Trout languages

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This is a geographical area east of the Tropical Rim whose languages used circumfixes and had various other traits in common. The area had a poor natural environment with few sources of protein on land, thus the dependence on fishing the sea and maintaining vegetable farms on land. (Animal husbandry was unknown, and people did not drink milk as adults.)

Many Trout Lakes languages were soon spoken in outer climates such as the equatorial zone and the mountains.

These languages are ordered from east to west.

Scratchpad

The name of Teppala

01:50, 1 March 2022 (PST)

Note that the sound changes below assure that nothing even close to the name Teppala can arise within Thaoa, and at best it can only be explained as a distorted trade name. The original name would need to have three morphemes, such as dì nìi ndʷò, and then the infix that provides the /l/ would be added in Thaoa only.

May 16, 2021

The bipersonal classifier prefixes beginning with n- and ŋ- had probably not decoupled from their following nouns yet. In at least Gold, which also merges the vowels a e o into a, they come to be reinterpreted as a suffix on the preceding word ending with -n. Then the prefixes disappear.

It is possible that in Moonshine, the prefixes are somehow retained, or that they are sent back to their original position by subsequent grammatical changes.

Proto-Trout (1085) to Thaoa (2668)

Initial consonant inventory: 

                       PLAIN                         LABIALIZED
Bilabials:             p   b   m   f   v                     mʷ      w  
Alveolars:             t   d   n       l             tʷ  dʷ  nʷ            
Postalveolars:         č   ǯ           y                       
Velars:                k       ŋ   h   g   ḳ                 ŋʷ  hʷ  gʷ

Note that the inherited /h/ sound was a true /h/ in the onset, but variable in the coda.

The vowels were 

Short vowels:          a  e  i  o  u  ə
Long vowels:           ā  ē  ī  ō  ū 
Falling diphthongs:      ae ei ao ou 
                            əi    əu

NOTES

  • NOTE, this language needs to shift unstressed coda /g/ to Ø if it is to have any of the classifier suffixes that the other languages have. even /yo/ is from /yog/.
  • Since Play reflects /kk/ as /pp/, it means that it had not yet collapsed into a single consonant at the time of the splitup and thus could have come through in Thaoa as /kk/.
  1. High tone developed into the glottal stop ʔ at end of syllable. Thus, tones were eliminated.
  2. The voiceless stops p t k ḳ shifted to the aspirated stops ph th kh kh in initial position. All were asps.
  3. The voiceless stops p t k deaspirated in non-initial position. IT IS NOT CLEAR HOW TO HANDLE /ht/ ETC BUT REMEMBER THAT TROUT BROKE OFF BEFORE THE OTHERS.
  4. The sequences tʷ dʷ nʷ shifted to pp bb mm, even in initial position, because of the prevalence of classifier prefixes. However, when these clusters did occur with no preceding vowel, they reduced to p b m.
    POSSIBLY shift /bb/ > /pp/, as it would be the only geminate voiced stop otherwise, and because the distribution of /pp/ will be very gappy even if it also comes from /ʔp/.
  5. In word-initial position, the fricatives g gʷ shifted to Ø w.
  6. The voiced sounds b v d became the voiceless stops p f t in initial position; sometimes this included root-initial position even when a classifier preceded.
  7. The diphthongs əi əu shifted to oi eu.
    Possibly shift unstressed coda g to Ø here, as in Leaper and Play. But note that Leaper & Play's shifts happened independently.
  8. Assuming /ŋ/ > /n/ as in Gold (the shift is shown as being very early), it could be that ḳm ḳn ḳŋ shift to ŋm ŋn ŋŋ here, as there is no other way for Thaoa to get contrastive coda /n ŋ/.
  9. Again, to form a contrast in the coda, it could be that n in a closed syllable after a long vowel here became ŋ. The only other coda consonant that was coronal was /l/, which would mean that now nearly all codas were velar, and some of also did not assimilate to a following consonant. (But /ʔ/, from high tones, did assimilate.)
  10. ALL LONG VOWELS WERE DELETED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    It is possible that the longs could survive, since there are some gaps in the distribution of the long vowels that arise later. For example, voiced stops cannot occur after long vowels because of the shift of ʔb ʔd ʔǯ > p t č.
  11. mh nh ŋh > mph nth ŋkh.
  12. bh dh gh > ph th kh.
  13. Clusters like kʰn (in tʰikʰnan "vomit") become all voiceless and aspirated --- so tʰikʰtʰan (or tʰiktʰan), etc.
    NOTE ON POLITICS: Most Andanese words entered around this time.
  14. The semivowels y w became t p between a voiceless stop and a vowel; thus word-initial clusters were created.
  15. The semivowels y w became s f between an aspirated stop and a vowel.
  16. The semivowels y w became d b between a voiced stop and a vowel.
  17. The semivowels y w became š f between a voiceless fricative and a vowel. Then, fricatives disappeared before /š/.
  18. The sequences vy ly gy merged as z. Then, hw vw gw shifted to f v.
  19. The labialized nasals mʷ nʷ ŋʷ merged as mm. Then, any nasal followed by a /j/ shifted to ň .
  20. The sequence ʔh (only in Andanese loanwords) shifted to qh. THIS MAY HAVE BEEN ONLY DUE TO LEAPER INFLUENCE, AND DOES IMPLY THAT /ʔ/ WOULD STAIN OTHER CONSONANTS BEFORE THIS. BUT IT MIGHT HAPPEN NOW.
  21. The sequences kp kt (unaspirated) shifted to simple p t. Then, ks (phonemically /kʰs/) shifted to s.
  22. Word-initial geminates simplified to singles; however, in most words, classifier prefixes were retained and therefore root-initial geminates, most commonly /pp bb mm/, still appeared. Likewise, /kf/ and /kš/ remained.
  23. The voiced consonants b d ǯ v g shifted to p t č f x if preceded by a voiceless consonant, even if over a vowel. This entails /ʔb ʔd ʔǯ/ > /ʔp ʔt ʔč/.
  24. Final ʔ > long vowel.

