Cosmopolitan Play languages
The Play party spoke Bābākiam and spread it to the territories they conquered. Soon, dozens of rival parties also spoke Bābākiam, including the Jokers, the Swamp Kids, the Flower Bees, the Corals, the Creamers, and the Dolls. At its peak, Bābākiam was the language of more than one third of the world's population. But the Players were the first people to spread it outside its original compact homeland in Paba, and every one of the other groups traced their association with the language to early contacts with the Players.
Scratchpad
Possibly revive the voicing shift from Yeisu Kasu, Mevumep, or wherever it was. that language did not have /b/, so the shift made perfect sense there. here, there would be both an inherited /b/ and a new /b/.
Invasion of Tata
In 4138, the Play party invaded Dreamland and joined their conquest to the Play-held state of Tata. Their language was identical with Bābākiam. Later, the Swamp Kids invaded Tata a second time, and even though they opposed the Players, their languages were the same, and the invasion helped cement the role of Babakiam as the primary language of Tata and adjacent areas near (but not in) Baeba Swamp.
Note that the language of Tata arose from a blend of two different dialects; even though the invasions were only 70 years apart, they had originated from different areas. Even so, the differences were mainly in vocabulary, since the phonology of both dialects was exactly the same and the grammar of both dialects was flexible enough that speakers of both had no trouble listening to others.
The Tataans borrowed words from the indigenous Dreamlandic languages, which had by this time diverged widely even from each other. They borrowed relatively few words from the non-Dreamlandic Lenians, however.
Invasion of Amade
In 4140 (approximately), the Play party invaded Amade but did not completely subdue the locals. But the Firestones who invaded Amade in 4162 also spoke Babakiam, and they completely replaced the native languages. The Firestone branch may have had a greater survival of Late Andanese vocabulary than the Players and Swamp Kids in Tata. Very few of the words originating in Dreamland reached either of the groups in Amade.
This might be the "vuonah" language.
If, as stated on Tropical_Rim#Later_history, the Firestones conquered more than just Amade, their invasion woul have a great and indelible change on the demographics of the area, as they were very different in appearance from the dark-skinned natives, and reached 85% of the population within just two years. It is unlikely that the tribes around them would ever push the descendants of the Firestones back out.
The Firestones had light skin and typically dark hair, but some had brown hair or even shades of red and blonde. As above, they were a majority in their area, so even as they mingled with the dark-skinned tribes around them, they changed little over the next 4,500 years, and did not feel out of place in their tropical habitat. They were probably the shortest people in the area, however, as the short aboriginals of Kxesh, Atlam, and the Star Empire had been replaced by taller tribes that had immigrated in slow waves over the preceding years. This would have slowed the rate of intermarriage somewhat, although it may have conversely brought the Firestones closer to the few remaining true aboriginal tribes.
Play (4138) to Cupbearer
This branch could equally well be derived from the Swamp Kids' Bābākiam as spoken in 4206. The Swamp Kids settled further south initially, but they were pushed together and in fact the Swamp Kids ended up enslaving the descendants of the Players.
This language was spoken in both Tata and the Cupbearers' republic of Xalmana. At one point, Xalmana governed all of Tata, but Baeba Swamp governed all of Xalmana.
The Cupbearers may be an important source of population for Cosmpolitan Nama, and therefore could be a substratum for the Poswobs who arrived 1,400 years later. It is even possible that the Cupbearers joined the aboriginals and came to be seen as part of the Repilian tribal assortment.
Play (4138) to Blossom
The language of the United Pacifist League. Possibly identical to Cupbearer, being a political name only. This group eventually ended up speaking Poswa, but the language came from Paba whereas the political party arose thousands of miles away in Baeba Swamp.
This language may borrow many words from Playwatch.
The consonant inventory of Play was
Bilabials: p m b f (v) Alveolars: t n s Palataloids: ž š (y) Velars: k ŋ
The vowels were /a i u ə ā ī ū/, but double vowel sequences were common and could contrast with single long vowels. The schwa vowel was probably lower than in most other languages with this inventory.
- The vowel sequences ai au əi əu shifted to ē ō e o.
- The vowel sequences əa əā shifted to ia iā.
- All remaining ə shifted to e.
Play (4138) to Bottom
The language of the Bottoms. Likely identical to Cupbearer.
Play (4162) to Firestone (6843)
The maturation date is of no linguistic significance, but rather of political significance. Late Andanese contributes much vocabulary.
The consonant inventory of Play was
Bilabials: p m b f (v) Alveolars: t n s Palataloids: ž š (y) Velars: k ŋ
The vowels were /a i u ə ā ī ū/.
- Long vowels in initial syllables became double: ā ī ū became aa ii uu. This shift did not happen if the long vowel was supported by another following vowel. Meanwhile double vowels in final syllables became long: aa ii uu shifted to ā ī ū. Medial syllables followed morpheme boundaries.
- The double vowels ii uu became ʲi ʷu in all positions.
- Any bʷ žʷ created by the previous shift changed to b. Likewise any bʲ žʲ changed to ž.
