Proto-Northern

[MiscellaneousJax]

Proto-Northern is a protolanguage for one of the major language families of my alternate history project, with the point of divergence being the absence of the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event. This has caused mammals to remain the small rodent-like creatures that they were in the Cretaceous Period when they evolved. These descendants of dinosaurs, in general, do not grow to the massive sizes that their ancestors grew to, and have become warm-blooded over time. In addition, these dinosaurs, unlike the popular vision of scaly reptiles, are much more likely to either to have feathers covering their bodies, or to have thick, leathery skin. Around the same time that humans had evolved in our own timeline, a species, Saurus sapiens, the saurids, evolved as the sapient species of Earth. Ultimately, they evolved from the Troodon genus of the late Cretaceous Period. The saurids are feathered, vaguely anthropomorphic theropods. Their posture is largely similar to that of typical coelurosaurs; long tails balance out their bodies and somewhat-long necks elevate their heads. The two most notable differences between the saurids and Troodon would be their forelimbs and heads. Saurid forelimbs are much more dexterous than the forelimbs of their theropod ancestors. They can pronate their hands, they have large amounts of mobility in their wrists, and their fingers have reached levels of flexibility comparable to that of primates (with one of the three fingers on each hand being and opposable thumb). Their heads differ in three main ways. First of all, their cranium is larger; it is capable of holding a brain with an average volume of 1,200 cubic centimeters, similar to that of advanced hominids. Secondly and thirdly, their eyes have migrated to be forwards facing (as opposed to mostly forwards facing), and their snouts have retracted somewhat (but not completely, which gives a greater distinction between points of articulation and advanced/retracted sounds). Saurids are largely nocturnal; their vision is aided by their large eyes, and they mostly use fire for staying warm if they happen to live in colder climates, rather than for light.

This alternate history may not be the most realistic alternate history that there is, but it's plausible enough that it could have happened under the right circumstances.

Phonology:
Nasals: /m n/
Stops: /p b t d k̟ g̟ k g/
Fricatives: /f v s z h/
Taps: /ɾ/
Approximants: /l j w/

Front: /i e ɛ/
Front Nasalised: /ẽ ɛ̃/
Back: /u o ɔ/
Back Nasalised: /õ ɔ̃/

Phonotactics:
(C1)V(C2)
C1: A consonant
V: A vowel
C2: One of /m n p t k̟ k f v s h ɾ l j w/

Allophony:

• Stops [p t g̟ ...] become aspirated [pʰ tʰ kʰ̟ ...] after a glottal fricative. Voiced stops become voiceless.
• [z] become [ɾ] between a vowel or semivowel and a vowel or semivowel.
• Back vowels and semivowels [w o ɔ ...] become central and unrounded [ɰ̟ ɘ ɜ ...] after a palatal semivowel.
• Non-labial consonants other than [j ɰ̟ w], i.e. [n k̟ s ...], become rounded [nʷ kʷ̟ sʷ ...] before a rounded semivowel.
• Back vowels and semivowels [u ɔ̃ w ...] persistently become central and unrounded [ɨ ɜ̃ ɰ̟ ...] before a palatal semivowel.
• Non-glottal stop unaspirated non-nasal resonants [ɾ l j ...] become voiceless [ɾ̥ l̥ j̥ ...] after a non-nasal voiceless consonant.
• Unaspirated obstruents [p k̟ gʷ ...] assimilate in voice to a preceding obstruent.
• Short non-glottal stop unaspirated voiceless resonants [ɾ̥ l̥ j̥ ...] become voiced [ɾ l j ...] between a voiced phone and a voiced phone.
• Alveolar stops [tʰ d tʷ ...] become sibilants [t͡sʰ d͡z t͡sʷ ...] before a non-nasal alveolar fricative.
• Semivowels [w w̥ j̥ ...] persistently become near-high [ʊ̯ ʊ̯̥ ɪ̯̥ ...] after a mid-low vowel.
• Two consecutive [ɾ ɾ̥] become [r r̥] respectively.

