Icecap

Icecap Moonshine is a highly divergent language spoken around the year 6843 in cold climates famous for its small root vocabulary, compact morphology, and wide gap between male and female speech registers. When men are allowed to speak at all, they use a much more difficult speech register than women do, and when women speak to men, they use a speech register that omits crucial information, so men have to listen closely and think quickly whenever a woman gives them a new chore to do.

The first Moonshine speakers arose in the year 3948, and committed the Great Conspiracy, forever abolishing all male social power structures and spreading their revolution to foreign nations as well. The Moonshines prospered in their radical new society for about 150 years, whereupon a traditional male army invaded and crushed the Moonshine empire. Nevertheless, the winners of the war were unable to occupy Moonshine territory, and the Moonshines became even more feministic as they retracted into supreme isolation for the next three thousand years.

Moonshine women are much taller than their men, and it soon became unnecessary to apply social pressure to force men down to the bottom of the society; female superiority was seen as the only possible natural order, and few men even contemplated fighting back.

Although there have been other societies in which female power was even more unfairly stacked against men, the Icecap Moonshine language is notable even by comparison to these other societies for the great extent to which the social way of life has become entrenched in their language.

Scratchpad

See [1] for removed ideas.

New genitive infix

16:19, 2 March 2022 (PST)

The new sound change list opens up the possibility for a genitive infix appearing around 4800 AD, such that e.g. ŋàsiḳa "door" and its genitive ŋasiḳas could appear as ŋàsʲk and ŋàsʲikˠ. There may need to be a way to stop the palatalization from staining the following consonant in the resulting cluster. The stabilization of the accent on the root is not a problem however.

Possible use of Play block scripts

16:19, 2 March 2022 (PST)

The Police in Play territory wanted to write Moonshine using the Play block script or an adaptation of it, at least for pleasure. They admired the small children they saw writing messages in a script that their own adults could scarcely make sense of, let alone read, but which the Play children all seemingly understood without a moment's pause. Moonshine had too many phonemes to use the Play script directly, they realized, but the Police hoped that they could make a new version of it, whether it be more complex to handle the larger phonology of Moonshine or less complex to show their admiration for the superiority of the Play language's adaptability to artistic means of writing.

Diachronics and other information

Feminist Compact Imperial (3948) to Icecap Moonshine (~6800)

The expansive inherited phonology simplified quickly during the settlement period as the proto-Moonshine speakers passed through territory inhabited by speakers of Play and other languages with similarly small inventories.

Early shifts (Feminist Compact Imperial to Police)

The term Police is used instead of proto-Moonshine here, as it could be unclear whether the proto-Moonshine language was spoken in 3958 (when it was identical with Leaper) or around 4300. Properly the proto-Moonshine language should be considered to begin in 3958 because even then they considered it a separate language from Leaper for political reasons.

1. The ejective stops ṭ ḳ ḳʷ ḳṗ shifted to the voiceless fortis stops tˠ kˠ kʷˠ kp. Thus aspiration became nondistinctive. Moonshine probably did not have /ṗ ṗʷ/.
2. All high rising tones became ordinary long tones.
3. All pharyngealized vowels became ordinary low (mid) tones. The stress became weak.
4. After a high tone, the voiceless stops pʷ p t k kʷ kp shifted to fortis stops pʷˠ pˠ tˠ kˠ kʷˠ pˠ.
5. After a high tone, the voiceless fricatives x xʷ shifted to k kʷ. Note that this shift is subtly different from Leaper's because they did not also become fortis. However it is possible that /kʷ/ will become fortis in time for the shifts that affect it.
6. The rare labialized glottal fricative hʷ (sometimes spelled ħʷ for distinctness) shifted to a voiceless bilabial fricative f.
7. The common velar fricatives x xʷ came to be spelled h hʷ. Note that /hʷ/ contrasts with /f/.
8. Labialization was lost in the syllable coda; pʷ mʷ kʷ ŋʷ hʷ gʷ became p m k ŋ h g. All of these codas occurred only after the short low tone. Thus, these new codas joined the existing codas /s l n/ in not occurring after high tones (but /s l n/ could also occur after long tones). Since the codas could not occur after high tones, the high tone came to be seen as if it were a coda by itself, /ʔ/.

   It thus became possible to analyze labialized consonants as clusters, so long as those consonants which were both palatalized and labialized were still analyzed as /čw/ etc rather than /kyw/. The words that consisted of just these consonsnts (e.g. Leaper /xʷ/ "womb") likely continued to be labialized, but there was no distinction at this point.

