Segments.
A Journal of
Constructed Languages
Diachronics
Issue 11
October 2023
Preface
Welcome to Segments, A Journal of Constructed Languages, and the official publication of
the /r/conlangs subreddit team. Within this journal, you will find articles produced by
members of our community.
This time around, our authors submitted articles focused on diachronics, the linguistic
history behind their conlangs that help to give them depth. We received articles ranging
from overviews of language families, to the development of specific features, to the
decision‐making process for different declensions. There is a wealth of inspiration present in
this issue, and we know you will find something that piques your interest!
We hope you enjoy this Issue, and we hope you will add your voice and perspective to future
Issues in order to make Segments an even more wonderful and comprehensive resource!
Please email segments.journal@gmail.com if you would like to contribute.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank everyone for continuing to support Segments, now over three years
old! We could never have made it this long without the encouragement and participation
from so many amazing community members. We appreciate you!
Peace, Love, & Conlanging
The Segments Team
Segments.
Diachronics
r/conlangs
A Journal of
Constructed Languages
Showcases
01 | The origins of definite conjugation in Jeewa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
02 | Establishing Nominal Paradigms in Classical Cappadocian . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
03 | Passive Clitic e= in Esafuni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
04 | Undiachronics, or, Discovering Lauvìnko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
05 | Plurals in Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
39
06 | Consonant Phonology of the Mmatɨʂ Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
07 | An Overview of the Evolutions of the Athmo-Xlaccic Languages . . . . . . . . .
55
Abbreviations
1
First person
2
Second person
3
Third person
ABL
Ablative
ACC
Accusative
ACT
Active
AN
Animate
APSV
Antipassive
COM
Comitative
COND
Conditional
DAT
Dative
DEF
Definite
DEM
Demonstrative
DIS
Distal/Distant
DU
Dual
EMPH
Emphatic
ESS
Essive
F
Feminine
GEN
Genitive
IMP
Imperative
INAN
Inanimate
IND
Indicative
INDEF
Indefinite
INE
Inessive
IPFV
Imperfective
LAT
Lative
LOC
Locative
M
Masculine
MID
Middle voice
N
Neuter
NAME
Personal Name
NEG
Negative
NOM
Nominative
OBL
Oblique
PCP
Participle
PFV
Perfective
PL
Plural
PN
Pronoun, Proper noun
POL
Polite
PRF
Perfect
PROG
Progressive
PROX
Proximal
PRS
Present
PST
Past
PSV
Passive
Q
Interrogative
SG
Singular
REFL
Reflexive
VOC
Vocative
SBJV
Subjunctive
Showcases
01
Definitely done
by juhhmi
How determinatives fused into verbs in Jeewa
Jeewa is an a priori language spoken on planet Akekata, part of a science fantasy worldbuilding project of the author. The language and its siblings are known for their two verbal
paradigms, the indefinite and definite ones, which can carry information about the definiteness of the object or the scope of the action. Furthermore, the conjugations have various
other uses due to their origin as determinative particles which combined deixis to verbal
tense, aspect and mood. This article highlights how the definiteness marking grew into
existence, beginning with the protolanguage Lyopva.
Origins
Jeewa is part of Lyopvan language family that originated from the continent Herooku and
made its way to coastal Carranu along the Northern Island Chain over the course of some
three thousand years (see Fig. 1). While ancient Lyopva had spread wide as a rather uniform
language, a dramatic turn of events took place when the planet was struck by a cataclysm
which lead to the divine exodus and erratic times. Surviving peoples wandered and formed
new settlements, and consequently, the languages they spoke greatly changed.
The definite conjugation of Jeewa has its roots in determiners, that is, adnominal and
adverbal modifiers used in ancient Lyopva. Below, we will follow the evolution of the
determiners, how they first became preverbs in Jeewa’s predecessor Yeeba and then fused
into the conjugational suffixes. The usage of the resulting indefinite and definite paradigms
in Jeewa is discussed along with the differential object marking scheme, before charting
some modern innovations in Carranu variants.
Page 1
Jeewa
Figure 1: Expansion of northern Lyopvan language family with approximate periods of primary use and more stable development. Years of the common era are counted from the
cataclysm epoch as defined by the Eʒafuŋaajuuǯa (Almanac Office) of Kecʼe.
Determinative seeds in Lyopva
The ancient language of Lyopva (ljopʋa1 ) was the primary spoken and written language
of the Lyopvan empire which held the western coast of Herooku in its grip until the gods’
arrival. Thanks to the divine curiosity, a wealth of language records have survived to the
modern times and the characteristics of the language are known to a good degree. Namely,
Lyopva was notable for its prevalent use of determinatives, a part of speech in the language
covering various demonstratives and adverbs. Interestingly, the determinatives merged
deixis in both space and time, expanding the verbal tense, aspect and mood (TAM) system and tying it to nominal definiteness. Their long-lasting compound nature is evidenced
by attestations in historical records as ligatures of two logographs.
One could say that the determinatives of Lyopva are the seeds of the distinctive character
of the language family. The dual function of determinatives as modifying both nouns and
verbs set a specific tension to the ancient language which was later resolved in different
ways in the two main subbranches. In the southern varieties, the seeds hardened into rich
sets of demonstratives. In the north, the seeds met the verbal soil and grew into complex
conjugations. To better follow the northern branch and admire the paradigms flowering in
Jeewa, let us begin by outlining the basic constituents of Lyopvan determinatives.