Thus the final phonology of Thaoa was 

Labials:        pʰ   p   b   m   f   v   w
Alveolars:      tʰ   t   d   n   s   z   l
Palataloids:         č   ǯ   ň           y
Velars:         kʰ   k       ŋ   x   g
Postvelars:     qʰ               h

The deaspiration similar to Grassman's Law had not taken place yet.

Culture of Thaoa

Thaoa was hostile to the other branches of the family, and little voluntary migration took place in either direction. Neither did they communicate at sea. The similarities between Thaoa and the branches spoken to its west are based entirely on their close genetic relation rather than osmosis.

It is possible that the presence of voiceless aspirates in this branch is partly due to aboriginal influence despite the very sparse aboriginal population in the core of the Thaoa-speaking area. This was due to a longstanding plague associated with the Vukh river; the Thaoans suffered from this plague as well, but less so than the aboriginals had because Thaoa was able to force its people to migrate to and fro whereas the aboriginals had not had such a strong state.

There may be a sprachbund of languages that develop or preserve distinctive aspiration. This would also include those Fern languages that came to be spoken in Tarwas.

Palli and Sakhi are the only descendants of Thaoa proper, though it is possible that sister languages of Thaoa hung on in isolated mountain areas and sprouted tiny descendants of their own.

Proto-Trout (1085) to Diver (~1678 AD)

Alternate names: Paleo-Pabappa, Big Hearts, Lazy Palms, Protection, Patuupʷto

Paleo-Pabappa was the language of the Patuupʷto tribe, which split into many separate branches due to migrations both voluntary and involuntary. Most of these branches soon adopted the languages of the surrounding populations, however. For example, the Lazy Palms likely assimilate into the Oysters, while the enslaved Divers take on the languages of their masters.

The Soft Hands spoke Gold.


Initial phoneme inventory: 

                       PLAIN                         LABIALIZED
Bilabials:             p   b   m   f   v                     mʷ      w  
Alveolars:             t   d   n       l             tʷ  dʷ  nʷ            
Postalveolars:         č   ǯ           y                       
Velars:                k       ŋ   h   g   ḳ                 ŋʷ  hʷ  gʷ

Note that the inherited /h/ sound was a true /h/ in the onset, but variable in the coda.

The vowel inventory was 

Short vowels:          a  e  i  o  u  ə
Long vowels:          aa ee  ī oo  ū 
Falling diphthongs:      ae ei ao ou
                            əi    əu

This list may have to be cut somewhere in the middle, with the full list applying to just one subbranch and ending around the year 2668.

  1. The voiced coronal obstruents d ǯ merged as r.
  2. The sequences ae ao shifted to ai au.
  3. The labialized obstruents tʷ dʷ gʷ shifted to pʷ w w.
  4. The velar ejective ḳ merged to k.
  5. The sequences č kč merged as s; preceding vowels retained their tones.
    The wordlist implies that this /č/ is /ky/.
  6. In word-initial position, the voiced velar fricative g shifted to y.
  7. The labialized nasals mʷ nʷ ŋʷ merged as mʷ.
    NOTE ON POLITICS: Highland Pabappa breaks off here.
  8. In syllable-final position, the sequences uk un uh shifted to ukʷ umʷ upʷ . (This is called the "uh-oh" shift because it shifts /uh/ and some primordial /oh/.)
    This may be the source of the replacement of some word-initial /hʷ/ with /p/.
  9. In syllable-final position, the sequences ik in ih shifted to iš iň iš .
  10. In all positions, the voiced velar fricative g disappeared and lengthened the preceding vowel. This often occurred in the second element of a diphthong or intervocalically.
  11. The velars h hʷ came to spelled x xʷ.
  12. f fʷ v shifted to h hʷ g.
  13. The clusters kx kh (and their labialized counterparts) shifted to k.

