Proto-Atlantic

[Shemtov]

This is the Protolang of an "Atlantic Austronesian" family. The Urheimat is in France, Specifically, South Brittany and North Pays de La Loire. However, the language was overtaken in ancient times by Indo-European languages, but survived due to the boating skills of the speakers, who spread the Azores, The The Canary Islands (where they were influenced by Berber) Madeira, the Bissagos and the Coast of Guinea-Bisseau (Where they were influenced by the Mande languages), Cape Verde, the Savage Islands, and Bermuda. Because of its concentration around Macaronesia, the language is also known as Proto-Macaronesian and the family as Macaronesian.


Phonology:
/p pʰ b t tʰ d k kʰ kʷ kʷʰ k͡p k͡pʰ g͡b/ <p ph b t th d k kh kw kwh kp kph gb>
/f s sʰ x xʷ h/ <f s sh x xw h>
/t͡s t͡sʰ d͡z/ <c ch z>
/m n ŋ ŋʷ ŋ͡m/ <m n ng ngw nm>
/j w/ <y w>
/l/ <l>


/i y u ɛ œ ɔ a/ <i ü u e ö o a>


Phonotactics:
CV(C)
The only codas allowed are /p t k k͡p b d g͡b f s x l m n ŋ ŋ͡m j w t͡s d͡z/. They can only occur root-finally and at the end of affixes.

The rounded vowels exhibit front/back harmony; in neutral stems different affixes take specific frontness, and it depends on the affix.

MORPHOLOGY:
The Proto-Language's Morphology is highly agglutinating, regular (expect this to be messed up in the daughters) and rich in the nominal system, having an abundance of cases. The language is ERG-ABS in alignment

Nominal Morphology:
Nouns take a regular plural suffix <em>.
After this comes the case:
Absolutive: Unmarked
Ergative: <da>
Dative: <lo>/<lö> (back)
Genitive: <chap>
Instrumental: <ib>
Locative: <ut>/<üt> (front)
Ablative: <aw>
Allative: <dom>/<döm> (front)
Perlative: <thi>
Temporal: <kpal>
Equative: <gbong>/<gböng> (back)
Translative: <waf>
Abessive: <mük>/<muk>
Comitative: <nis>

Verbal Morphology:
Verbs have two conjugation groups: those whose infinitive ends with a /aw/ and those whose infinitive ends with a /aj/. The latter has tense, voice and mood endings that contain neutral vowels except /a/ and the former's endings contain vowels effected by vowel harmony. Also, some ending of the /w/ conjugating have an <ng> placed at the end when the /j/ ending ends in a vowel.

Active Indicative conjugation of <Xwünaw> "to eat"
Past: Xwününg
Present: Xwün
Future: Xwünölü

Active Indicative conjugation of <Kwishaday> "To trap" To "entangle"
Past: Kwishadi
Present: Kwishad
Future: Kwishadeli

The verb also takes person and number marking for the absolutive argument and person marking for the ergative arguement:
Abs. marking:
1p. sing.: nmam
1p plr: nmamem
2p sing: ti
2p plr.: tihem
3p sing: Unmarked
3p plr: em

Erg. Marking:
1p:ninm
2p: tex
3p: unmarked

The Mood suffix comes after the tense suffix.
THE Conditional mood:
Suffix: <im>
Used in the apodeisis of conditional clauses.

The Hypothetical Mood:
Suffix: <ik>
Used for the protasis of conditional clauses. Also, used for theoretical possibilities in non-conditional clauses.




The Imperative mood
Suffix: <üse>/<use>

The Hortative mood:
Suffix: mo/mö
Used to express things that should be done by the referent, or as a gentle imperative.

COMPARITIVES:
Comparatives use the following construction:
Fönmeshogböng kpalmuk efön
Fönmesho-gböng kpal-muk efön
sailor-EQUAT woman-ABE sail
"A sailor sails more then a woman"
Literally "Like a sailor without a woman sails"



Example sentences:

Meshoda kphallo ongsi facapeyatüt nöxüng
Mesho-da kphal-lo ongsi facapeyat-üt nöx-üng-∅-∅
man-ERG woman-DAT boat island-LOC show-PST-3p-3p
"The man showed the woman the boat on the island"

Kpohib facapeyataw efönelinmam
Kpo-hib facapeyat-aw efön-eli-nmam
Raft-INSTR island-ALL sail-FUT-1p
"I will sail to the island on a raft"

Kpalemda meshohemlo ongsihem zimükikem, ongihem nölabimemninm.
Kpal-em-da mesho-hem-lo ongsi-hem zimük-ik-em, ongi-hem nölab-im-em-ninm.
woman-PLR-ERG man-PLR-DAT boat-PLR give-HYP-3p.PLR boat-PLR destroy-COND-3p.PLR-1p
"If women gave men boats, I would destroy boats."