The determinatives were of compound nature, derived from four common demonstrative
bases with various suffixes. The bases referred to the presence of the noun in some way.
Two of them, ʈɑ and ɳʈɑx, divided the spatial deixis into proximal and distal, while the third
base, kaŋ, was used for referring to unseen or unspecified nouns. The fourth determinative
base was the interrogative ɲi. The derivational suffixes, on the other hand, included the
attributive ending -ko and various adverbial endings, such as -(j)ɯ for the general locative,
-ul for the current context, -ɰɯʔla for tomorrow or yesterday, and -ɑʔɑ for an unspecified
time. Note that only back-harmonic variants are listed here.
Lyopva was largely head-final with the main word order being subject-object-verb (SOV).
Attributive demonstratives followed their head nouns but adverbial determinatives had freer
1
Anglicized language and concept names appear in the text, while other names and examples use different
romanizations. For Lyopva, the character choices are more phonetically motivated, while for Yeeba and Jeewa,
the romanization might be more familiar from the context of Uralic or Turkic languages.
Page 2
positioning, though almost always2 appearing before the main verb. The basic use of definite
demonstratives is shown in Ex. (1). Possessive clitics were appended onto the demonstrative,
revealing how they were part of the noun phrase.
(1)
Marking definiteness and context with determinatives:
a.
cuŋcuŋ mʷɑʔə ske
tyoongtyoong
mooy
eat
“Tyoongtyoongs eat mooy fruits.”
b.
cuŋcuŋʋitem mʷɑʔə ʈɑultsom ske
cuŋcuŋ=ʋitem
mʷɑʔə
tyoongtyoong =your.PL mooy
ʈɑ- ul=tsom
PROX-now =our
ske
eat
“Your pet tyoongtyoong is eating our mooy fruits at the moment.”
The verb itself could be conjugated for present and past tense or for irrealis mood in
Lyopva. The determinatives interacted with these verb forms in various ways depending
on the discourse context. Ex. (2) demonstrates possible uses of unspecified determinatives.
In Ex. (2a), the local determinative can be seen taking an additional case ending specifying
direction. Ex. (2b) shows the single noun, litəɳ ”person”, onto which the determinatives
joined directly as a suffix, as evidenced by the front harmonic variants.
(2)
a.
cilcəɱ kaŋjɯn pʔəɳʂənktumʷ krɑmʷɑsʔe
cilcəɱ
ants
kaŋ- jɯ-n
unseen-LOC-ABL
pʔəɳʂə- ne- ktə=ʋum
house-INE-LAT=my
“Ants are getting into my house from somewhere.”
b.
pɰoktunisim litəɳkaŋəiʔlə taʂtsɯʋu
pɰoktu=nisim
litəɳ- kaŋ-ɰɯʔla
garden=your.DU person-unseen-yesterday
krɑmʷɑ-sʔe
leak-PRS.3PL
taʂtsɯ-ʋu
see.PST-1SG
“I saw someone yesterday in the garden of you two.”
Preverbal buds in Yeeba
Yeeba (jiebä), the predecessor of Jeewa, developed from the insular variant of Lyopva
during the expansion of the Trade Empire a millennium after the erratic times. In Yeeba,
the Lyopvan determinatives had become fixed into a preverbal position and were now an
integral part of verbal TAM marking. However, the determinatives were still in some way
always tied to nouns, typically marking the definiteness of the subject or the object. While
some of the preverbs were highly adverbial in their nature, others functioned as demonstrative pronouns, also appearing independently as an anaphora for the object.
Two series of pronominal preverbs are relevant for the development of Jeewan conjugational paradigms, the d-series and the k-series. The d-series, which developed from the
proximal ʈɑ and distal ɳʈɑx bases of ancient Lyopva, consisted of preverbs which signaled
2
The relativizer kaŋko is a special case, appearing after verbs focalized as prenominal backgrounding
attributes: honʔem ptseʔel kaŋko pɑəkʔuwu taʂtsɯʋu ”I saw the pukwoo that had run after it.”
Page 3
Jeewa
the definiteness of the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. The
k-series, on the other hand, had come to be used for marking uncertainty or indefiniteness.
In addition to these two, question words formed their own series.
The verbs retained the conjugation paradigms for present and past tense as well as the
irrealis mood. The preverbs interacted with these three conjugations in complex ways,
producing a rich array of forms for conveying specific TAM combinations. Examples of
these are provided in Ex. 3. As the translation reveals, the preverbal determinative coud both
modify a noun and double as an object marker—the Jeeban conjugations in their budding
state.
(3)
Comparison of present and past tense use of the verb baxu ”to sew (fabric)” with
preverbs of the definite d-series and the indefinite k-series. The past tense suffix is
characterized by j.
a.
(toluottă) daakă baxuu
b.
dowu baxuu
c.
dowu baxuju
d.
kogu baxuu
e.
kogu baxuju
“I am sewing that (/the shirt).”
“I was sewing that.”
“I sewed it.”
“I have sewn something.”
“I sewed it today.”
Unfolding in Western Yeeba
According to the Šemaaǧi school of Kecʼe, there were two keys to the final development of
the definite conjugation in western Yeeba-deriving languages: The fixing of possessive clitics
directly onto their head noun and the relaxation of the word order from strict verb-finality.
Possessive clitics becoming suffixes seems to have been a quick process in early western
Yeeba. The prominence of the suffixes was further strengthened by the formation of fusional
accusative possessive suffixes, used when the object was possessed or focused. In a way, the
direct suffixing loosened the connection between the demonstratives and their head nouns.
