Proto-Taremba

Proto-Taremba is the reconstructed ancestor of the Taremba language family, which includes Classical Kasshian.

Name

When Kasshian linguists first began to study languages related to Classical Kasshian, they did not initially give a name to the family or the ancestral language. Related languages were simply referred to as wafsagachii wafnestuçasai ("related languages"). Sometimes the whole group was collectively referred to as the "Kasshi family". Once work began on reconstructing the ancestor itself, the term waskachi wachika ("old language") was used, eventually translated into the protolanguage itself as tara Táremba tobán. Táremba was then used for the family itself.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants
		Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stop	Prenasalized	mb		nd		ŋg
	Voiced	b		d		g
	Voiceless			t		k	q
Nasal		m		n		ŋ
Fricative	Voiced		v	z
	Voiceless		f	s				h
Aproximates				r	y
Laterals				l

/j/ was a highly restricted phoneme. It only occurred word-initially preceding /a/.

Vowels

Vowels
	Front				Central				Back
High	i									u
Mid			e		ə		o
Low					a

Syllables

Syllables were more restricted than in Classical Kasshian. Syllables could start with:

• Any vowel
• Any consonant
• A stop followed by an l or r

Syllables could end with

• Any nasal
• Any voiceless fricative
• L or R

In addition, no word could have more than one prenasalized stop or one voiced stop.

Stress

Any syllable could be stressed. The stressed syllable was indicated with an acute.

Nouns

Nouns took number and case suffixes, and noun phrases were preceded by article-like classifiers, traditionally referred to as genders based on how they developed in most descendants. The gender markers agreed with the noun in number and case.

Genders

The "gender" system of Proto-Taremba was actually a classifier system. There is some uncertainty over the exact number, as some classifiers may have disappeared from all descendants before they were written, and some branches may have created new classifiers. The most common reconstruction contains 39 classifiers, on the assumption that, with the exception of gender III in the Kasshian languages, no new classifiers/genders were developed after the protolanguage began to breakup. Most linguists believe that by that point, classifiers had already become obligatory for all nouns. The classifiers are believed to have been derived from free nouns, in some cases phonetically simplified. A few had no clear cognate, most likely because the source word was lost by this point. There was no system of gender agreement in Proto-Taremba. These classifiers were placed before nouns, after numbers and demonstratives but before any other adjectives. They could also be used as pronouns. The classifiers took the same case and number suffixes as the nouns.

Classifier	Presumed origin	Use	Kasshian Gender
bəra	mbərá (thing)	Generic tangible nouns
bihu	mbihú (uninhabited place)	Places
bite	mbisté (lump)	Irregularly-shaped objects, mass nouns	VII
bitu	bíftu (shape)	Spatial relationships, shapes
dake	odáske (swarm)	Swarming creatures
daza	ndázətə (root)	Beginnings, sources, origins
era	erá (star)	Celestial objects
hasna	tuhásnə (box)	Containers
hatu	quháftu (sword)	Violence
heka	héka (fish)	Fish
hevo	tuhévo (tail)	Generic animal classifier
hitu	hikaŋgətú (rock)	Hard objects
hona	kahóna (handle)	Instruments and tools	VIII
isa	yasági (clothing)	Coverings
karə	efkárə (book, scroll)	Long, narrow, objects
katə	bikátə (wing)	Birds	XII
kira	kərágənos? (body)	body parts
kita	kíltas (beast of burden)	Domesticated animals	IV
kodi	kódiŋgəte (thought)	Emotions, mental states/actions
kula	kuláta (house)	Groups of humans, buildings, trade, objects used in trade, interpersonal relationships	XI
laŋes	yalaŋés (idea)	Concepts, abstractions, generic non-physical
lase	laséte (prayer)	Sacred objects, religious practices, religion	X
makis	maqís (leaf)	Plants
mase	agəmáses (cart)	Vehicles
nade	ndáde (change)	Change of state
nako	nakósə (man)	Male human	II
nano	nálo (fruit)	Food
nika	maníka (ball)	Round objects
ŋuhas	teŋuhás (hear)	Sounds
quha	qúha (burn)	Water and fire	VI
raka	ráqə (grain of sand)	Small objects, objects that come in large numbers
raza	raqəzás (day)	Events, time
rəba	rəblá (strength)	Large animals	V
sagan	sáŋgən (sky)	Weather phenomena
tara	tárba (word)	Words, languages, grammatical concepts, etc.
teba		Female human	I
tokan	trokám (glory)	Deities, supernatural beings, spiritual concepts	IX
zega	dazéŋga (shadow)	Physical states
zəde	ŋəzəndé (table)	Objects with flat surfaces