For ease of typing, I have developed the following Romanisation:
/m n/ m n
/p b t d k̟ g̟ k g/ p b t d c j k g
/f v s z h/ f v s z h
/ɾ/ r
/l j w/ l y w

/i e ɛ/ i a e
/ẽ ɛ̃/ aa ea
/u o ɔ/ u o ou
/õ ɔ̃/ oa oua

Numbers:
Numbers in Proto-Northern are in Base 6, largely because the saurids have six fingers.

Cardinal:
0 [je] ya - [jevɔ] yevou
1 [viɛ] vie
2 [ɔhɛ̃] ouhea
3 [wi] wi
4 [jopu] yopu
5 [ɾi] ri
6 [vɛ̃je] veaya
7 [vɛ̃viɛ] veavie
8 [vɛ̃ɔhɛ̃] veaouhea
9 [vɛ̃wi] veawi
10 [vɛ̃jopu] veayopu
11 [vɛ̃ɾi] veari
12 [ɔɛ̃je] oueaya
18 [wɛ̃je] weaya
24 [jɛ̃je] yeaya
30 [ɾɛ̃je] reaya
36 [vɛje] veya
108 [wɛ͡ʊ̯je] wewya
216 [veje] vaya
1,296 [voje] voya
7,776 [vẽje] vaaya

Ordinal numbers are obtained by adding the suffix -vou [vɔ], imperative of the verb "to go," to the end of the number.

[Herr Dunkel]

/i e ɛ/ i a e
/ẽ ɛ̃/ aa ea
/u o ɔ/ u o ou
/õ ɔ̃/ oa oua

It's /e ẽ ɛ ɛ̃/ but <a aa e ea>. Why's the /e/ <a> and the /ɛ/ <e>?
Also, did you take the phonology from Gleb? It has lots of allophony that is basically useless because the phonotactics doesn't allow those same clusters needed for allophony. It gives stuff like:

Non-labial consonants other than [j ɰ̟ w], i.e. [n k̟ s ...], become rounded [nʷ kʷ̟ sʷ ...] before a rounded semivowel.

but:

Alveolar stops [tʰ d tʷ ...] become sibilants [t͡sʰ d͡z t͡sʷ ...] before a non-nasal alveolar fricative.

...and [t͡sʷ] is impossible in the language, to name an example.

Also:

their eyes have migrated to be forwards facing (as opposed to mostly forwards facing)

I don't think this is is what you meant to say.

[Matrix]

allowing Clade Dinosauria to not go extinct

Well, I mean it didn't, even in the real world, especially if you're talking clades. Birds say hi.

[Birdlang]

You are right, birds are the rightful descendants of los dinosaurios.

[MiscellaneousJax]

/i e ɛ/ i a e
/ẽ ɛ̃/ aa ea
/u o ɔ/ u o ou
/õ ɔ̃/ oa oua

It's /e ẽ ɛ ɛ̃/ but <a aa e ea>. Why's the /e/ <a> and the /ɛ/ <e>?
Also, did you take the phonology from Gleb? It has lots of allophony that is basically useless because the phonotactics doesn't allow those same clusters needed for allophony. It gives stuff like:

Non-labial consonants other than [j ɰ̟ w], i.e. [n k̟ s ...], become rounded [nʷ kʷ̟ sʷ ...] before a rounded semivowel.

but:

Alveolar stops [tʰ d tʷ ...] become sibilants [t͡sʰ d͡z t͡sʷ ...] before a non-nasal alveolar fricative.

...and [t͡sʷ] is impossible in the language, to name an example.

Also:

their eyes have migrated to be forwards facing (as opposed to mostly forwards facing)

I don't think this is is what you meant to say.

The Romanisation is that way because it is the easiest to type with my keyboard. And yes, the phonology was generated with Gleb.

I believe that what I wrote was poorly worded. Troodon eyes are partly forwards facing, but not entirely. Saurid eyes are entirely forwards facing.

allowing Clade Dinosauria to not go extinct

Well, I mean it didn't, even in the real world, especially if you're talking clades. Birds say hi.

You are right, birds are the rightful descendants of los dinosaurios.

You're both entirely right. Clade Dinosauria is not extinct. That was a mistake on my part.