Thūreḫos - an Indo-European Conlang

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vo1dwalk3r
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Thūreḫos - an Indo-European Conlang

Post by vo1dwalk3r »

Thūreḫos is pretty much little more than an experiment in diachronic conlanging, but is one that I've wanted to do (and have been working on) for a while. After numerous revisions, it is in a somewhat finalized state. Originally I attempted to base it phonologically off Ancient Greek, but as time went on it strayed further. The main things which make this conlang unique from (most) other IE natlangs is the preservation of laryngeals (both h1 and h2) and the front velar/back velar distinction as velar/uvular, and also a preservation of ablaut in nouns and adjectives (which, however, has become very unproductive).

I don't have much of an alternate history, but I imagine it was another wave of migration out of the Pontic-Caspian steppe shortly after the Anatolians.

There are too many sound changes too list here, but these are most of them (not in much of a chronological order):

h₁e h₂e h₃e > he χa wo
eh₁ eh₂ eh₃ > ēh āχ ōw
Ho oH oHo > χwo ōwχ ōwχwo
iH uH > īH ūχ

h₁ h₂ h₃ y w > ɛ a ɔ ɛ ɔ (if not adjacent to a vowel)

m̥ n̥ r̥ l̥ m̥̄ n̥̄ r̥̄ l̥̄ > ma na ra la maː naː raː laː / [V,#]_C
m̥ n̥ r̥ l̥ m̥̄ n̥̄ r̥̄ l̥̄ > am an ar al aːm aːn aːr aːl

bʰ dʰ ǵʰ gʰ gʷʰ > pʰ tʰ ḱʰ kʰ kʷʰ
ḱʰ kʰ ḱ k ǵ g > kʰ qʰ k q g ɢ
kʷʰ kʷ gʷ > kʰ k g / _[w,u,o]
kʷʰ kʷ gʷ > pʰ p b
b d g ɢ > v ð ɣ ʁ
ʁ > ɣ
sv sð sɣ > z z z
vs ðs ɣs > z z z
ɣ > ŋ /!#_ -> w

i e > e a
ē ō > i u
ey ow ēy ōw > ai au iː uː
ew oy ēw ōy > ou ei ei ou
ei ou > iː uː
ai au > eː oː

Somewhere around here diphthongs ei eu oi ou (and long alternatives) form.
Vowels i, u, e, o lengthen before a which disappears; a disappears after iː, uː, eː, oː

ms ns > p t
sp st sk sq > f θ x h
spʰ stʰ skʰ sqʰ > sp st sk sq
sm sn > sp st
ph th kh qh > pʰ tʰ kʰ qʰ
px tx kx qx > pʰ tʰ kʰ qʰ
sh sx > ss xx
ps ts ks qs > f θ x h
sf sθ > ff θθ
P₁P₂P₁ > P₁P₁
pʰs tʰs kʰs qʰs > ps ts ks qs
pʰl tʰl kʰl qʰl > pʰr tʰr kʰr qʰr
pʰn tʰn kʰn qʰn > pt tt kt qt
ln rn rl > nn nn rr
sw sr > fw θr

χ h > Ø / _[C,#]

Vowels shorten before laryngeals

yi yu ye yo ya > iː o i ɔ ɛ
wi wu we wo wa > e uː ɛ u ɔ
yV̄ wV̄ > V̄ V̄
V₁V₁ > V̄₁


This leaves us with the following phonology:

/m n ŋ/ <m n ŋ>
/pʰ p tʰ t kʰ k qʰ q/ <ph p th t kh k qh q>
/f v θ ð s z χ h/ <f v þ ð s z ḫ h>
/r l/ <r l>

/iː i uː u/ <i ī u ū>
/eː e oː o/ <e ē o ō>
/ɛ ɔ/ <é ó>
/a aː/ <a ā>

Stress is on the final long vowel in a word, or if none are present, it is word-initial.

I'll try to post the nominal morphology shortly. In the meantime, here's a sample sentence:

Ōithūa hā ḫóste ame é thuntarē hasās mnāst īron phanton hasās.
widow-NOM.sg rel.NOM.F.sg stay-PRS.3sg home-LOC.sg with daughter-DAT.sg F.3sg.GEN remember-PRF.3sg husband-ACC.sg dead-ACC.sg F.3sg.GEN
The widow who stays at home with her daughter remembered her dead husband.
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Re: Thūreḫos - an Indo-European Conlang

Post by StrangerCoug »

Typically, the grave, not the acute, marks an open-mid vowel.
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Re: Thūreḫos - an Indo-European Conlang

Post by vo1dwalk3r »

I just don't really like how grave accents look (plus, I originally had a phoneme that I romanized ŕ, so I wanted the diacritics to match).
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Re: Thūreḫos - an Indo-European Conlang

Post by vo1dwalk3r »

Okay, on to the nominal morphology.

Thūreḫos inherited a highly complex noun system from PIE. It has eight declensions, along with some 16 variations of these that arose from vowel shifts of vowels following PIE w and y. These are termed W-Grade and Y-Grade, and are not considered separate declensions because their forms are completely predictable based on the eight base declensions.