Thus the final consonant inventory of Diver was 

Rounded bilabials:    pʷ  mʷ      hʷ  w
Spread bilabials:     p   m   b
Alveolars:            t   n   r   s   l
Palataloids:              ň       š   y
Velars:               k   ŋ   g   x        
Labiovelars:          kʷ          xʷ    
Postvelars:                       h

And the vowel inventory was 

Short vowels:          a  e  i  o  u  ə
Long vowels:          aa ee ii oo uu 
Falling diphthongs:         ai    au
                            ei    ou
                            əi    əu


Diver (1678) to Puroupwa (2672 AD)

This language derives its name from the Patuupʷto word oroupʷa "limestone", as it is spoken in a mountainous area filled with many steep limestone cliffs.

  1. The velars k ŋ x shifted to č ň š.
  2. The postalveolars ň š depalatalized to n s except before /i/.
  3. The sequence ʷoo shifted to ʷuo.
  4. ʷa ʷe ʷi ʷo ʷu ʷə > o o i o u u, including in diphthongs.
  5. In closed syllables, all diphthongs and double vowels were reduced to their first vowel.


Thus the consonant inventory was 

Labials:         p   m   b       w  
Alveolars:       t   n   r   s   l 
Palataloids:     č   ň       š   y  
Velars:          k           h   g

The vowel inventory was 

Short vowels:          a  e  i  o  u  ə
Long vowels:          aa ee ii oo uu 
Falling diphthongs:      ae    ao  
                            ei
                      oa oe oi    ou
                            əi    əu

Diver (1678) to Pombi (2672 AD)

This language will need a new name.

  1. The velars k ŋ x shifted to č ň š.
  2. The postalveolars ň š depalatalized to n s except before /i/.
  3. The sequence ʷoo shifted to ʷuo.
  4. ʷa ʷe ʷi ʷo ʷu ʷə > o o i o u u, including in diphthongs.
  5. In closed syllables, all diphthongs and double vowels were reduced to their first vowel.


Diver (1678) to Pipaippis (3200 AD)

The starting date is very vague because the four languages split apart slowly.

  1. The velars k ŋ x shifted to č ň š.
  2. The postalveolars ň š depalatalized to n s except before /i/.
  3. The sequence ʷoo shifted to ʷuo.
  4. ʷa ʷe ʷi ʷo ʷu ʷə > o o i o u u, including in diphthongs.
  5. In closed syllables, all diphthongs and double vowels were reduced to their first vowel.
  6. Frics became stops after a high tone.
  7. The schwas ə ə̄ changed to u ū unconditionally.
  8. All labialized consonants change to plain bilabials.
  9. Voicing distinction disappears entirely. This was actually triggered by a new voicing of stops after low tones, but because this change removed the last remaining environment that could host a minimal pair, there was no longer any phonemic contast.
    NOTE ON POLITICS: This is 1900 AD.
  10. Prevocalic sequences pi mi fi shifted to t n s (with no following glide). Thus the prevocalic glide /j/ was completely eliminated except in isolation.
  11. Intervocalically, bʷ b ž g shifted to w Ø y Ø.
    Note, there is no /ž/ at present because the source language was changed.

Pipaippis (3200) to Haswaraba (8773 AD)

As described currently, this language far outlasts the extinction of all other Paleo-Pabap languages, and may need to be cut down at a very early stage.

The name of the language used here is a repurposing of that of the unrelated Haswaraba language.

  1. All word-final vowels became short.
  2. Tones were eliminated.
  3. Before any /i/, the consonants p m t n l r k shifted to pʲ mʲ č ň ł ř ć.
  4. Before any /u/, the consonants p m t n l r č ň k shifted to pʷ mʷ tʷ nʷ w bʷ kʷ ŋʷ kʷ.
  5. The short vowels a i u ə all merged as a.
  6. The long vowels ā ī ū ə̄ shifted to a i u ə.

Diver (~1670) to Interrupted Fern (2668)

A language survives for at least 1,000 years in the equatorial zone, though its first 500 years may be shared with a differen franch of the family.

Highland Pabappa

Not to be confused with Highland Poswa.

This is a language family that breaks off around 1400 AD from the branch that spawns Paleo-Pabappa proper. However, these languages are excluded from the definition of Lenian languages because its people are physically and culturally different.

The phonology of proto-Highland was 

Rounded bilabials:    pʷ  mʷ      hʷ  w
Spread bilabials:     p   m   b   f   v
Alveolars:            t   n   r   s   l
Palatals:                             y
Velars:               k   ŋ       h   g

The vowel inventory was 

Short vowels:          a  e  i  o  u  ə
Long vowels:          aa ee ii oo uu 
Falling diphthongs:         ai    au
                            ei    ou
                            əi    əu


Proto-Highland (1400) to Proto-Aboa (2668)

This branch of the family is called Aboa because it is the language of the Empire of Aboa, which included Thaoa and some nearby areas. It may also have included parts of Subumpam and Litila. They slowly invaded the pacifist empire of Paba and by 3919 they had become Paba.