VOWEL SHIFTS

The changes below are not assigned to any particular time, and may have occurred before the breakup of the parent language, but because the words in the lexicon are written with the Leaper vowels, some changes neeed t be reversed.

1. All instances of the vowels i u, on all tones, shifted to ʲi ʷu of the same tone. At least the /u/'s were probably already all pre-labialized because the Moonshine branch never did /əu/ > /ū/ as did Leaper.
2. The vowel sequence əi əu shifted to ī ū, without staining a preceding consonant. These sequences never occurred in a closed syllable, even stressed, so all such syllables were open. (The collapse of syllabic consonants had not happened yet.) There were a few syllables containing /ʷi/ and /ʲu/ in the Moonshine branch, whereas Leaper only had /ʷi/.

At this stage, reached by about 4300 AD, the Police language had a consonant inventory of:

Labials:                p   m   f       w     
Alveolars:              t   n   s   r   l    
Palataloids:            č   ň   š   ž   y    
Velars:                 k   ŋ   h   g  (Ø)

Vowels were

High tone     à  ì  ù  ə̀  
Low tone      a  i  u  ə
Long          ā  ī  ū  ə̄

The PMS /ə/ vowel corresponds to Leaper /o/ and the two were written with the same symbol rather than PMS reviving the early Gold schwa glyph. The script also had a row of symbols for /e/, but this /e/ could be analyzed as /ai/. It just happened that there were no other falling diphthongs in the language. Unlike Khulls, the palatal glide /y/ could occur after labialized consonants, and it did not stain a following vowel. Thus all four vowels could occur after the /y/.

Importantly, the vowel and diphthong inventory was very similar to that of contemporary Play, which also had /a i u ə/ and the diphthongs /ai au əi əu/. The differences were that Moonshine also had a long schwa /ə̄/ but lacked Play's distinction between long vowels and vowel sequences. That is, Play had both /aa/ and /ā/, but Moonshine allowed only /ā/.

Prenasals existed in word-initial position, also unlike Khulls. e.g. /mpʷà/ "house" vs Khulls pà.

Police (c. 4300) to Ice Cream in a Bowl (c. 5547)

1. The clusters mm nn ŋŋ shifted to mˠ nˠ ŋˠ and lengthened the preceding vowel. Since there were as of yet no other fortis nasals, this was nondistinctive but still contrasted at least in some contexts with simple nasals after a long vowel (bcase of ān, etc).
2. The syllabic consonants ṁ ṅ ŋ̇ ḷ , when bordered by vowels in either direction, became fortis mˠ nˠ ŋˠ lˠ as well. THIS IMPLIES A DIFFERENCE FROM LEAPER. The syllabic ṡ then became a normal s, not fortis.

   This means that the vowel + g + consonant declension simply becomes vowel + consonant.

3. Final CVC syllables lost their stress as the words became toneless.
4. Unstressed syllable-final s shifted to h. This has repercussions later on because it leads some vowels to disappear before /s/ and not when in an open syllable.
5. All remaining syllabic consonants (bounded by consonants) became normal.
6. The consonant w in the coda (corresponding to Leaper /ʕʷ/) here became an ordinary u, forming a diphthong. Note that this consonant could occur after diphthongs itself, but only in newly formed compounds, and these words may have been "rescued" by changing the preceding diphthong elements from /j w/ to /žʲ gʷ/.

Loss of unstressed vowels

All four vowels /a i u ɜ/ disappeared in unstressed position, except when propped up by certain conditions explained below. The list speaks of two (perhaps three) dummy vowels.

1. In unstressed position, the vowels a ɜ disappeared to Ø when bordering one of /g h gʷ hʷ/ in either direction. This created clusters.

   This shift may have happened simultaneously on both sides of the consonant, so that for example, /-taga/ > /tg/, or it may have preserved the final vowel, which nonetheless disappears later. The distinction will only be meaningful if words appear in which there is in fact a difference in final outcome.

2. Where the voiced velar fricative g collided with any consonant from either side, it made that consonant into a fortis consonant, marked by Cˠ (perhaps /Cʰ/ for easier typing and display). At the immediately following stage, the entire inventory of consonants could be fortified this way, and thus they were not considered new phonemes but still as clusters. The same thing happened with gʷ except that the consonant was labialized in addition.

   Note that this shift even applies to sequences like /ng/, which became /nˠ/.

