Proto-Cardial
Proto-Huamish is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Huamish languages. It is estimated to have been spoken around 5.500 BC.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Sibilants | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | |||||||
| Stops and affricates |
"Emphatic" | *pʰ | *tʰ | *(tʃ) | *(tʃ) | *kʰ | ||
| Fortis | *p | *t | *ts | *(tʃ) | *k | |||
| Lenis | *b | *d | *dz | *(tʃ) | *g | |||
| Fricatives | Fortis | *f | *s | *(ʃ) | *x | *h | ||
| Lenis | *z | *(ʃ) | ||||||
| Nasals | *m | *n | ||||||
| Laterals | Fortis | *ɫ | ||||||
| Lenis | *l | |||||||
| Rhotics | Fortis | *r | ||||||
| Lenis | *ɾ | |||||||
| Semivowels | *w | *j | ||||||
Emphatic Stops
The exact quality of "emphatic stops" is difficult to determine. For a time it was proposed to give ejective values, but the later comparison of cognates with Kartvelian and Tommian, does not show correspondences.
Apparently the Macro-Kartvelian ejectives evolved to voiceless stops, and the "emphatic stops" that reconstructed for Proto-Huamish are a later development to avoid the loss of the final consonants after the vowel readjustment.
In the descendant languages there are no remains of "emphatic", but they show different reflexes depending on the language.
The matter of "ʃ" and "tʃ"
It seems that the readjustment of vowels caused the sibilants to palatizate in final position so as not to get lost and these words acquired a diminutive sense. The words that did not adopt a diminutive meaning, reversed the change becoming * z < *ʃ and * ts < *tʃ.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | *i | *u | |
| Mid | *e | *ə | *o |
| Low | *a |
The middle vowel reflexes
The *ə phoneme is marginal and seems to be the cause of vowel readjustment. In the different groups it has the following reflexes:
| IPA | North-West | North-Central | Central-West | Central-Central | Central-East | South-Central | South-east |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *ə | *o > *u | *e | *u | *e > *∅ | *e | *u | *a |
Morphology
Noun and adjective declension
| Case | Singular | Plural | Indefinite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | *-(a) | *-n(a) | *-r(a) |
| Vocative | *-fo | *-no | *-ro |
| Ergative | *-m(a) | *-tʰ(a) | *-pəm(a) |
| Dative-Genitive | *-z(a) | *-pədz(a) | *-xəz(a) |
| Instrumental | *-ts(a) | *-pəts(a) | *-xəts(a) |
| Locative | *-x(a) | *-pəx(a) | *-xə |
| Adverbial | *-t(a) | *-pət(a) | *-xət(a) |
| Invertive | *-u(a) | *-bu(a) | *-xu(a) |
Numerals
| Cardinal | Ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | *ərtʰu | *pʰiru |
| 2 | *ju | *juru |
| 3 | *sum | *sumuru |
| 4 | *ja | *jaru |
| 5 | *hustʰu | *hustʰuru |
| 6 | *sam | *samru |
| 7 | *samtʰu | *samtʰuru |
| 8 | *jo | *joru |
| 9 | *tʰusa | *tʰusaru |
| 10 | *hastʰu | *hastʰuru |
| 100 | *əz | *əzuru |
Clearly can see the lack of numerals, and at a glance you can reconstruct values for a previous system. It is as if the first speakers had arrived in the peninsula with a poor number system and developed a larger one later.
Proto-system?
| Cardinal | |
|---|---|
| 1/2 (half) | *hw-(ər)tʰu |
| 1 | *pʰi |
| 2 | *ju |
| 3 | *sum |
| 4 | *hus |
| 5 | *iz |
| 10 | *sa |
they are formed duals by apophony
Verbs
The structure of the polysynthetic verb is:
Pronouns
The following pronouns can be reconstructed as suffixes for the verbs.
Personal pronouns
Only has two persons, the rest are named as a demonstrative pronoun according to the distance of the subject or object.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Exclusive | *me | *tsi |
| Inclusive | *na | ||
| 2nd person | Familiar | *zi | *zin |
| Polite | *si | *tʰi | |
A differentiation is presupposed as "polite" and "familiar" for Proto-Huamish, but no descendant language shows this differentiation although depending on the group loses one of these two pronouns.
Demonstrative pronouns
Some linguists include them in the system of personal pronouns, but to avoid an uncomfortable system of five grammatical persons, they separate. They also show the declination characteristics for an indefinite number, used as an interrogative.
| Singular | Plural | Indefinite/Interrogative | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Person" | "It" | *he | *hen | *ma |
| "Thing" | "This" | *hi | *hin | *su |
| "That" | *xa | *xan | *sa | |
What is referred to as "person" or "thing" is no more than an adaptation to the English language this differentiation only exists in Proto-huamish for the interrogatives as "Who" (Person) and "What" (Thing).