Syllables could end in a vowel, or one of /k n h g l/. The high tone could also be considered to be a final consonant, /ʔ/. Each of these five codas could occur after a vowel sequence; therefore, /pouh/ is a valid syllable. Superheavy syllabes such as these are a common trait in related languages.

All closed syllables were toneless, but contrasts like /ak~aak/ still existed.

The consonant inventory in 1400 AD was 

Rounded bilabials:    pʷ  mʷ      hʷ  w
Spread bilabials:     p   m   b   f   v
Alveolars:            t   n   r   s   l
Palatals:                             y
Velars:               k   ŋ       h   g

The vowel inventory was 

Short vowels:          a  e  i  o  u  ə
Long vowels:          aa ee ii oo uu 
Falling diphthongs:         ai    au
                            ei    ou
                            əi    əu
  1. The voiced stop b shifted to v.
  2. After a high tone, the voiceless fricatives hʷ f h shifted to kʷ p k. The /s/ did not shift.
  3. After a low tone, the voiceless stops pʷ p t shifted to bʷ b d.
  4. After a high tone, the nasals mʷ m n ŋ became the geminates mmʷ mm nn ŋŋ.
  5. Tones were eliminated.
  6. The sequences mpʷ mp nt shifted to mbʷ mb nd.
  7. The clusters kpʷ kp kt kf shifted to ppʷ pp tt pp. Note that there was never a /ks/.
  8. Any other final k shifted to h, which adopted previously existing sandhi rules such as /hm/ = [mp].
  9. The labialized consonants kʷ pʷ bʷ mʷ shifted to p p b m. Then w shifted to v.
  10. The diphthongs ai ei əi all merged as ē. Then au ou əu merged as ō. Then, the double vowel sequences aa ee ii oo uu became ā ē ī ō ū.

Proto-Highland (~1400) to Litila (2668 AD)

Labialized consonants stay.

  1. The voiced bilabial stop b shifted to p.
  2. stops after a high tone become geminate? C.f. gala

Proto-Highland (~1400) to Maimp (2668 AD)

Proto-Highland (~1400) to Topaloū (2668 AD)

Šàno

This language was spoken by a coastal (southwestern or southeastern) tribe. The name is an exonym. Note that the development is very similar early on to Subumpamese.

The consonant inventory of the mainland dialect of Tapilula was 

Rounded bilabials:                     hʷ  w
Spread bilabials:      p       m   b   f  (Ø)
Alveolars:             t       n   d       l
Rounded alveolars:     tʷ      nʷ  dʷ         
Velars:                k   ḳ   ŋ   ġ   h   g
  1. The aspirated velar stop k became č before the vowel /i/. If another vowel followed, the /i/ disappeared. This happened even if the /i/ was accented.
  2. When a "velaroid" consonant (/k ḳ ŋ h g l/) followed an accented high tone vowel, the vowel metathesized, leaving a closed syllable.
  3. A schwa before another vowel in any syllable disappeared. Thus əa əe əi əo əu əə shifted to a e i o u ə. This happened in both open and closed syllables.
  4. The sequences iu and ui shifted to əə.
  5. The double-vowel sequences aa ee ii oo uu əə shifted to the single vowels a e i o u ə in closed syllables only.
  6. The sequences ii uu əə (which now occurred only in open syllables) shifted to əi əu ə.
  7. The sequences ai ei oi merged as ei; the sequences au eu ou merged as ou.
  8. The mid-vowel sequences eo eə shifted to ee. Meanwhile oe oə became oo. These four sequences were all rare, however, because of shifts further back in time that affected only mid vowels.
  9. All consonants adjacent to an /u/ in either direction became labialized.
    NOTE ON POLITICS: Up until this point, the Šàno language is nearly identical to proto-Subumpamese.
  10. The sequences ae ao shifted to ai au.
  11. The voiced labiovelar fricative gʷ became bʷ.
  12. All labialized consonants become rounded bilabials.
  13. In absolute initial position, t >s.
  14. In syllable-final position, the voiced velar fricative g disappeared and lengthened the preceding vowel. This often occurred in the second element of a diphthong.
  15. Vowel sequences in which the second element was high-tone (less common) lengthened the second vowel, thus merging with the ones which had previously been followed by /g/.
  16. uā>wā.
  17. Velar consonants moved up: k ŋ h g > č ň š r, probably unconditionally.
  18. q>k.
  19. f fʷ shifted to h hʷ.
  20. In absolute final position, š č ň > s t n.

