Play substratum languages

This family could be called Paleo-Pabappa but I may want to repurpose that name since Pabappa is so far in the future from when this family dies out that it may imply a connection that is actually not there.

The Play substratum languages are a branch of the Lenian languages, also known as the Dreamlandic languages, spoken by people who sailed in the opposite direction and ended up with a smaller but more bountiful piece of land to live on as compared to the Dreamers who won control of a large span of land that had abundant seacoast and good fishing but was mostly too dry for agriculture.

It is possible that the "PDP" languages will be added somewhere in here, as their sound changes are no longer appropriate for their location in Dreamland now that the history of Dreamlandic has been shifted back 800 years. PDP could even be the new Thaoa.

They can be called the Pàndu languages, but this is simply a mnemonic term of convenience that happens to begin with the same letter as Play and Pabappa. The native cognate of this name is fianku and neither this name nor their full name begins with or contains the letter p.

Early evolution

Shape of the proto-language

The phonology could be analyzed as

                       CONSONANTS                 VOWELS

Rounded bilabials:     pʷ  mʷ      w              a i u ə
Plain bilabials:       p   m   f  (Ø)             a i u              
Spread bilabials:      pʲ  mʲ  fʲ  y              a i   ə
Alveolars:             t   n   s   l   r          a i u               (/ta ci cu/)
Postalveolars:         č   ň   š  *l  *r          a i   ə             (/ča či čə/)
(Palatals:             ć   ń   ś    )             a i   ə
Velars:                k   ŋ   h                  a i u
Labiovelars:           kʷ  ŋʷ  hʷ                 a i u ə

Though it is possible that PSL had followed Nuclear Dreamlandic in shifting the schwa vowel /ə/ to merge with /a/. The list up above showing it occurring after labialized consonants is probably a mistake, and in fact it only occurs after palatalized consonants. (If it is not a mistake, it is talking about the extremely rare /ʷe/ of the proto-language.)

A minimal phonology, and the one used by the Dreamers in their script, is

p  m  f
t  n  s
k  ŋ  h
r  Ø  l

a  i  u

Possible paths

European style

These languages could follow a "mouthful of Europe" pattern, where they gain a voicing distinction, expand the vowel inventory, and develop an irregular syllable structure where some consonant clusters (for example /ps pt/) are permitted but others are not (/tp pr/). A three-vowel inventory might fit better, though, if the consonants are intended to be retained or to expand and form clusters. The classical Dreamlandic languages expanded their vowel inventory only by minnowing down the consonant inventory.

If the full European plan is carried out, the sound changes from proto-Dreamlandic to the daughter languages would somewhat resemble the sound changes from Play to Pabappa. If it remains with three vowels but expands the consonant inventory and adds clusters, it will resemble nothing else particularly well.

Wildfire

Alternatively, the Wildfire branch (see Minor_Lenian_languages#Western_languages) could be moved here, since its sound changes cannot apply to its original intended habitat anymore because the timing is off. (It could still be valid as an island language if it is not moved here.)

Contact with Andanese

The PSL speakers lived with the Andanese people, who were a minority except in the far west where they became a majority early on. (Though these people were descended mostly from aboriginals who adopted an early branch of the Andanese language family.) The Andanic languages at this time were Lava Bed languages and thus quite difficult to learn; it may be that few PSL speakers ever learned to speak any Andanic languages and that influence in both directions was minimal.

Proto-PSL (500 AD) to Shining Wave

1. The voiceless non-sibilant fricatives f fʲ h hʷ shifted to Ø Ø Ø w.
2. The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ shifted to p m.
3. The bare vowel u shifted to ʉ. Then wa shifted to wɜ. Neither of these shifts were phonemic.

   It is likely that /wā/ remained as /wā/.

4. Before any of /a ə u/, the sequences ky ŋy ly shifted to ṭ ṇ ḷ. (That is, every vowel but /i/.)

   This might create what is seen as geminate /tt/.

5. The prenasals mp nt ŋk (including coarticulated forms) shifted to mb nd ŋġ.
6. When padded in both directions by at least two voiced sounds, the singleton voiceless stop p shifted to b. This probably also covers situations like /mupa/ > /muba/.
7. When padded in both directions by at least two voiced sounds, the singleton voiceless stop k shifted to ġ.

   Note that these shifts occurred separately and may have had slightly different conditions.

8. When padded in both directions by at least two voiced sounds, the singleton voiceless stops t ṭ shifted to d ḍ. (Unless /ṭ/ is behaving as /tt/.)
9. Prenasals in absolute word-initial position wore down to plain voiced stops.
10. All geminate stops (but not nasals) became singletons.

    NOTE ON POLITICS: It is possible that the family splits here.

11. The dentals ṇ ḍ ḷ shifted to m b b when not facing another labial. (True labials, not labiovelars.)
12. The sequences kw ŋw ġw shifted to pw mw bw.
13. The sequences kyi ŋyi ġyi shifted to tyi nyi dyi, too.
14. Before any "hard" consonant, the syllables pʉ bʉ mʉ shifted to t t n, which assimilated to the following consonant.
15. The affricates c cc merged as ts, which was different because it overlaid the syllable boundary. If /z/ was an affricate, it also changed. It is possible that /ts/ might have still been possible in word-initial position, but it is no longer listed below as a separate syllable type.
16. The sequences yɜ wɜ shifted to yu wu. This seemingly eliminates all [o], even allophonically.
17. The rounded bilabials pw mw bw shifted to p m b. It is possible that /wu/ remained.

    This may also entail /ʉi/ shifting to /ī/ or to /i/.

At this point, reached around 1900 AD, AlphaLeap invaded and introduced the Gold language, which began to drive out Shining Wave since Gold was the language of the sea.