While the possessive suffixing may have been affected by second-language learners of
Yeeba, the change of the word order into a more SVO was clearly connected to substrate
effects. Specifically, a major contribution came from Shahde language which was spoken on
Tiiwda, the largest and westernmost island of the island chain. Crucially, the increase in object mobility and changes in focus structures allowed the preverbs to jump into a postverbal
position. This reordering now let the Yeeban buds unfold into the fully flowering paradigms
in Jeewa.
Some connections can be made between modern Jeewan conjugational endings and Yeeban preverbs of the d-series and k-series. However, considering how fluid the usage of preverbs was and how erosion and analogy later probably leveled the paradigms, it is difficult
Page 4
1SG
2SG
3SG
PL
INDEF
PRS PST
-u/-f -ku
-n
-ŋu
-s
-ča
-sa
-ša
PRS
-da
-na
-ka
-ʒa
DEF
PST.IPFV
-du
-nu
-ku
-sus
PST.PFV
-dja
-nja
-kja
-šas
Table 1: The indefinite and definite verbal paradigms of Jeewa. Both of them contrast two
tenses (present and past) but aspect is distinguished only by the definite past conjugation.
There are different endings for all singular persons and a shared ending for all plural subjects.
For simplicity, only back harmonic variants are shown in the table.
to ascertain which preverb and TAM combinations eventually stabilized into which conjugational endings for different persons. Some of the established connections are presented in
the following section along with the full paradigms.
The binary blooming of Jeewan conjugations
Jeewa (ǯiiwa or jiiwa) is the language with the most speakers on the Northern Island
Chain. The language itself originates from Tiiwda island, where the highest-governing city
of the island chain, Kecʼe, is also located. Therefore, the language has reached even the
easternmost islands of the chain, as well as the coasts of Carranu to the west. In Carranu,
the spoken variants deriving from Jeewa are known as Tyasow (tjäsau).
The conjugational endings that unfolded in Jeewa became very fusional, combining tense,
person and number along with definiteness into a single suffix as shown in Table 1. While
all of these flowers share their roots, they come in two types thus picked into separate
paradigms. Of these, the paradigm of indefinite conjugation is considered the less marked,
standard form. The other paradigm of the definite conjugation has its main use with transitive verbs to mark the definiteness of the object or to replace third person anaphoras.
Moreover, the definite conjugation can refer to entire clauses and introduce verb complements.
One observation of the conjugation origins can easily be made: The definite suffixes for
first person singular all begin with d3 . The general consensus holds that these directly derive
from the d-series preverbs of Yeeba. The second and third person forms lack the d but are
similar in shape. This suggests that either the paradigm has a common source (with the
possible erosion of d) or that the forms became shaped by analogy.
Specific suffix and preverb correspondances have also been suggested. The definite past
imperfective endings are likely to derive from the Yeeba preverb dowu as exemplified by
Ex. (3b). Supportingly, the back-harmonic u of the endings is a possible result of unstressed
owu sequence. Another connection has been made in the indefinite past conjugation: The
first and second person contain a velar element most likely deriving from indefinite k-series
preverbs, exemplified in Ex. (3d). Šemaaǧi Mitʼin has additionally suggested that the third
person -ča derives from third person dual *-ssâkogu, perhaps via a metathesized ending *kssu. However, there are no surviving written samples or dialectal forms supporting this,
and the change /ksː/>/t͡s„t͡ʃ/ would be unique, even though somewhat comparable to
/kː(ə̯)s/>/t͡sʼ/.
The most debated element of the paradigms is the origin of the final s. It is regular in the
3
The first person singular definite endings have lenited versions beginning with j if required by the verb
stem and phonotactics.
Page 5
Jeewa
plural definite past forms of Jeewa, but does not appear in any extant sibling languages. Not
even the Šemaaǧi have reached a consensus of the origin among their ranks. In any case,
two of the various suggested origins are seen plausible, namely, the copular ending -s or the
collective -c /t͡s/.
In Jeewa, the definiteness of an object is additionally emphasized by the differential object
marking, a choice between the general accusative case -k and the lative case -tʼ. The general
accusative is often used with objects which are definite or already in the discourse. The
lative, on the other hand, marks the object as new to the discourse, drawing focus to it.
Possessed nouns are always seen definite in Jeewa. However, no separate accusative marking is used with them, excluding a couple of stem-changing nouns4 . Instead, the context and
the possessive suffix convey that the noun is an object, further clarified by the accompanying definite conjugation. The earlier accusative forms of possessive suffixes met in Yeeba
had apparently fallen out of use in western variants before Jeewa fully stabilized.
In most variaties of Jeewa, question words require the use of indefinite conjugation. It
has been agreed that this follows from the fact that Yeeban interrogatives were their own
preverbs which prevented the use of d-series determiners that gave rise to the definite conjugation5 . Furthermore, explicit pronominal objects and proper names of people appear
with the indefinite conjugation in present tense. Nevertheless, such objects take the general
accusative case which is usually governed by the definite conjugation. The usage of the two
verbal paradigms is presented collectively in Ex. (4).
(4)
Examples of indefinite and definite verb usage in Jeewa:
a.
nitʼ neteman
ni-tʼ
what -LAT
netem-an
see-INDEF.PRS.2SG
“What are you looking at?”