Thus the consonant inventory was 

Rounded bilabials:     pʷ      bʷ  hʷ  w
Spread bilabials:      p   m   b       
Alveolars:             t   n   d   s   l   r
Palataloids:           č   ň       š      
Velars:                k           h


The language still retained a full six-vowel system and the world's largest inventory of permissible vowel sequences: 

aa    ai    au
ea ee ei      
ia ie    io         
oa       oo ou
ua ue    uo
      əi    əu

All seventeen of these occurred as falling diphthongs, but only the nine beginning with /a e o/ also occurred as rising diphthongs. Sequences with two of the same vowel were distinguished by the tone pattern and, when following a labialized consonant, also by vowel color.

Additionally, long vowels were present, and were distinct from sequences of two short vowels. Thus, there were three tones: high, low, and long.

Labialized consonants carried little information, because they inherited the gaps of *ʷə ʷa and rarity of ʷe ʷi from Tapilula, filling these only when bordering a /u/. They were not distinctive in the syllable coda either because the only non-labialized coda consonants that could occur after an /u/ were those that had previously occurred after the diphthong /ao/.


Paleo-Pabappa splits into four languages at this point, but they share most of the immediately subsequent changes.

Subumpam

See Subumpamese_languages.

This branch diverges earlier than the others and could be excluded on the basis of cladistics, but it behaved as part of the sprachbund.


Tapilula (0) to proto-Subumpamese (~1700)

The consonant inventory of Tapilula was 

Rounded bilabials:                     hʷ  w
Spread bilabials:      p       m   b   f  (Ø)
Alveolars:             t       n   d       l
Rounded alveolars:     tʷ      nʷ  dʷ         
Velars:                k   ḳ   ŋ       h   g
  1. The aspirated velar stop k became č before the vowel /i/. If another vowel followed, the /i/ disappeared. This happened even if the /i/ was accented.
  2. When a "velaroid" consonant (k ḳ ŋ h g l) followed an accented high tone vowel, the vowel metathesized, leaving a superheavy syllable with both a two-vowel sequence and a coda consonant. Thus, for example, /àli/ > /ail/. These closed syllables were all high-toned, and are thus written without tone marks. Thus, for example, aa implies àa.
  3. A schwa before another vowel in any syllable disappeared. Thus əa əe əi əo əu əə shifted to a e i o u ə. This happened in both open and closed syllables.
  4. The sequences iu and ui shifted to ə̄.
  5. The double-vowel sequences aa ee ii oo uu əə shifted to the single vowels a e i o u ə in closed syllables only.
  6. The sequences ii uu əə (which now occurred only in open syllables) shifted to əi əu ə.
  7. The sequences ie uo shifted to i u in open syllables only.
  8. The remaining double-vowel sequences aa ee oo, which occurred only in open syllables, shifted to the long vowels ā ē ō.
  9. The sequences ai ei oi merged as ei; the sequences au eu ou merged as ou.
    NOTE ON POLITICS: THIS IS THE STAGE AT WHICH TROUT DIVERGES FROM THE SUBUMPAMESE BRANCH.
  10. The vowels /u i e/ caused adjacent consonants, in both directions, to become labialized, palatalized, and prepalatalized. The last shift applied only to velars. Labialization and palatalization could stack.
  11. The sequences ìa ìo ìə shifted to ī.
  12. The sequences ùa ùo ùə shifted to ū. ə̄ also shifted to ū.
  13. The sequences ei ou, in both open and closed syllables, shifted to ē ō.
  14. Syllable-final h shifted to x.
  15. Any fw>hw,then f>h
    Note on politics: Vuʒi split off here.
  16. The three syllabic nasals ṁ ṅ ŋ̇ all merged to ən.
  17. The velar ejective ḳ became q. Then kq qk shifted to qq.
  18. The cluster xhʷ became xʷ.
  19. All tones on unstressed syllables are released by spreading the tone of the accented syllable across the word.
    In a two-syllable root, the unstressed syllable acquires the opposite tone from the accented syllable.
    Classifier prefixes and auxiliary verbs all become low tone.
    In compounds, there is no sandhi.
  20. The fricative śʷ s̀ʷ šʷ shifted to s. Then ś s̀ became š.
  21. The nasals ń ǹ shifted to ň. Then mʷ nʷ ňʷ ŋʷ all merged as m.
  22. The sequences km qm shifted to kʷ qʷ.
  23. Voiced palatal stops and fricatives all merged as y.
  24. The sequences iy ey, on any tone, shifted to ī ē. <---QUESTIONABLE. most of this would have been from ĭg.
  25. The labialized palataloids čʷ ǯʷ became the velars kʷ ġʷ.
  26. The labialized approximants lʷ łʷ merged as w.
  27. The labialized alveolar stops tʷ dʷ shifted to pʷ bʷ.
  28. Unaccented final short schwas were deleted. (In nouns, they were retained because they were not always final. Therefore, this shift applies mostly to inflections.)
  29. The sequences ʷe ʷi ʷə ʷu, on any tone, shifted to e i ə u. Thus labialization remained distinctive only before /a/ and /o/.
  30. Mismatched diphthongs such as /eī/ shifted to /ēi/. Generally these were from a lost final -g.

