The Ultimate Proto-Language

[sirdanilot]

It seems to me plausible that the ingressive words somehow evolve into whispered words, or breathy voice or something. At least to me all those ingressive words in a sentence that also have egressive words seem very difficult to pronounce.

[Dē Graut Bʉr]

I like the breathy voice idea, so I'll probably use it in some Proto-Central descendant.

Anyway, while I agree shifting between ingressive and egressive words can be a bit tricky, I think that problem could be solved with some practice. In addition, the almost-humans speaking these language may have slightly different vocal tracts that allow them to do so more easily.

[Skelly Jelly]

Don't worry, I'm already working on a descendant of Proto-North which merges them.

YAY! I CAN EAT AND TALK TO MY PIZZA AT THE SAME TIME

[Dē Graut Bʉr]

Don't worry, I'm already working on a descendant of Proto-North which merges them.

YAY! I CAN EAT AND TALK TO MY PIZZA AT THE SAME TIME

PUN AVAILABLE:

Axa xwoxax gwonoqox.
3SG-ERG father-3.M.POSS eat/speak-PST-3SG.M
He ate/spoke to his father.


More seriously, here's a brief description of this beautiful language:
Map

Second Generation.png (59.47 KiB) Viewed 3380 times

Red represents Northern, green represents Central, and Blue represents Western. As you may have figured already, this post will focus on Eatspeakish in the far north.

Sound changes

• /pʼ p ɓ fʼ f/ become /p f b f v/. This change obviously applies to all POAs.
• Long vowels become diphthongs: /aː eː iː oː uː yː/ become /ai je ei wo ou oi/.
• All consonants are labiovelarised before /w/. Similarly, /j/ palatalises preceding consonants.
• Unstressed final syllables are reduced, leaving a final /e/ or /o/ and perhaps a palatalised last consonant.
• /ɣ ŋʷ/ weaken to /j w/.
• /ai ei ou oi/ monophthongise to /e e o ø/.

Phonology
Consonants
/m n/ <m n>
/p b t d k kʷ gʷ/ <p b t d k kw gw>
/f v s z ʃ ʒ x xʷ χ/ <f v s z š ž x xw q>
/r l j w/ <r l j w>

Vowels
/i y u/ <i y u>
/e ø o/ <e ö o>
/a/ <a>

Syllable sturcture
The maximal syllable structure is (C)V(C), in which the last C can't be a stop.

Grammar
Sound changes rendered the early Eatspeakish grammar very irregular, but since then it's been regularised quite a lot. The ancient reduplicated forms, having been worn down to something which sometimes might as well be suppletive, have become separate lexical items, and new suffixes have been created to end up with a very regular agglutinative system.

Nouns
Nouns are marked for possession, number and case.

There are possessive suffixes for the first, second and third person, and in the third person there is a distinction between masculine, feminine and neuter gender. The suffixes all begin with a consonant; the last vowel of the root is repeated if the root ends in a consonant.

Code: Select all

šex "son"               eče "leg"
šexel "my son"          ečel "my leg"
šexeje "your son"       ečeje "your leg"
šexex "his son"         ečex "his leg"
šexem "her son"         ečem "her leg"
šexez "its son"         ečez "its leg"

The plural suffix is -(V)r, derived from historical ru "many": šexer "sons", ečejer "your legs".

There are two cases: absolutive and ergative. The absolutive is unmarked, while the ergative has the suffix -a, which replaces any final vowel.

Verbs
Verbs are marked for tense, person and number.

The present tense is unmarked. The past tense is made by suffixing -(V)q.

Person and number affixes are the same as those of the nouns.

It should be noted that verbs always agree with the absolutive argument.

Numerals
1. zi
2. wope
3. xwe
4. qež
5. zy
6. než
7. nep
8. xwof
9. qaž
10. zöz

Lastly, I'd like to mention an insane semantic shift which merged "eat" and "speak".

[Ketumak]

I like this project, too! Coming back to proto-everything-else, how does it form compound words? Which air flow takes precedence in the event of a clash and which vowel? Vowels could be kept as is, though one element would have to adapt its airflow. You could say the stressed element dominates or the substantive one.

[Skelly Jelly]

what have i done

[Dē Graut Bʉr]

I like this project, too! Coming back to proto-everything-else, how does it form compound words? Which air flow takes precedence in the event of a clash and which vowel? Vowels could be kept as is, though one element would have to adapt its airflow. You could say the stressed element dominates or the substantive one.

The second word adapts its vowels and airflow to that of the first word.

[Skelly Jelly]

So how far do you plan to go with this? It'd be interesting to also take into account the advance of technology (at least according to roughly how it happened in real human history).

[Dē Graut Bʉr]

I'm not sure how far I'll go with this. I will take technological developments into account but right now there aren't really any interesting technological developments so you'll have to wait for a while.

[Illusorier]

I think your thinking is right.

The proto language of human may be more complicated than the languages in the world now, like PIE that the people have constructed. However, those "world language" will be very easy for people now to learn. I'm glad to see such proto languages that are like PIE, and not like "world language".

But I think it'll be very difficult to construct the grammer. It's very different between two language families although many scientists think there might be only one language in the world many years ago. So I like the project a lot, because it's very thorough and it can inspire to construct my conlang.

[Skelly Jelly]

Seeing this made me decide to try to one-up you by making a proto-world language that really just consists of a few hunting signals, and then start expanding that into fully functioning languages and never be bored ever again. I haven't touched it in like a week.

[Qwynegold]

Huh, I've also had an idea for a proto-language that was like the first language ever, where basically all words are onomatopoeia. But I haven't worked with it much.

[Dē Graut Bʉr]

Seeing this made me decide to try to one-up you by making a proto-world language that really just consists of a few hunting signals, and then start expanding that into fully functioning languages and never be bored ever again. I haven't touched it in like a week.

Good luck with making a proto-World language like the real one. I look forward to seeing it!

[Skelly Jelly]

Seeing this made me decide to try to one-up you by making a proto-world language that really just consists of a few hunting signals, and then start expanding that into fully functioning languages and never be bored ever again. I haven't touched it in like a week.

Good luck with making a proto-World language like the real one. I look forward to seeing it!

Thing is, I've pretty much finished it in its earliest form. It's literally just almost 20 signals mainly used for hunting, with no grammar system. However, I'm going to detail its stages of development, same with its descendants. As for the world it is used in, there are 5 species of humans that still exist in different regions. Language is born in the one most like modern humans (Africans, specifically), and I thought it would be cool if a language were to develop from one species' attempt to speak a "normal-human" language, but they have less flexible tongues and cannot vocalize while using their tongues, and so they use "hand-clicks", like snaps and claps. Once I make more progress, I might make a thread for it instead of stealing your stage like this.

[Plaas]

Great topic, great idea!
I created a group of related languages myself, with a Proto-Language as well, though not "re"constructed in detail; this topic however works the other way round, which is even more interesting.