Or: “What do you see?”
b.
netemi ašaatʼ / asak / Ʒimaak
netem-Y
ašaa-tʼ
see-INDEF.PRS.1SG fisher -LAT
/ asa-k
/ 3PL-ACC
“I am looking at fishers/them/Zheemah.”
c.
netemda (ašaak)
netem-da
see-DEF.PRS.1SG
/
/
Ʒimaa-k
PN-ACC
(ašaa-k)
(fisher -ACC)
“I am looking at it/them (/the fishers).”
d.
netemda asa umusa
netem-da
see-DEF.PRS.1SG
asa
3PL
umu-sa
boat -their/our
“I am looking at their boat.”
4
Such as, taʒa ”hand”, as in taʒam vs. taaʒam ”my hand” for nominative and accusative uses, respectively.
Such changing stems are the only remnants of the earlier accusative possessive suffixes.
5
On the contrary, the interrogative determinatives apparently co-occurred with the k-series determiners
since all language variants neatly use the indefinite past conjugation with question words.
Page 6
While pronominal objects and proper names in present tense always appear with the indefinite conjugation, in past tense, there is variation in which paradigm is used. When the
original past forms of Yeeba (with no reference to definiteness) were lost, language variants
chose differently between which of the two paradigms came to be used with pronominal
objects. Nowadays, most language variants match the past with the present tense and use
the indefinite paradigm for both. However, dialects with the strongest substrate influence
(excluding Murë island) use the past definite conjugation, thus always distinguishing aspect
with pronominal objects.
One more usage of the definite conjugation is worth mentioning: With intransitive verbs
the definite endings signal that the scope of the action is somehow restricted. Depending on
the verb, this can be spatial or temporal, or related to the quantity. Compare, for example,
tamuuf ”I will sleep.” and tamuuda ”I will take a nap.” or otoŋu ”You moved.” and otonja
”You moved all the way.” In the traditional analysis, verbal complements are seen as verbal
restrictions which invoke the definite conjugation, as shown in Ex. (5). In the example,
we particularly see šiiʒ, the suppletive form of wa ”to go”, which is the only verb to use
a different stem for the definite paradigm. While wa goes all the way back to Lyopvan
ʋɑən ”to go”, the suppletive stem šiiʒ derives from the verb čüünsă, an insular borrowing
whose meaning was along the lines of ”to move into position, to settle”. Note also how the
uninflected verb form of ka serves as the complement.
(5)
šiiʒdu ka
šiiʒ-du
ka
go.DEF-DEF.PST.IPFV eat
“I went to eat.”
Or: “I was on my way to eat.”
Continental twists
The Tyasow language variants developing in Carranu have adjusted the conjugational
paradigms in different ways.
In Jeewa, only the past tense definite conjugation distinguishes imperfective and perfective
aspect. In Peak Tyasow, the proclivity of non-native Jeewa-learners towards specifying
verbal aspect has made the use of the past definite conjugation more common even when it
is not grammatically called for. To mirror the past imperfective and past perfective, there is
currently a notable tendency to aspectualize the present tense, using the definite forms for
a present retrospective and the indefinite ones for an imperfective meaning.
The Mossy Forest variety of Tyasow, on the other hand, has started to utilize the definiteness distinction as a distinction of transitivity. The indefinite conjugation is used solely
for intransitive meaning, though in some cases alongside a derivative of the Jeewan medialreflexive marker -wun. Additionally, new verbal affixes have started to develop from pronominal clitics for marking both subject and object on the verb. It seems the northern Lyopvan
family keeps embracing its definiteness-infused verbs—bearing ever more complicated fruit!
Page 7
02
Establishing Nominal
Paradigms in Classical
Cappadocian
by Cactuslover
An Exercise in Analogy
Cappadocian is a naturalistic a posteriori language descended directly from Proto-IndoEuropean. Cappadocian is set during antiquity in the Cappadocian region of Anatolia, with
major influences from the Anatolian languages and later from Greek. It diverged from ProtoIndo-European at approximately the same time as Anatolian, while also being in prolonged
contact with Anatolian until its eventual replacement by Greek.
This article focuses on the evolution of nominal paradigms from Proto-Indo-European to
Cappadocian, which has, beside the important goals of naturalism and phonoaesthetics, the
side objective of preserving various Indo-European archaisms, such as ablaut and the dual
number.
Phonological changes
Before the changes in the nominal morphology are introduced, it is necessary to give an
overview of the sound changes from Proto-Indo-European to Cappadocian.
Nasal
Stop
Fricative
Liquid
Glide
Labial
m
p (b) bʰ
Coronal
n
t d dʰ
s
rl
Palatal
Velar
Labiovelar
ḱ ǵ ǵʰ
k g gʰ
kʷ gʷ gʷʰ
y
Laryngeal
h₁ h₂ h₃
w
Table 1: Consonants in Proto-Indo-European
The consonants in Proto-Indo-European underwent the following significant shifts. Firstly,
the three phonations in PIE generally fall together as a single voiceless series. The voiced
and aspirate series in PIE merged without any exceptions, with the two-way distinction
Page 9
Cappadocian
being maintained for much of Cappadocian prehistory and the two series undergoing some
changes separately.
The voiceless *p was spirantized to [f], then debuccalized to [h]. The labiovelars generally
become labial stops, merging *bʰ with *kʷ gʷ gʷʰ. Meanwhile the palatovelar series undergo
satem-like changes and become post-alveolar affricates and fricatives. Overall, this results
in Cappadocian having very few words with inherited velar consonants.