Thus the proto-Subumpamese language had the consonants 

Rounded bilabials:    pʷ  bʷ          w 
Bilabials:            p   b   m                   
Alveolars:            t   d   n   s   l             
Postalveolars:        č   ǯ   ň   š   ł           
Palatals:             ć               y
Prevelars:            c̀        
Velars:               k   ġ   ŋ   x   g
Labiovelars:          kʷ  ġʷ      xʷ  gʷ
Uvulars:              q           h              
Rounded uvulars:      qʷ          hʷ

All consonants were labialized before any /u/ and palatalized before any /i/. However, sequences like si~ši remained distinct. Consonants were also labialized *after* any /u/, so there is no contrast between /upwa/ vs /upa/, even over morpheme boundaries. This means that labialization was contrastive only in a very restricted environment, since the consonant, the following vowel, and the preceding vowel must all be on the list.

The voiced velar stop /ġ/ was a conditional alternant of /ġʷ/, appearing only before vowels that /ġʷ/ could not appear before.

The high vowel sequences were / yi ə yə wu/. Thus, it is almost but not quite analyzable as a single vowel /ɨ/.


See Subumpamese languages for details of the languages that do not survive the Vegetable War.

Proto-Subumpamese (1700) to Sub-Oyster (3141)

This is a substratum of the Oyster language.

Note on culture

It is possible that some Oysters actually spoke Olati-A, since this was the language of Yuenan, in western Subumpam. If so, it's possible that they spoke a very conservative dialect of it which changed little from 1700.

This idea is based on the idea that while the Oysters represented Subumpam and Subumpamese culture, they originated from a peripheral area of Subumpam rather than the capital state of Bipabum.

The designation of Oyster as an eastern Subumpamese language may have arisen from a confusion between Bipabum (the capital) and Yuenan (the most linguistically pure state), in turn caused by the fact that a third state exists somewhere that rejected the Oyster language ... and this state cannot have been Yuenan if Yuenan *is* the Oyster state (even if it had dialects).

  1. The high front vowel i, on all tones, shifted to ʲi. This had already happened in the proto-language, but was not phonemic. Note that this is different from earlier shifts that moved the consonant. For example, /ki/ became /kʲi/ here, but not /ći/. Also, this shift applied to labials.
  2. All consonants bordering a /u/ in either direction became labialized. That is, u > ʷuʷ. This shift had also happened in the proto-language but was not represented in the orthography. However, the simple spelling /u/ remained, so "u" implied "ʷuʷ". There was, at this time, no /u/ that occurred outside this environment.
  3. The high central vowels ə ə̄ changed to i ī unconditionally.
    Note that around this time, the classifier prefix /yi-/ was dropped from the grammar except in bare form. (That is, e.g. bo-yi- became just bo-.) This was not a sound change, but expanded the environments in which palatalized consonants could occur.
  4. When bordering a uvular in either direction, the vowel i (on any tone) shifted to ʉ~u, which are the same phoneme, but the ʉ spelling indicates specifically that the surrounding consonants are not labialized.
  5. Syllable-final nasals ŋ ň changed to match the place of a following consonant, and changed to n if word-final.
    Note on politics: this may be 2371.
  6. The prevelar stop c̀ changed to ć.
  7. The high tone vowels à è ì ò ù came to be spelled á é í ó ú. (That is, they were no longer automatically followed by a glottal stop.)
  8. The mid vowel sequences o ʲo shifted to ʉ ʲe.
    Plain e apparently also shifted to ʲe.
  9. ea ae>ʲa ā.


If the actual Oyster language is Andanic, this language and its entire family is probably wiped out at this point and never replenished by any closely related language. Theoretical sound changes for a survivor population are below:

  1. On a low tone, the high vowels i u (including all ʉ) become ultra-short and are sometimes dropped.
  2. The long vowels ā ē ī ō ū shifted to á é í ó ú, thus merging with the primordial high tones. (This is why the orthography was changed.)
  3. The palatalized alveolar nasal nʲ shifted to ň.
  4. The sequences čʲ ǯʲ ňʲ šʲ łʲ shifted to č ǯ ň š y.
  5. The sequences ŋʲ xʲ gʲ hʲ shifted to ń ś y ś. Then ġʲ shifted to ǵ.
  6. The palatalized rounded bilabials pʷʲ bʷʲ mʷʲ simplified to pʷ bʷ mʷ. These had appeared from sequences like /mumi/+vowel.
  7. The sequence hʷɨg shifted to xʷ.