Thūreḫos preserves all the cases, excluding ablative. The dual number also falls out of use. However, it preserves the ablaut in the form of strong and weak stems; the strong stem takes the nom/voc/acc endings, while the weak stem takes the others (e.g. nopt- vs. napt-, "night"; un- vs. ŋ-, "knee"). Neuter endings only differ in the strong stem. The declensions are as follows:

o-Stem

Code: Select all

               Sg   Pl
Nominative:   -os  -ōs
Vocative:     -a   -ōs
Accusative:   -on  -ot
Dative:       -oi  -omos
Genitive:     -osó -uḫun
Locative:     -ē   -ēsu
Instrumental: -ū   -ūs
Neuter singular -on; neuter plural -ā

ā-Stem

Code: Select all

               Sg   Pl
Nominative:   -ā   -aḫas
Vocative:     -a   -aḫas
Accusative:   -ān  -āt
Dative:       -aḫē -āmos
Genitive:     -ās  -aḫuḫun
Locative:     -aḫe -āsu
Instrumental: -aḫi -āphe
Consonant Stems

Code: Select all

               Sg       Pl
Nominative:   -Ø, -s   -as
Vocative:     -Ø       -as
Accusative:   -an      -āt
Dative:       -ē       -mos
Genitive:     -as, -os -uḫun
Locative:     -e       -su
Instrumental: -i       -phe
All neuter endings are -Ø; however, neuter nouns have unique plural strong stems. Many consonant-stem nouns also have unique nominative plural stems.

n-Stem

Code: Select all

               Sg    Pl
Nominative:   -u    -onas
Vocative:     -on   -onas
Accusative:   -onan -onat
Dative:       -nē   -anmos
Genitive:     -nas  -anuḫun
Locative:     -ane  -atu
Instrumental: -ni   -amphe
r/n-, l/n-Stem

Code: Select all

               Sg       Pl
Nominative:   -ar, -al -ur, ul
Vocative:     -ar, -al -ur, ul
Accusative:   -ar, -al -ur, ul
Dative:       -anē     -nē
Genitive:     -at      -nas
Locative:     -ane     -ane
Instrumental: -ani     -ni
All native r/n-, l/n-stem nouns are neuter, but some borrowings (e.g. lukal, -anē from Hittite "lugal" - king) may be masculine/feminine.

man-Stem

Code: Select all

               Sg     Pl
Nominative:   -man   -mu
Vocative:     -man   -mu
Accusative:   -man   -mu
Dative:       -amanē -amnē
Genitive:     -amat  -amnas
Locative:     -amane -amane
Instrumental: -amané -amnē
All man-stems are neuter.

u-Stem

Code: Select all

               Sg  Pl
Nominative:   -us -ūs
Vocative:     -u  -ūs
Accusative:   -un -ut
Dative:       -ūē -umos
Genitive:     -ūs -ūḫun
Locative:     -ūe  -usu
Instrumental: -ū  -uphe
Neuter singular ending is -u; plural is -ū

e-Stem

Code: Select all

               Sg  Pl
Nominative:   -es -ēs
Vocative:     -e  -ēs
Accusative:   -en -et
Dative:       -ē  -emos
Genitive:     -es -euḫun
Locative:     -ē  -esu
Instrumental: -ī  -ephe
Neuter singular ending is -e; plural is -ī

Adjectives fit into three paradigms, o-/ā-stems, u-stems, and e-stems. The o-/ā-stems match o-stem nouns in the masculine and neuter, and ā-stem nouns in the feminine. The u- and e-stem adjectives have virtually the same endings as the u- and e-stem nouns, with unique female endings.

The pronouns are:

haŋ, ma: 1st person
tū, ta: 2nd person
ha, ī, e: 3rd person
sa: reflexive
so, sā, to: demostrative "that"
kes, kesā, ket: demonstrative "this"
hós, hā, hó: relative
pes, pe: interrogative

Feedback welcome!
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Re: Thūreḫos - an Indo-European Conlang

Post by Pabappa »

Yes, thank you! I love IE languages and I've always wished there was one that preserved laryngeals down into the modern day. Do you believe in voiceless aspirates for PIE, or is that a subsequent change? I like the sound changes overall, especially the "kʷ > p" series, and ɣ > ŋ , which I've used before after hearing that it happened in some dialect of Hebrew. Im just curious, what do you believe the phonetic values of the laryngeals were?

Im guessing phanton is cognate to phantom.
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Re: Thūreḫos - an Indo-European Conlang

Post by vo1dwalk3r »

Well, my (somewhat educated) guess it that the original PIE phonemes were something like

/m n/ <m n>
/p t k q qʷ/ <p t ḱ k kʷ>
/bʱ dʱ gʱ ɢʱ ɢʱʷ/ <bʰ dʰ ǵʰ gʰ gʷʰ>
/b d g ɢ ɢʷ/ <b d ǵ g gʷ>
/s χ ʁʷ h/ <s h₁ h₃ h₂>
/w r l j/ <w r l y>

/(i iː u uː)/ <i ī u ū>
/ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː/ <e ē o ō>
/(a aː)/ <a ā>

Of course, this could all be very far off. It's just what appears to me what is the most likely (and perhaps a bit of how I'd like it to be...).

As for phanton, it comes from PIE *gʷʰn̥tós (*gʷʰn̥tóm in the accusative singular), from PIE *gʷʰen-. And an English cognate (from *gʷʰen-) is bane.
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Re: Thūreḫos - an Indo-European Conlang

Post by Mornche Geddick »

Very interesting. Which of the stems does "Ōithūa" come under? -ā?

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