- Between two consonants in a single syllable, the diphthongs au əu əi changed to ō u e. iu ui ii uu > ə ə i u. The change was bypassed whenever a consonant cluster was frontloaded onto the next syllable, however.
- NOTE, this shift is also in Poswa and Pabappa's list, but does not seem to have happened, except when there was a third component to the vowel nucleus. That is, /iui/ > /ʲə/, etc, rather than just /ui/ > /ə/.
- ā aa changed to aba in all positions.
- The fricative sequences f sf changed to h h.
- The fricative sequences ž sž shifted to l s.
- Note, this was recently edited after a long break.
- The sequences mn pt shifted to nn tt.
- All coda -p generated a high tone on the preceding vowel and then disappeared. Note that this reflex might become synonymous with gemination.
- Before a vowel, the sequences ti si ni shifted to č š ň. Note that this only occurred in open syllables and that there was no *li, except possibly in Andanese loans.
- Before a vowel, the sequences tu su nu shifted to tʷ sʷ nʷ. Note that this only occurred in open syllables and that there was no *lu, except possibly in Andanese loans.
- Before a vowel, the sequences ki ŋi hi shifted to ć ń ś. The stop and nasal may have shifted to a dental almost immediately when before any vowel other than /i/. This triggered a further shift of kih hih to ć ś.
- Note that there were still minimal pairs like kʲiw "plain" vs kʲu "mountain range", so this shift is important.
- Before a vowel, the sequences ku ŋu hu shifted to kʷ ŋʷ hʷ. Note that /hʷ/ was not IPA /f/ and that the nasal was nasal all the way through. This triggered a further shift of kuh huh to kʷ hʷ.
- All native Play words with no heavy syllables took the tone pattern MLL, and Andanese loans took the tone pattern LLM (there were no heavy syllables in Andanese).
- The stress shifted to the highest mora in the word. All remaining closed syllables were high, and the first mora of a long vowel was high.
- The vowel i was backed to ɨ after any velar or labial consonant. This triggered a shift of hʷi gʷi to hɨ gɨ.
- When occurring as a FALLING diphthong, the sequence iu shifted to ʷɨ̄. This could only occur in an open syllable after a consonant plus a glide.
- The labialized palatals ćʷ ńʷ shifted to dentals ṭ ṇ. This did not affect postalveolars, nor did it affect the palatal fricative.
- Before a vowel, the lateral sequences li lu shifted to λ gʷ. The lambda is the same as /ł/. There was no /g/ yet and it is a fricative.
- Syllable-final m came to be pronounced as vowel nasalization, but was spelled as if it were final n.
- When on a low tone, the sequences sa si su ha hi hu collapsed to s š sʷ h ś hʷ even before consonants now. Some grammatical affixes were reinforced by using a longer form containing a second vowel. (This had happened even in Late Andanese.)
This language could redevelop tones, even though neither of the languages of the settlers had tones. Late Andanese had weak final stress and Play had word-initial stress, so it is possible that the settlers used a very weak stress in general and thus were susceptible to sound changes such as having closed syllables draw the stress away from any other syllable. Thus, for example, long vowels could be restored to their earlier status as a separate tone, and syllables ending in the voiceless consonants /p s/ could become short high vowels like the traditional à tone.
The Firestones enslaved the Crystals, but they may have made peace within a few generations.
- OTHER IDEAS
- Possibly do /f/ > /h/, under influence from Andanese. The native languages likely had little effect on Firestone initiall, but perhaps they became friends with the native tribes after a generation or so. It could be that /f/ > /h/ but /ff/ > /f/. On the other hand, all /sf/~/ff/ in Play is unetymological, since coda /s/ did not arise in this position and the proper outcome is just a simple /f/.
- Probably all long vowels in closed syllables become short. The vowel shifts in the main branch may have been allophonically present already in Play.
Play in Creamland
In 4151, Creamland seceded from the Anchor Empire, and soon came to identify its people as a wing of the Play party. In eastern Creamland, Andanic languages and others may have persisted from ancient times, but the only language spoken in the capital was Play. It is possible that, after 4268, Creamland remains the only functioning nation outside Baeba's control and that its language splits slowly along geographic lines (not quickly, because the capital was still in control). Thus the Pabappa/Poswa branch would be just one of many branches, albeit by far the dominant one.
Alternatively, early Pabappa covers all of Creamland, and only begins branching after Poswa has, so although later Creamland has more than one language, those languages are more closely related to Pabappa than Poswa is. A third alternative would be to combine these situations, meaning that Creamland would have languages both closer and further away from Pabappa than Poswa is, and Poswa would therefore be just one of many typical branches of the Pabappa family, notable only because of its vastly greater territory compared to all others.
Note that the founding Creamers were racially exclusionary, allowing only Lenian people to join their movement. This may mean little in the long run, though.
Play in Xema
The first Swamp Kids who moved to Xema were Andanese speakers who were cut off even from the other Swamp Kids and had nowhere else to flee to. Some later Swamp Kids moved to Xema, and these may have spoken Bābākiam, but it is unlikely their language would have survived for very long.