Of the laryngeals, *h₂ and *h₃ are retained (in slightly different conditions) as a dorsal
fricative [χ], whereas *h₁ is deleted. A labialized laryngeal [χʷ] stems from *h₂w (which
may or may not have been a cluster in PIE), and becomes a labial fricative [f] in Cappadocian.
The glide *w is otherwise deleted.
An alveolar affricate [ts] arises from a variety of sources, including the double dental rule,
*t kʷ in palatalizing environments, and stop + s clusters in PIE.
Out of PIE’s limited vowel inventory, *o unrounded, merging with unaccented *e, *h₂colored *e, and *h₃-colored *e (and PIE *a, if it existed). The diphthongs *ey and *ew
monophthongized into [i] and [u], after original PIE *u fronted to [y]. PIE *ē merged with
*oy as [aj], and *ow merged with *ō and *ū (from compensatory lengthening) as [u]. The
syllabic nasals *m̥ n̥ vocalize to *a, the syllabic lateral *l ̥ vocalizes to *u (which fronts to
[y]), the syllabic rhotic *r̥ receives an epenthetic *a, and all three laryngeals vocalize to *a,
including in initial positions. After the loss of length distinctions and the unrounding of [y],
Cappadocian is left with a four vowel system comprised of /a e i u/.
Vowels are lost word-initially if they are immediately followed by an accented syllable.
Otherwise, the accent is lost and replaced with a system of penultimate stress.
Nasal
Stop
Fricative
Affricate
Approximant
Rhotic
Labial
m
p
f
Coronal
n
t
s
z
l
r
Palatal
š
č
y
Velar
Laryngeal
k
ḫ
h
Table 2: Consonants in Cappadocian
Nominal categories
The number of cases in Early PIE is contentious, but we only need to be concerned with
the five cases preserved in Cappadocian: the nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and
locative cases. (How convenient that they are the most securely reconstructed cases in PIE!)
The other cases were lost in the development from PIE to Cappadocian, and thus they need
not be considered here. The endings of the cases preserved in Cappadocian, in early PIE, in
the common gender, are as follows:
Page 10
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Singular Dual
-s, -∅
-h₁
-m
-s
-ei
-?
-i
Plural
-es
-ms
-oHom
-?
-su
Of course, nominal inflection in PIE also involved ablaut, which distinguished the strong
cases (the nominative, accusative, and vocative) from the weak cases (the other cases).
Explanations of the details of the PIE ablaut system can be amply found elsewhere, and is
thus omitted from the article.
The thematic endings, like Anatolian, are not significantly distinguished from the consonantal endings, and thus they are treated as the same here. Neuter nouns share the same
inflections in the oblique cases, while the direct cases fall together to be zero-marked in the
singular and marked by -h₂ in the plural.
Thematic declensions
The o-stem declensions are easier to begin with: they do not experience ablaut, and suffixes are generally happier in their place when following a vowel. The common thematic
declension shall be demonstrated by ḫaras, the reflex of PIE *h₃órbʰos (a deverbal stem
from PIE *h₃erbʰ, cognate to English orphan). The table below illustrates outcomes of the
regular sound changes to the PIE paradigm.
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Singular
ḫaras
ḫaran
ḫaras
ḫari
ḫari
Dual
Plural
ḫaras
ḫarau
ḫaras
ḫarayan
-?
-?
ḫarasi
Some outcomes are noteworthy: the dative and locative singular have merged. The nominative singular, nominative plural, accusative plural, and genitive singular have all merged.
The oblique cases for the dual and the dative plural are still unclear, as they cannot be securely reconstructed in PIE. Luckily, the dual form ḫarau has remained distinct, with h₁
causing compensatory lengthening into *ō, which broke into a diphthong au.
The genitive singular and the nominative singular were already merged in PIE, with the
distinction being made in ablaut. In Late PIE, The o-stem nouns, being without ablaut,
innovated the genitive singular *-osyo by attaching *-yo. Simply copying this would be
somewhat underwhelming, and the resulting form *ḫaraša, after yod coalescence, does not
feel so aesthetically coherent with the rest of the paradigm. So we invoke analogy from
the genitive plural, which conveniently already resembles an extension with *-ya with a
yod insertion to prevent vowel hiatus, to eliminate the *-s in the proto-form of the genitive
singular, and get ḫaraya. Since we are innovating a new genitive, we can also have that as
our genitive dual, which may be explained as the same extension to the dual as in *-h₁-yo
or a later analogy to the singular. Either way, we can have ḫaraya be the singular and dual
genitive in this o-stem paradigm.
Now looking at the dative and locative, while it would be fine to analogize the dative plural
Page 11
Cappadocian
as *su from the locative, seeing as they had already merged in the singular, it would leave
the dual to analogize to the only known dual form. It would undesirable to maintain the dual
but have only form for all five cases, so instead we analogize from the dative singular. This
way, instead of eliminating case distinctions in the dual, we eliminate number distinctions
in the dative, which naturally supplies its case form to the dual as well. Now with the dative
entirely in ḫari and the locative singular in the same, the locative plural is ripe for a fourpart analogy. This would leave ḫari the only form across two cases and three numbers.
Given that the locative and dative are merged both Anatolian and Greek, a near-merger of
the dative and locative in Cappadocian seems appropriate. We can look elsewhere for the
contrast between dative and locative.