3. Where the voiceless velar fricative h collided, it made the preceding consonant voiceless and aspirated. This meant nothing for stops; other consonants are dealt with below. These consonants also became fortis, and can be spelled Cˠ or as Cʰ.
4. All LABIALIZED consonants became FORTIS in addition, while retaining labialization.
5. Any unaccented ɜ shifted to Ø .
6. The diphthongs ai au (of any origin) now became āʲ āʷ, with the coarticulations cleaving onto a following consonant, if any. In open syllables they continued to be spelled with the symbols for inherited /ai au/.

   This may be a problem, however, as it suggests that even the plain vowels /i u/ should stain following consonants.

   It is possible that proto-Moonshine retains a distinction between Leaper's /ē/ and /é/, and likewise, instead of merging both into the same long tone. It would need to be that PMS allowed superheavy syllables like /paiʔ/ or that it allowed tone contrasts with semivowel coda.

7. In stressed position, due to Play influence, the vowels ɜ̆ ɜ̀ ɜ̄ shifted to the color of the vowel in the next syllable, and to ă à ā in monosyllables. They did NOT acquire preceding glides /ʲ ʷ/.

   This shift began under Play influence around 4100 AD but did not become phonemic right away. It is likely that the shift didn't take place all at once, and that allophones of /ɜ/ that can here be spelled as ɪ ʊ existed. It is also possible that this shift can be discarded entirely if it comes about that the coarticulations of a following consonant account for it.

8. The diphthongs ɜi ɜu became āʲ āʷ when an /a/ followed in the next syllable, and ī ū otherwise (even in monosyllables). Any iu (that is, /i/ + /ʕʷ/) also became ū.
9. Unaccented WORD-FINAL a ʲi ʷu (not just unstressed) shifted to Ø ʲ ʷ unconditionally, creating more clusters. This happened even after fortis consonants.

   Now, every word ended with a consonant unless the final syllable was stressed. These shifts meant that for example, /-kas -ka/ had become /-kˠ -k/.

10. Unstressed ʲi u (and /i/ if it existed) now shifted to ʲ ʷ unless they occurred in one of Cˠ_ _Cˠ C_Cʲ where clusters and immediately posttonic consonants also count as fortis consonants. (But they are not actually fortis, so they don't behave as part of the fortis class later on.)
11. Then, unaccented a (and any other vowels) became Ø (sometimes spelled ʕ), unless it occurred in one of the following environments: Cˠ_ _Cˠ C_Cʲ where clusters & IPC's also count as fortis consonants. The dummy vowels ɛ ɔ can be used here to spell /aCʲ aCʷ/, and ɐ to spell /CʷaC/ and /CCa/. These were mere allophones of /a/, however.

At this stage the language had a problem with unstressed closed syllables, and deletion of /ž žʲ/ (which were distinct) would not solve this problem because Play requires a distinction that would have forced Leaper and Moonshine to have the same sound for the instances in which it would be most distinct. That is, Moonshine *-az is a mistake, as Moonshine only ever had /žʲ/ in that position (a separate, much rarer plain /ž/ existed in other morphemes). Nonetheless, deletion of /ž žʲ/ could happen for its own sake, without solving the closed syllable problem.

The only word-final open syllables are those that are stressed, and it is most likely that even here, only the grave and long tones survived, since the others would have been indistinct from unstressed syllables. Tone may need to be taken into account in the rules above. Even if stress shifts back to the root in these vowel-final words, it would still mean that all such words would have low tones on the stressed syllable. Also note that the grave tone is effectively vowel + /ʔ/ and can be considered to end in a consonant, and even the long tone is a heavy syllable.

Monosyllabic stage

Now, the Moonshine language had only three vowels, but an abundance of consonants, including a lenis:fortis distinction and consonants that were palatalized, labialized, or both. All labialized consonants were fortis, but not all fortis consonants were labialized, so there were five possible modes of consonant: plain, palatalized, fortis, fortis labialized, and palatalized labialized. The fortis articulation was velarization for the frontal consonants but not for the velars.

1. Before a vowel, the labial approximant w shifted to a uvular approximant r̄.
2. Doubled consonants (and fortis) simplified to singles and caused the tone of the preceding vowel to become high (à or á).

   This is the best (and perhaps only) opportunity for Icecap Moonshine to gain the ability to use the tones freely instead of having only one tonic syllable per word.If it doesnt happen here, the only viable path is that whole phrases were compressed in speech and came to behave like single words.