All syllables could end in a vowel, /t/, or /n/, and that vowel could be long even if there was a coda. Therefore a syllabary was no longer of great use in writing the language, but nonetheless the syllable inventory could be presented as

 a    i    u     
pa   pi   pu  pə
ma   mi   mu  mə
ba   bi   bu  bə
ṭa            ṭə
ṇa            ṇə
ḍa            ḍə
ḷa            ḷə
ta             
na   ni   nu            
da   zi   zu           
sa   si   su            
la   li   lu                 
ra   ri   ru            
ča   či   ču
n̆a   n̆i   n̆u
ǯa   ǯi   ǯu
ša   ši   šu
ya   yi   yu
     λi
řa   ři   řu
ka   ki   ku         
ŋa   ŋi   ŋu          
ġa   ġi   ġu        

Shining Wave continued to evolve in the back reaches of Pubu territory:

1. Then, any remaining ɜ shifted to a.
2. The sequences ly ry shifted to y.
3. Any remaining instances of the dentals ṭ ṇ ḍ ḷ shifted to the plain versions t n d l. However, this shift also removed the /c z/ allophones of /t d/, so it could well be that both series moved.

Thus the language at this stage had a consonant inventory of

Bilabials:      p   m   b
Alveolars:      t   n   d   l   r   s
Postalveolars:  č   n̆   ǯ           š
Palatals:                   y
Velars:         k   ŋ   ġ

And the three vowels /a i u/, with no remaining syllable gaps. Syllables could end in a vowel, /n/, or /t/, and this included syllables with long vowels.

It is possible that /ṭa/ > /fa/, so long as a source of /fu/ can also be found, and these could both shift to /h/ while /š/ splits into /h/ and /s/.

Proto-PSL (500 AD) to Slime Forest (~3100)

This is the replacement language for Thaoa. There will be one standard language and a crop of dialects spoken further north and east.

1. The voiceless non-sibilant fricatives f fʲ h hʷ shifted to Ø Ø Ø w.
2. The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ shifted to p m.
3. The bare vowel u shifted to ʉ. Then wa shifted to wɜ. Neither of these shifts were phonemic.

   It is likely that /wā/ remained as /wā/.

4. Before any of /a ə u/, the sequences ky ŋy ly shifted to ṭ ṇ ḷ. (That is, every vowel but /i/.)

   This might create what is seen as geminate /tt/.

5. Any remaining ky ŋy ly then shifted to č n̆ λ.

1. Unadorned a i > wa wi except in hiatus.
2. kw ŋw ḷw > pw mw w.
3. pʉ mʉ (before a consonant) > t n if possible to link with Shining Wave.
4. cwi nwi swi lwi rwi > ti mi ti wi wi.
5. possibly ta na sa la ra > pa ma sa wa wa.
6. cʉ sʉ > tu su.
7. ṭ ṇ > t n .
8. λ ř š > l r s.
9. ʉi ui > wi. Possibly also with /a/.
10. kʉ ŋʉ > Ø, but sometimes turn the following consonant into a dorsal.

   a    i    ʉ    ɜ
  pa   pi   pʉ   pɜ
  ma   mi   mʉ   mɜ
  wa   wi   wu   wɜ
  ta   ti   tu   tɜ
  na        nu   nɜ
  sa   si   sʉ   sɜ
       li   lʉ
  ra   ri   rʉ   rɜ
  ča   či        čɜ
  n̆a   n̆i        n̆ɜ
  ka   ki   ku   kɜ
  ŋa   ŋi   ŋu   ŋɜ
       

The dorsal sequences kʉ ŋʉ ġʉ are then lost, but turn the following consonant (at least certain ones) into a dorsal, thus restoring a competent dorsal series to the language. Something similar may happen with ći ńi ǵi; thus, it is unlikely for them to simply move forward and become postalveolars.

It is possible that , eliminating the need for distinctive labialization.

Proto-PSL (633 AD) to XXX-Central (1900 AD)

This language is probably being bumped out of place by Shining Wave.

1. The true palatals ć ś ń ćć ńń became the dentals ṭ ṭ ṇ ṭṭ ṇṇ when not touching an /i/ in either direction. There was no geminate fricative, but the same shift applied to clusters like /ńś ńć/.
2. The true palatals ć ś ń ćć ńń became the dentals ṭ ṭ ṇ ṭṭ ṇṇ when touching a /u/ in either direction (even if also touching an /i/).
3. The true palatals ć ś ń ćć ńń became the postalveolars č š n̆ čč n̆n̆ unconditionally.
4. The postalveolar stops č čč merged as šš.
5. When not touching an /i/, the postalveolars š n̆ (including geminates and clusters) shifted to s n.
6. The palatalized labials pʲ mʲ fʲ shifted to ps mm ff. The first shift would bring the language its first heterorganic cluster, and so may need to be either cancelled or postponed.
7. The dental stop ṭ shifted to an alveolar t.
8. In monosyllabic (C)CV words, the short vowels a i u lengthened to ā ī ū.
9. Long vowlers shortened before a cluster (even /mp/ etc).
10. Word-initial prenasals lost the nasal to become pure voiceless (not voiced) stops.
11. All short unstressed i disappeared, creating consonant clusters. The matter of word stress was complicated, as it had not been phonemic since the time of proto-Dreamlandic; it may be that some unstressed /i/ did not disappear because of analogy with stressed forms.
12. All unstressed u shifted to i unless there was another /u/ in the word.

Proto-PSL (633 AD) to Proto-Western PSL

This branch is more diverse than the others, fracturing early. It can be compared to Slavic languages if Capital PSL is Russian and Eastern PSL is Siberian.