While the nominative singular sharing a form with the nominative and accusative plural
is not necessarily desirable, it is perhaps the right dose of “imperfection” with regards to
naturalism, and further merging either form by analogy would leave a pathetically small
paradigm, so we leave the nominative and accusative forms as they are. With these changes,
the final thematic paradigm is as follows:
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Singular
ḫaras
ḫaran
ḫaraya
ḫari
Dual
Plural
ḫarau
ḫaras
ḫaraya
ḫarayan
ḫari
ḫari
The common athematic i-stem and u-stem nouns, with the monophthongization of *ey and
*ew, also reflect this ending pattern, so the thematic declension in fact becomes the new
vocalic paradigm encompassing o-stems (which become a-stems), i-stems, and u-stems.
Athematic declensions
With the thematic declension down we move onto the athematic declensions. The extra
factor here to address is ablaut, which can bring about more irregularity. A simple word
to start off with might be the reflex of PIE *ph₂tḗr, a hysterokinetic noun well known to be
cognate to English father. Starting with applying regular sound changes we get the following
(note that as in table 2 above z is a voiceless alveolar affricate):
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Singular
azay
azera
atres
atri
atri
Dual
Plural
azeras
azera
azeras
atrayan
-?
-?
atarsi
Here there are far more irregularities. While it is entirely reasonable for such a common
word to remain irregular, I do not want it. Firstly, the different vocalism caused by the
ablaut has left a palatalized aze(r)- in the nominative and accusative and an unpalatalized
atr- in the genitive, dative, and locative. The nominative singular has further deleted the
original rhotic from superheavy syllable reduction and broken the *ē into ay. We can pick
a stem to generalize. Given the kinship terms with static ablaut (e.g. méh₂tr̥s > matars)
yield Vr stems in the weak cases too, taking azer- as the stem seems like a better option.
The dative and locative plurals are still inconvenient to deal with, so we give them the same
Page 12
treatment as the thematic declension, and generalizing from the strong cases we can assign
all of dative and locative to azeri.
Looking at the nominative and accusative cases, the nominative singular is still the odd
one out. If we follow the thematic declensions and level nominative singular to azeras,
then we have effectively thematized the entire stem. Instead we can level only the length
and develop an unmarked (i.e. endingless) pre-proto-Cappadocian *ph₂tér which develops
into azer. This is nice and conforms to the cross-linguistic tendency of a formally unmarked
nominative. It can also be seen as analogy toward other athematic stems without lengthened
nominative singulars.
Finally we look at the genitive. If we extract the ending -es and perform the analogical
replacement of the stem then we get azeres, which is conveniently not identical to the
nominative singular this time. We still have to form the genitive dual, but extending only
the dual to form azerya feels out of place, so we extend the dual nominative/accusative
azera by the genitive -s instead and form azeras, which is also conveniently different from
the genitive singular. The genitive plural can stay with only an analogical replacement of
the stem.
With these changes, we can get a regular hysterokinetic-derived non-ablauting athematic
paradigm as such:
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Singular Dual
azer
azera
azera
azeres
azeras
azeri
azeri
Plural
azeras
azeryan
azeri
Augmented hysterokinetics
In the previous paradigm, we levelled the differences created by PIE ablaut. In effect, it
would have been the same had the noun been static rather than hysterokinetic. One interesting property that hysterokinetic nouns can have with accent retraction can be demonstrated
with the stem *h₃dónts. With regular sound changes, it is reflected as the following:
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Singular
tats
tata
atazes
atazi
tanzi
Dual
Plural
tantas
tanta
tantas
atatayan
-?
-?
tansi
Here, the initial *h₃ vocalizes in all inflectional forms, but in the nominative and accusative
forms, the vowel is subsequently deleted, as it is immediately followed by an accented syllable. In the genitive and dative cases, the accent is shifted to the ending, which allows the
initial vowel to survive. This is a neat way to maintain the contrast of ablaut, whilst not
completely preserving the accentual and vocalic systems of PIE. Note also that the locative
case has an accented suffix rather than ending, so the initial vowel is deleted, whereas it is
preserved in the dative. Here, we can trivially preserve the distinction between the dative
and locative.
Page 13
Cappadocian
Next we consider the differences in the stem. The nasal has vocalized in the genitive and
dative, and been deleted in the nominative singular. It has been preserved in the other cases.
The choice of the specific stem is, while an interesting consideration, not very relevant
to the construction of the paradigm. Here we can choose to keep the stems distinct as
neither generalization produces particularly phonoaesthetically pleasing forms. However,
we could reanalyze the nominative singular with the genitive, dative, and locative singulars
and produce nominative singular taz. We can further generalize the -z regardless of whether
the stem contains a nasal. Athematic nouns ending in -z should get an unmarked nominative
singular like the sonorants (which, disregarding vowel length, have unmarked nominative
singulars in PIE due to Szemerenyi’s Law). To make a genitive dual here, it is unnecessary to
even attach a genitive suffix: we can simply take the nominative/accusative dual tanta and
attach the vowel, which I shall term the augment. I call it the augment for no other reason
than the fact that it is an initial vowel serving a morphological purpose, like the augments
of Sanskrit and Greek, but like them in no other way. All in all the complete paradigm looks
like this:
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Singular
taz
taza
atazes
atazi
tanzi
Dual
Plural
tanza
tanzas
atanza
atazi
tanzi
atatayan
atazi
tanzi
Of course, this paradigm would not arise from many PIE formations: the number of hysterokinetic stems with an initial laryngeal is very small. We can, however, spread this
paradigm around. It is elegant and makes the largest amount of distinctions out of the different declensions. Unlikely, sure, but thus far the morphology has been quite lacking in
unlikely occurrences.
