Thaoa

Thaoa is a language, descended from the Gold language and spoken in southeastern Rilola and many islands. The formal date of separation from the other dialects of Gold is 1085, the date that the rulers of Thaoa seceded politically and became hostile to their western neighbors. Classical Thaoa was spoken around the year 2668.

Pre-Gold (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

1. The sequences ʷa ʷu ʷə shifted to ʷo ʷū wu. Possibly wi> uj.
2. High tone developed into the glottal stop ʔ at end of syllable. Thus, tones were eliminated.
3. The voiceless stops p t k ḳ shifted to the aspirated stops ph th kh kh in initial position. All were asps.
4. The voiced stops b d ġ became the voiceless stops p t k in initial position. In the same environment, the voiced fricatives v g ʕ became f x h.
5. The diphthongs əi əu shifted to oi eu.
6. ā > aʕ.
7. mh nh ŋh > mph nth ŋkh.
8. bh dh gh > ph th kh.
9. 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.

10. The semivowels y w became t p between a voiceless stop and a vowel; thus word-initial clusters were created.
11. The semivowels y w became s f between an aspirated stop and a vowel.
12. The semivowels y w became d b between a voiced stop and a vowel.
13. The semivowels y w became š f between a voiceless fricative and a vowel. Then, fricatives disappeared before /š/.
14. The sequences vy ly gy merged as z. Then, hw vw gw shifted to f v.
15. The labialized nasals mʷ nʷ ŋʷ merged as mm. Then, any nasal followed by a /j/ shifted to ň .
16. The sequence ʔh (only in Andanese loanwords) shifted to qh.
17. The sequences tp db shifted to pp bb.
18. The sequences kp kt (unaspirated) shifted to simple p t. Then, ks (phonemically /kʰs/) shifted to s.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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.

Orthography

Thaoa was primarily written with the ornate Andanese syllabary, despite it being poorly suited to the language. However, Thaoans had retained the usage of their inherited Gold language alphabet, and this was more common especially in the northern dialects that became Sakhi and had little Andanese influence. As in the parent language, vowels and consonants were considered to belong to two different alphabets, and either of them could be placed first, but consonants were more commonly found first.

Letter order for consonants

 l  j  h  k  kʰ ŋ  p  pʰ m  t  tʰ  n  s  x  š  b  ž  č  ň  ʔ

(etymology of above:

ʕ  l  j  h  ḳ  k  ŋ     p  m     t  w  n  hʷ g  s  d  ġ  b  z  č  ǯ
   l  j  h  k  kʰ ŋ  p  pʰ m  t  tʰ    n  s  x  š        b  ž  č  ň  ʔ
)

Letter order for vowels

a i u y e o

Culture and history

See here.