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.

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.

Languages

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)

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.

1. 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/.
2. The voiceless aspirated velar stop k shifted to h unconditionally. Ejectives and labialized forms were unaffected by this change.
3. The labialized consonants lʷ gʷ shifted to w .
4. The labialized alveolars tʷ nʷ ndʷ shifted to kʷ ŋʷ ŋġʷ.
5. Schwa disappeared between a nasal and a following stop or fricative; if there was a fricative, it became a stop.
6. Initial schwas disappeared.
7. The ejective stops ḳ ḳʷ shifted to k kʷ.
8. Any remaining schwa ə shifted to i.
9. The rounded vowel o shifted to a unconditionally. /u/ became unrounded, but there was no change in spelling.
10. The mid vowel e shifted to ə unconditionally.
11. The prenasalized voiced stops mbʷ mb nd ŋġ ŋġʷ shifted to the double nasals mmʷ mm nn ŋŋ ŋŋʷ.
12. The voiced velar fricative g disappeared to Ø.
13. The voiced stop bʷ merged into w; plain /b/ became an approximant, but there was no change in spelling.

Thus the consonant inventory of HP-1 was

Rounded bilabials:     pʷ  mʷ  w    
Spread bilabials:      p   m   b       
Alveolars:             t   n   l        
Velars:                k   ŋ  (Ø)  h
Labiovelars:           kʷ  ŋʷ         

The vowel inventory was /a i u ə/, with labialized consonants appearing before all four vowels. There were syllabic nasals /ṁ ṅ ŋ̇/. Any of the consonants in the first two columns can be prenasalized, and these clusters can appear word-initially. There are no other clusters. The voiceless fricative /h/, the only fricative in the language, was highly variable in pronunciation, often being labialized or palatalized or both.