Statics
Next we approach the static paradigms. Out of the different ablauting categories PIE had,
(acro)statics were probably the least numerous. However, the possible alternation in vowel
quality and the eponymous static accent in static paradigms makes preserving the ablaut
easier.
Here we take the paradigm for the reflex of PIE *nókʷts (cognate to English night) and
apply regular sound changes.
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Singular
naps
napta
neps
nepzi
nepzi
Dual
Plural
naptas
napta
naptas
naptayan
-?
?
nepzi
Here the alternation between PIE *o and *e translates to the Cappadocian alternation
between a and e. We level the paradigm as before, whilst preserving the vocalism, and
taking na/ep as the stem, as follows:
Page 14
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Singular
naps
napa
neps
Dual
Plural
napa
napas
nepa
nepayan
nepi
nepi
nepi
Conclusion
With those declensions covered, I hope to have highlighted some interesting parts of the
Cappadocian nominal paradigms. The neuter nouns, which only differ in PIE from the common nouns in the core cases, are easy to derive once the common noun paradigms have
been established. An ergative case derived from the genitive case takes over marking of
transitive subjects, while the previously unmarked nominative/accusative case becomes the
absolutive case. A new set of genitives are innovated with *-yo in all neuter nouns.
Cappadocian runs counter to trends in other Indo-European languages, through the analogical extension of athematic paradigms and ablaut. With these main established paradigms,
there can be enough surface irregularity whilst maintaining minimal irregularity in documentation, with most nouns fitting into the few declensions derived above.
Page 15
03
Passive Clitic e= in
Esafuni
by Lysimachiakis
From Passive to Person
For this article, I will examine a small historical quirk that arose in my conlang Esafuni,
in which the passive clitic e= was reanalyzed in some contexts as second person agreement
morphology. This article will discuss the uses of e=, the historical context that led to it
being used in specific scenarios, how those scenarios gave rise to this reanalysis, and how
the passive and second person agreement senses can fight with one another when it may be
ambiguous.
The Passive
The clitic e= is prototypically a passive marker. It demotes (and deletes) the subject of a
verb and promotes the most animate object to the subject position.
(1)
Uku eteŋẹ́.
uku
e= teŋẹ -S
book PSV= give.me -PST
“The book was given to me.”
I specify ‘most animate’ because applicatives can result in a verb having multiple objects
simultaneously. As in (2b) below, the passive selected for the most animate object present,
Tosi. This can, of course, be ambiguous when the two objects are of similar animacy, but
for the most part context is enough to disambiguate.
Page 17
Esafuni
(2)
a.
Applicative
Wạ wasekú Tosi lolachẹ.
wạ
1.SG
wa= seku -S
COM= eat -PST
Tosi
lolachẹ
NAME burstberry_cake
“I ate burstberry cake with Tosi.”
b.
Applicative and Passive
Tosi ewasekú lolachẹ.
Tosi
NAME
e= wa= seku lolachẹ
PSV= COM= eat
burstberry_cake
“Tosi was eaten burstberry cake with.”
The resulting passive sounds a bit awkward in English but is perfectly grammatical and
salient in Esafuni.
The Particle cho
Esafuni makes use of a very versatile particle, cho. While this particle has many uses, we’ll
just focus on two use cases here. I gloss the particle as ‘antipassive’ in my documentation,
as that seems to be one of its primary uses, but that’s more for convenience than it is a
declaration of its sole function.
First, it can be used to reintroduce a verbal argument that has been demoted. This occurs
at the end of the clause, after any remaining objects.
(3)
Ja ebọ cho iwa.
ja
dog
e= bọ
PSV= see
cho
i
-wa
APSV man -DEF
“The dog is seen by the man.”
Second, it can be used to defocus the object, translating roughly as ‘some.’
(4)
I seku cho amịkị.
i
seku
man eat
cho
amịkị
APSV fruit
“The man is eating some amịkị fruit.”
In (4), the fact he is eating amịkị isn’t the most salient part of the clause. He’s eating
something, and that’s inherently focused by contrasting it with the defocused cho phrase,
while what he’s eating isn’t important. He could have eaten a bite of the fruit or could have
eaten an entire bowl of the fruit. The focus is on the action, not the object.
This is where the ambiguities can begin. If you start adding in applicatives so you have
(potentially) multiple objects tied to the same verb, then cho phrases can be less than clear.
Let’s look at an example:
Page 18
(5)
Moko eyefu cho esekufe.
Moko
e= ye= fu
cho
eseku -fe
NAME PSV= DAT= give APSV food -DEF
?“Moko is given (something) by food.”
Or: “Moko is given some food (by somebody).”
It’s probably clear that the second sense ‘given some food’ is the default interpretation due
to animacy and such, so maybe this example isn’t unclear, but what if that cho object were
animate?
(6)
Moko eyefu cho nitsiwa.
Moko
e= ye= fu
cho
nitsi -wa
NAME PSV= DAT= give APSV child -DEF
?“Moko is given some children (by someone)?”
?Or: “Moko is given (something) by the child/children”
In (6), without additional context, it’s really unclear what the speaker was trying to convey.