Number

Proto-Tareba had four numbers, singular, dual, paucal, and plural, with the following suffixes:

• Dual: -li
• Paucal: -(ə)f
• Plural: -na

-li and -na became -l and -n after vowel-final classifiers

Case

• Topic: -la
• Patient: -he
• Agent: -arə, -ka
  • -arə was used on nouns and adjectives, -ka on pronouns and articles
• Genitive: -afə
• Dative: -azə

Postpositions

These postpositions had case-like functions. In the earliest form of the language, they are believed to have been placed at the end of the entire noun-phrase, later becoming clitics on the head noun. The nouns would be in various cases:

• Patient
  • Commitative: ran
  • Locative: qavə
  • Inessive: ka
  • Circumlocative: nde
• Genitive
  • Ablative: ta
  • Circumablative: ŋgos
• Dative
  • Allative: sə
  • Illative: mba
  • Perillative: mbaba
  • Circumallative: ma
  • Circumperlative: mama
  • Benefactive: ŋa
• Ergative
  • Perlative: ne
  • Elative: ndu
  • Instrumental: li

Verbs

Clitics

Personal Clitics

These were prefixed either to verb or the auxilary.

	Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
1st	hə (later qo-)	lopə	taqe	ne
2nd	fen	feni	fenəf	fana
3rd sapient	tas	tehi	taf	tan
3rd non-sapient	lə	li	ləf	ləna

Reflexive

• ko-

This was attached immediately to the beginning of the verb-phrase

Prefixes

Trigger

Trigger in Proto-Tareba was a voice-like system that dictated the role of the topic (marked by -la)

• Agent: so-
• Patient: qə-
• Allative: sar-
• Ablative: ta-
• Locative: qavə-
• Benefactive: na-

Tense

• Past: fa-
• Future: naqe-

Conditional

• If: ve(h)-
• Counter-factual: gula-
• Then: hos-

Mood

Mood was suffixed to both the main verb and the aspectual auxiliary

• Indicative: Ø
• Irrealis: -ko
• Imperative/hortative: -kə
• Prohibitive: -ral

Auxilaries

These typically followed the verb, with personal clitics attaching either to the free verb or to the auxiliary, or sometimes both.

• Prospective: flamá
• Inceptive: túŋgə (Also a free verb meaning "open")
• Progressive: faqé(l) (Also a free verb meaning "go")
• Habitual: válnas (Also a free verb menaing "walk")
• Cessative: gará (Also a free verb meaning "close")
• Retrospective: ŋókə (From the verb leŋókə "finish")

The lack of an auxiliary typically indicated a perfective meaning

Pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
1st	Qo	Sa	əná	Ti
2nd	Ŋgil	Ndre	Ŋgíləf	Ŋgílna

In addition, the gender-markers listed earlier were used as 3rd person pronouns These pronouns took the following cases

• Nominative: no suffix
• Accusative: -he
• Genetive: -wa
• Dative: -tuf
• Postpositional: -in

Third person pronouns took null for absolutive and -ka for ergative

Syntax

Proto-Taremba was strictly verb-final, with modifiers typically following their head, with the major exception of demonstratives, numbers, and genitives, which typically preceded nouns.