Palatalization can be analyzed as consonant + /j/ or as a property inherent to the consonant. Since some palatalized consonants occur in the coda, this analysis is most convenient: 

                      PLAIN                      PALATALIZED

Rounded bilabials:    pʷ  bʷ          w 
Bilabials:            p   b   m                  pʲ  bʲ  mʲ 
Alveolars:            t   d   n   s   l          tʲ  dʲ      sʲ   
Postalveolars:        č   ǯ   ň   š   ł           
Palatals:             ć   ǵ   ń   ś   y         (ć   ǵ   ń   ś   y)
Velars:               k   ġ   ŋ   x   g          kʲ   
Labiovelars:          kʷ  ġʷ      xʷ  gʷ         
Uvulars:              q           h                         
Rounded uvulars:      qʷ          hʷ

All consonants are labialized before and after any /u/ (not /ʉ/); the labialized consonants listed in the table above are those that can appear in other contexts. If the u~ʉ contrast is neutralized by analyzing labialization as phonemic, then all consonants would have labialized variants, even the palatalized ones.

Unlike most other languages, inflections in FILTER did not change the stress pattern, since there was no stress pattern ... e.g. kʉ́pʉ "pine", genitive kʉ́pʉs, rather than e.g. Khulls-like kàpa~kapas.

Note the four-way contrasts between t~tʲ~č~ć, d~dʲ~ǯ~ǵ, and s~sʲ~š~ś. These were distinguished by tongue shape as well as place of articulation.

There were five vowels, /a e i o u/. In major syllables, all five vowels could occur. In minor syllables, only /a i/ could occur.

Proto-Subumpamese (1700) to Pudop (2672)

The consonant inventory was 

Rounded bilabials:    pʷ  bʷ          w 
Bilabials:            p   b   m   f               
Alveolars:            t   d   n   s   l             
Postalveolars:        č   ǯ   ň   š   ł           
Palatals:             ć               y
Prevelars:            c̀        
Velars:               k   ġ   ŋ   x   g
Labiovelars:          kʷ  ġʷ      xʷ  gʷ
Uvulars:              q           h              
Rounded uvulars:      qʷ          hʷ

This is the language spoken in the capital district, Pudop, named after its cranberry harvest.

  1. The high central vowel ə changed to i unconditionally.
  2. Syllable-final nasals ŋ ň changed to match the place of a following consonant, and changed to n if word-final.
  3. the palatalized alveolar consonants č ǯ ň ł become plain alveolars s z n l. Then c̀ ć shifted to ś š.
  4. Then, the stops k ġ shifted to ś y before any /e/ or /i/.
  5. All remaining affricates change to fricatives: c ʒ > s z .
  6. Labialization bleeds through clusters. e.g. kʷm > kʷmʷ. This means that it was no longer phonemic.
  7. Then, voiceless stops and fricatives became voiced after a low tone or a long falling vowel. ś x h hʷ > y g Ø w .
  8. The coda fricatives s š ś x all became voiced to Ø i i Ø. The silent ones lengthened a preceding vowel, and sequences such as /ii uu/ shifted to long vowels as well.
  9. The voiced stops d ġ ġʷ shifted to r g gʷ. However, stop allophones remained in some positions.
  10. Labialized consos in syllable final position become bilabials. Thus pʷ bʷ mʷ w > p b m w; kʷ ŋʷ > p m.
  11. Palatalization also bleeds though. This is sort of a compensatory shift to make up for the last one.
  12. The uvular stop q shifted to k.

Thus the final consonant inventory was 

Labials:              p   m   f   w   b     
Alveolars:            t   n   s   l   r   z             
Postalveolars:                š                   
Palatals:                     ś   y        
Velars:               k   ŋ   x   g
Postvelars:                   h

This was originally intended for a longer period; it might stop partway through.

Proto-Subumpamese (1700) to Eastern Subumpamese (2672)

  1. gʷ hʷ > v f.
  2. The high central vowel ə changed to i unconditionally.
  3. Syllable-final ŋ ň changed to match the place of a following consonant, and changed to n if word-final.
  4. pʷ bʷ mʷ w > p b m v. (Possibly /ə/ > /o/ when facing a labialized consonant before this shift.)
  5. ai (on any tone) became ē (perhaps not always long).
  6. The lateral approximant l shifted to w.
  7. Palatals č ć ǯ ň ł > c c ʒ n l.
  8. Velars (but not labiovelars) shifted doubly forward:
    c̀ k ġ ŋ x g > č č ǯ ň š ž. (Possibly velars remain in some positions, as in early Proto-Indo-European. This would best be explained as labialization.)
  9. The uvular stop q shifted to k. /h/ became /x/ in most positions, but the spelling remained.
  10. In syllable-final position, f c shifted to p t. (Thus /k/>/t č/, /h/>/s š/, even though the shifts were not related.)
  11. The labiovelars kʷ ġʷ shifted to p b.
  12. The fricative h shifted to k after a high tone.