3. Any consonant before a nasal disappeared and lengthened the preceding vowel. If the sound had been voiceless, it caused the tone of the preceding vowel to become high rising (á). If it had been voiced, it caused the tone of the preceding vowel to become high falling (ā).

   Possibly /ntn/ > /nn/. Or ʔnn.

4. The clusters nlh nlk shifted to ŋh ŋk.
5. The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ fʲ became the labiodentals fˠ ṃˠ f in all positions. Then, a shift from ṃˠ to a plain bilabial mˠ spread throughout the territory, slowly driving out the new phoneme.
6. The alveolar flap r became l before any stop.

Ice Cream in a Bowl (c. 5547) to Classical Cartwheel (~6800)

1. The palatalized velars kʲ hʲ ŋʲ merged with the palatalized coronals tʲ sʲ nʲ into č š ň. This also includes all such consonants before front vowels, since these were always preceded by /ʲ/. If /gʲ/ existed, it became /ž/.
2. A single, non-fortis labial, when following any posttonic consonant and before a vowel, generated /ʷ/ and then disappeared.
3. The labialized alveolars tʷ sʷ nʷ became the dentals ṭ ṣ ṇ in all positions. This shift is distinct from a similar one that happens later when new labialized alveolars are created.
4. All high rising tones (á etc) merged into either ā or à when not before a nasal.
5. Then lʲ rʲ became y r.

   This may mean that rž and rʲ have distinct reflexes. Consider whether the cluster /rž/ would behave uniquely here or whether it would simply behave like its constituent parts.

   Consider also that there will briefly exist a /lʲʷ/.

6. Unstressed a in a closed syllable became ʲi (or possibly just /i/) before a palatal consonant. That is, /ɛ/ > /ʲi/. There was no corresponding change before a labialized coda.
7. All coda palatalization was lost (and they became alveolars, not velars.)

New palatalization

1. The labialized postalveolar consonants čʷ ǯʷ šʷ žʷ ňʷ delabialized.
2. The palatal consonants č ǯ š ž ň became c ʒ s z n in all positions.
3. The labialized alveolar approximant lʷ shifted to w. Possibly /rʷ/ (the "dark" one) also shifted.
4. Nasals disappeared before a fricative.
5. All nasal+stop combinations become voiced; prenasals mp nt nc ňč ŋk shifted to plain voiced stops b d ʒ ǯ ġ. Here, the coarticulations are omitted for conciseness. ALL VOICED STOPS WERE FORTIS.
6. Posttonic low short a became Ø if an adjacent syllable had a long vowel (even if that long vowel was not the tonic vowel).
7. The velar stops k ġ became labialized to kʷ ġʷ before any labial consonant. Possibly a few other clusters like /ks/ also survived. It is possible also that kl > kʷl > kw, distinct from kʷ.
8. The velars k ġ h g ŋ were fronted to postalveolars č ǯ š ž ň. These behaved as palatalized consonants, cʲ ʒʲ sʲ zʲ nʲ, and any remaining fortification was lost. It is possible that the fortis velars had all become labiovelars by this point.

Second unstressed vowel deletion

Assuming the distinction of lenis/fortis in absolute final position holds on from the beginning, it becomes important here as it determines whether an unstressed vowel is lost or not. Thus for example /nk/ could alternate with /nak/ in some noun to form the genitive.

Also note that new prenasal sequences are created here, e.g. /map/ > /mp/, and these do not become voiced stops or even voiced prenasals. It is possible that the prenasals in the earlier shift never lost their nasal element, and thus there would be /mb mp/ but no free /b/, but this would be unusual.

1. All unstressed vowels weakened: a i u all disappeared to Ø, unless protected by a fortis consonant. Unlike the similar shift about 2,000 years earlier, there was no protection afforded by bordering another collapsing vowel. As before, most unstressed /i/ was really /ʲi/ and thus this created new palatalized consonants. For the most part, the consonants did not stain each other.
2. Nevertheless, palatalization sometimes skipped across a syllable boundary. For example, /hip/ > /hʲp/ > /pʲ/ is possible. It may be that /h/ was the only consonant in the entire language that violated the rule against consonants staining each other.
3. All unstressed syllables with "tone" now became plain. These had arisen from secondary stress in compounds. Thus unstressed ā ī ū à ì ù became a i i a i i.
4. Any remaining fortis consonants not touching the tonic syllable became plain.

Sequence changes

1. The sequences ph th shifted to pw tw.
2. Coronals followed by the labial glide /w/, including those generated above, became dental. Thus for example the verb ending nw became ṇw.