arriving from the west. Importantly, the Sun people's language was HP-4, not HP-3.
- The Sun people become powerful enough to start building colonies of their own. It is not clear yet what their political allegiances were; some may have defected to Laba, and it is possible that nearly all of the islanders eventually defect to Laba even as Laba's government enforces a rule denying Laban citizenship and basic civil rights not only to dark-skinned settlers, but to the mixed-race people who had developed from prolonged contacts between the descendants of the original migrants.
- Eventually Laba wins control of parts of the mainland, but the language likely does not change; this is a political revolution, not an outright war.
- By the time Dreamland starts fighting large wars, Laba has become a firm ally of Dreamland and holds firm control over the entire Hipatal sea. However, they are a very weak ally and Dreamland is instead run by the Baywatch party, located in the extreme eastern edge of Dreamland, far from Laba's territory on the western tip.
