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.
NOTE: It's possible that HP-1 is in fact the dark-skinned people who used to be included under Pejo language.
- Though this would essentially confine the blonde people to small islands, as if they were ruled out of the larger ones, when they were supposed to be settling in tandem. It would be odd for the blonde Lenians to be of inferior status throughout the ocean and then win the exclusive right to settle Dreamland upon its discovery.
Either way, at least some of the languages here are for the stereotypical "blondes in the jungle" society that never contacts nor is contacted by the peoples of the mainland; all communication is indirect and very slow.
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 (2600 AD)
Early HP-1 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.
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-1 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.
Descendants of HP-1
HP-1 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 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 the Sun branch is actually slightly older than the Rain branch and a new proto-language will need to be drawn up.
"Rainy" branch
This branch of the family keeps /h/ as a voiceless consonant and makes new sibilants from various processes. The presence of /s/ and in some cases persistence of /h/ gave these languages a "wet" sound.
It is possible, however, that this is a term of convenience and that they have no private genetic root.
HP-Rain (2600 AD) to Umbrella (Pamā)
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 labialized consonants pʷ mʷ kʷ shifted to p m p. The labial approximant w may have also shifted to b.
- NOTE, this is probably not the first shift in the history, but I am putting it here to fill out the sketch.
Thus the final consonant inventory MAY HAVE BEEN
Labials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Palatals: y Velars: k ŋ (Ø) h
HP-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 č ň s.
- Labialization was lost.
At this point the phoneme inventory was
Labials: p m f b Alveolars: s Palatals: č ň y Velars: k
This phonology is visibly unstable, and either the /s/ or the /č/ must have an allophone of [t]. The /ň/ should probably simply be /n/ even at this stage.
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/.
HP-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.
HP-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
HP-Rain (2600 AD) to Snow Pants (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.
"Sunny" branch
These languages shifted /h/ into a voiced fricative.
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.
HP-Sun (2600 AD) to ????
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 g 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/.
For this branch it may be helpful to use the simpler inventory
Labials: p m b Alveolars: t n l Velars: k ŋ g
There is thus only a three-way distinction on manner of articulation, and a three-way distinction on place of articulation, and no gaps.
HP-Sun (2600 AD) to Sparc
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).
HP-Sun (2600 AD) to TRU64
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).
HP-Sun (2600 AD) to Deskjet
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).
HP-Sun (2600 AD) to Presario
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).
Proto-Hipatal (0) to HP-2 (???)
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. The initial phonology was slightly different from that of Tapilula, 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 k ḳ ŋ become palatalized to č ň y y č č ň before any /e/ or /i/.
- Labialization was eliminated.
Syllabary
The language was written in a 14x15 syllabary in which tone was considered a property of the vowel. There were 154 syllables.
LOW HIGH a e i o u ə á é í 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 lé lí 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 kó kú kə́ kṁ kṅ kŋ̇ ḳa ḳe ḳi ḳo ḳu ḳə ḳá ḳó ḳú ḳə́ ŋa ŋo ŋu ŋə ŋá ŋé ŋí ŋó ŋú ŋə́ ŋṁ ŋṅ ŋ̇
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.
Proto-Hipatal (0) to HP-3 (???)
This is a hypothetical group set up for the blonde Lenians who were not Dreamers if I determine that the HP-1 group was entirely made up dark-skinned settlers. Alternatively, HP-1 could be the Lenian group and HP-3 could be for the dark-skinned people. (I think my original model had them as close allies, moving cooperatively eastward, but this doesn't explain why only the Lenians were allowed to settle Dreamland.)
It could be that the division among the settlers was not racial but based on some other characteristic, and that the Dreamers arose from within HP-2, which itself was just one branch of the wider Hipatal family. This would mean that both HP-1 and HP-2 could be racially diverse so long as a group within HP-2 was entirely Lenian.
Grammar
HP-3 (and maybe HP-1) 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.
Notes
- ↑ see history