Xwünölühiknmam thakkpal
Xwün-ölü-hik-nmam thak-kpal
eat-FUT-HYP-1p.SING close.thing-TEMP
"I could eat soon"

The language has no word for "want". Instead the following construction is used:

Ongsimuk ocnmam
Ongsi-muk oc-nmam
boat-ABE think-1p
"I want a boat"
Literally "I think without a boat"

[WeepingElf]

Nice. I also have a "Macaronesian" language family, a group of descendants of Old Albic, also spoken on the Macaronesian islands. They are, however, not yet well worked out and not released to the public. But the Multiverse is big enough

[Shemtov]

The Direct Causative:
The Direct Causative is a derivational process that turns intransitive verbs transitive. The way it is done is to take the plain root and add the suffix <ögbataw>/<ogbataw> (front)
For example <kwönaj> "To die" <Kwönögbataw> "to Kill"

The Reflexive/Reciprocal:
This is also a derivational process that turns a transitive verb into a reflexive or reciprocal. The suffix is <-ilay>.
<nöxaw> "to show" <nöxilay> "To show oneself" "To realize". This can be stacked with the Direct causative:
<Kwönögbatilay> "To commit suicide".

The Indirect Causative:
This is suffix the comes after the tense marker that means that the agent caused the patient to undergo the action indirectly. it is also usually used with Intransitive verbs, but can be used with transitive verbs. The suffix is <mükp>/<mukp>:
Meshoda kphal kwönelimükp
Mesho-da kphal kwön-eli-mükp
man-ERG woman die-FUT-IND.CAUS
"The man will cause the woman to die".

[Shemtov]

VOICE:
Aside from the active, Proto-Atlantic has both the Passive and Anti-Passive voice, which demote the Agent and Patient respectively. Use of these two voices also can act, depending on context, as a definite marker on the Patient and Agent, respectively.
The voice suffixes come between the tense and modal suffixes.
The Passive voice:
The suffix is <phö>/<pho>.
The patient is put in the Ergative case, while the agent is placed in the Comitative case.
Meshonis kpalda kwönögbatüngphö
Mesho-nis kpal-da kwön-ögbat-üng-phö
man-COM woman-ERG die-CAUS-PST-PASS
"The woman was killed by a man".

The Antipassive suffix is <(h)iz>. The Patient is placed in the Instrumentive case. Usually the word order is AVP instead of the canonical APV:
Meshoda kwönögbatüngiz kpalib
Mesho-da kwön-ögbat-üng-iz kpal-ib
man-ERG die-CAUS-PST-ANTIPASS woman-INSTR
"The man killed a woman"

[Shemtov]

NEGATION:
Negation in the past requires a special tense suffix. The future and present tense use the preposition <ye>:
Negative conjunction of w-verb <Xwünaw> "to eat":
Past: Xwünö
Present: Ye Xwün
Future: Ye Xwünölü

Negative conjunction of y-verb <Kwishaday> "To trap" To "entangle"
Past: Kwishadey
Present: Ye Kwishad
Future: Ye Kwishadeli

For both existential verbs (i.e. Khetabay "To have") and to negate nouns a special preposition the abessive is used:
Khetabi'nmam kpomuk
Kheta-bi-nmam kpo-muk
have-PST-1P raft-ABESS
"I didn't have a raft"

[Shemtov]

Adjectives:
Adjectives work with a classifier system, based on semantics. They also take a distal marker <xwa> if the noun they describe is distantand the case marking of the noun they modify. Most adjective stems begin with a vowel.
Classifier classes and prefixes:
Human beings: <mes->
Animals: <khad->
Natural features: <yül->/<yul->
Food and drink:<id->
Man-made objects: <les->
Other Objects: <kwu->/<kwü ->

Meshoda mesolpasxwada kphal kwönimükp
Mesho-da mes-olpas-xwa-da kphal kwön-i-mükp
man-ERG CLSS-fat-DIST-ERG woman die-PST-IND.CAUS
"The fat man over there caused the woman to die".

Khetabi'nmam kpomuk lesanggbamuk
Kheta-bi-nmam kpo-muk les-anggba-muk
have-PST-1P raft-ABESS CLSS-big-ABESS
"I didn't have a big raft"

[Shemtov]

Pronouns:
Pronouns follow a logical pattern of having the case endings being attached to the stem.
Stems:
1p, sing: In
1p, plr: Mi
2p sing: Thi
2p plr: Sing
3p sing proximate: Xen
3p plr proximate: Xi
3p sing distal: Xengwa
3p plr distal: Xiwa

The 3p pronouns are also used as demonstrative determiners.

The demonstrative adjectives are <Axen> (Prox) and <axwa> (dist).

[Shemtov]

I've translated the beginning of Schleicher's fable into Proto-Atlantic. Note that because they had contact with IE speakers before they split up, the Proto-Atlantic peoples borrowed a few words from the IE languages:
Lamsada gbayonmuk kwusem yadi.
Lamsa-da gbayon-muk kwus-em yad-i.
Sheep-ERG wool-ABESS horse-PLR see-PST

Xenda wekontam lesolpas camung
Xen-da wekontam les-olpas cam-ung
3p-ERG wagon CLSS-heavy carry-PST

Xengwada es lesimön camung
Xengwa-da es les-imön cam-ung
3p.DIST-ERG load CLSS-big carry-PST

Xengwada camungiz meshohib phatamusib
Xengwa-da cam-ung-iz mesho-hib phatamus-ib
3p.DIST-ERG carry-PST-ANTIPASS man-INSTR quickness-INSTR

“A sheep without wool saw horses. This [horse] was carrying a heavy wagon . That [horse] was carrying a big load. And another [lit. “that”] [horse] was carrying a man quickly.”