Thus the Eastern Subumpamese consonant inventory was 

Bilabials:       p   b   m   f   v   w       
Alveolars:       t   d   n   s       l   c   ʒ             
Palataloids:     č   ǯ   ň   š   ž   y                   
Velars:          k       ŋ   h

For FILTER, see Lenian languages and FILTER.


Later shifts:


Labiovelars occurred mostly in the vicinity of /i u/; each branch developed them in different ways:

  1. shift to velars, which were almost in complementary distribution.
  2. shift to rounded bilabials.
  3. a split shift combining the above two options depending on further conditions.
  4. retention, with vowel mergers creating new minimal pairs.

Gold

This branch is excluded on the basis that it loses its classifier prefixes. See Gold language.

Proto-Trout (1095) to Pēles

It is possible that the Pelesians maintained friendly contact with one of the dark-skinned tribes and thus spoke the same language as of 2175 ad. However , it is not clear if these neighbors were monolingual themselves .... Wax had acted alone when it seceded in 1905, and may not have truly spoken Gold. Tarise spoke a single language in 1905, but this may have been due to subsequent assimilation.

Although the Pelesians were surrounded by dark skinned tribes, their language initially formed a speech continuum with the tribes in both directions. It was simply that more of the blonde settlers moved to Pēles than elsewhere, so the dark skinned tribes borrowed the settlers' language but did not absorb appreciable numbers of the people.

The founders of Pēles spoke the same language as the Leapers; indeed, they may even have considered themselves Leapers at the time, but quickly found themselves outside the ruling class's protection. They thus despite their appearance came to behave as though they were aboriginals of their territory; soon, other immigrants did the same.


Initial phoneme inventory: 

                       PLAIN                         LABIALIZED
Bilabials:             p   b   m   f   v                     mʷ      w  
Alveolars:             t   d   n       l             tʷ  dʷ  nʷ            
Postalveolars:         č   ǯ           y                       
Velars:                k       ŋ   h   g   ḳ                 ŋʷ  hʷ  gʷ

Note that the inherited /h/ sound was a true /h/ in the onset, but variable in the coda.

The vowel inventory was 

Short vowels:          a  e  i  o  u  ə
Long vowels:          aa ee  ī oo  ū 
Falling diphthongs:      ae ei ao ou
                            əi    əu

Long vowels could be followed by /g/ (from k/k'/h/g), /n/, or /l/. They could also be followed by some clusters.

THE ABOVE ASSUMES THIS LANGUAGE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT DIDNT ANALOGIZE THESE.

  1. All consonants occurring after the vowel /u/ (any length, any tone) became labialized.
  2. All consonants occurring after the vowel /i/ **EXCEPT in the sequence /əi/** became palatalized.
  3. The high vowels i ī ə u ū shifted to yi yī i i ī.
  4. When an /a/ was in an adjacent syllable, the sequences e ē ei o ō ou shifted to ya yā yai a ā au.
  5. The sequences eḳ oḳ (on any tone) shifted to aḳ.
  6. The sequences e ē ei əi shifted to yi yī yi ī.
  7. The sequences o ō ou əu shifted to u ū u ī.
  8. The sequences aa ae ao merged as ā.
  9. The labial fricative f shifted to h.
    What happened to /v/?
  10. Any consonant that was both labialized and palatalized became labialized alone.
  11. The labialized consonants kʷ ḳʷ čʷ tʷ pʷ merged as p. Then, mʷ nʷ ŋʷ shifted to m. The voiced labialized stops dʷ bʷ merged as b. Lastly, xʷ gʷ shifted to f w.
  12. The sequences kʲ ḳʲ ŋʲ xʲ gʲ shifted to č č n s y.
  13. The clusters kp kb km kf shifted to pp pp pm p. Then kt kd kn shifted to tt tt tn . (/ks/ did not occur.) Then kč became čč. (/kŋ/ remained, and kh, kg, kk, etc had been eliminated in the proto-language although those shifts are not listed.)
  14. The voiced alveolar stop d shifted to r.
    What about /dʲ/?
  15. possibly i,u>e,ə in closed slabs (see here.)
    If this happens, it means that the Tropical Rim V culture had strong influence on Pēles, and it would likely mean that Pēles also loses its tones. If tones are preserved, then Pēles would be the only three-vowel language with a three-way tone contrast.

There is still lw,g,ł,etc

Many word roots begin with labials because of classifier prefixes ending with /u/. The situation is similar to Subumpamese and Bābākiam.

The final phonology was: 

Bilabials:               p   b   m   f       w
Palatalized labials:     pʲ  bʲ  mʲ
Alveolars:               t       n   s   r   l
Postalveolars:           č                   y
Velars:                  k       ŋ   x   g
Postvelars:                          h  (Ø)

And the vowels /a i u/ on three tones (high, low, long).

Tarise

Though the Tarise language is cladistically part of Trout Lakes, and also shared much in common grammatically, the culture was different.

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