Did somebody give Moko some children to care for? If Moko were a teacher, that might make
sense. Is there just a single child in the context? If so, then a child giving them something
might be the meaning they were going for. That would make sense – especially if the focus
was on the act of giving rather than what was actually given. Is cho pulling double duty
here by reintroducing the agent and defocusing? Probably not, that would be pragmatically
a bit strange – why would you reintroduce an agent just to defocus it? Still, the possibility
exists given the right context.
These ambiguities are ever-present with cho. Let’s keep that in mind as we move forward
in Esafuni’s history.
Social Constructs
At some point, social norms started to dictate the use of the passive e=. Esafuni speakers seem to have decided that having a first person acting directly upon a second person
was impolite. Doing something directly to your listener felt forceful, aggressive, and imposing. Or at least that’s the theory. The result was speakers trying to avoid instances where
they declared themselves as having done something to the listener, with (7a) below being
dispreferred to (7b).
(7)
a.
Wạ bọ me.
wạ
1.SG
bọ me
see 2.SG
“I see you.”
b.
Me ebọ cho wạ.
me
2.SG
e= bọ
PSV= see
cho
wạ
APSV 1.SG
“You are seen by me.”
Page 19
Esafuni
As (7a) became dispreferred, the structure became routinized to the level that you could
drop the cho phrase entirely and have it assumed that the agent is the speaker:
(8)
Me ewowụ kanda.
me
e= owụ kanda
2.SG PSV= seek answer
“I am asking you a question.”
lit. “You are asked a question.”
The structure became so widespread and normalized that you could even drop the overt
subject – if there were no stated subject, then speakers would default to the usual and assume
it was, of course, the second person being referred to!
(9)
Ewapá.
e= wa= pa -S
PSV= COM= say -PST
“You were told something.”
Reanalysis
I don’t think what happens next should be too surprising at this point: Esafuni speakers
reanalyze the passive e= to (additionally) be a second person agreement morpheme. They
started adding it any time there was a second person subject without it needing to be a
passive interpretation.
(10)
Me epẹ poko.
me
2.SG
e= pẹ
2= build
poko
garden
“You’re making a garden.”
In cases like this, it’s generally clear, but as noted in previous sections, it can be a bit
ambiguous once you start adding applicatives – particularly if you are also defocusing an
object.
(11)
Me ewapẹ Tawi cho poko.
me
e= wa= pẹ
2.SG 2= COM= build
Tawi cho
poko
NAME APSV garden
“You build some gardens with Tawi”
?Or: “You are built (up) with Tawi by a garden.”
In (11), the first interpretation would be the default due to animacy concerns, but there’s
no reason that the alternative translation couldn’t be true, particularly in poetic language.
Maybe the garden, as a joint project between you and Tawi, built up a stronger relationship
Page 20
between you two? It’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s not an impossible interpretation if given the
right context!
The clitic then expands yet again to be used in cases where it would never have been found
before: with intransitive verbs.
(12)
Me eyuŋgẹ.
me
e= yuŋgẹ
2.SG 2= be.tired
“You’re tired.”
(13)
Ezoŋgó.
e= zoŋgo
-S
2= dance.solo -PST
“You were dancing by yourself.”
Wrap Up
When I conlang and I see the word “diachronics,” my first thought is always these deeply
seeded historical conlangs that derive from some three-thousand year-old protolanguage.
They often feel overwhelming for me. I wrote up this article because I think we can apply
the basics of diachronic changes to a language on a much smaller scale and still end up with
quirks that give the language some depth while still feeling naturalistic. I hope to apply this
small-scale technique more in my conlangs, and I hope in the future I can see more examples
of how others do the same to grow and develop their languages.
Thanks for reading!
Page 21
04
Undiachronics, or,
Discovering Lauvìnko
by Conor Stuart Roe
For more about Lauvìnko, visit its home on the web at http://lauvinko.conorstuartroe.com/
I wrote an article called Machine-Assisted Morphology in Segments #7 almost a year ago,
and it was basically meant to function as the magnum opus of a set of reflections I’d had
swirling around my brain for the prior couple of years. Basically, it described the way that
I’d devised Lauvìnko as a fully diachronics-driven project, and the intense complexities that
cropped up from trying to formalize a naturalistic and messy language into software. It
provides some more detailed context on this article, which I’ll also summarize here.
Because my approach to Lauvìnko morphology has been to create a highly agglutinative
but fully regular ancestor language and then send it unflinchingly through the grinder of
historical sound change, there has always been a large element of discovery in Lauvìnko.
That theme cropped up a few times in Machine-Assisted Morphology - instances where a
particular combination of sounds or morphological machinery was brought together for the
first time, and the rules I had laid out up until that moment either gave me an answer I
didn’t expect, or turned out to be underspecified and have no answer at all. It’s almost like
math - choose a set of axioms and then discover what emergent properties that system has.
In that vein, since I have been so heavily focused on diachronics (and on the software
engineering aspect of Lauvìnko as a project), I have not really taken time to approach Lauvìnko as a language in its own right as a synchronously describable language. I’ve spent
2023 much more focused on learning natural languages than on making artificial ones, and
perhaps for that reason I feel compelled to approach Lauvìnko as a language learner would,
getting familiar with its current nooks and crannies rather than just an abstract, thousandyear view. In fact, I studiously avoid giving diachronic explanations for anything in this
article. This may seem at odds with this edition’s theme of diachrony, but I think about it
as an important, if (on my part) neglected, part of the process of the historical approach
to conlanging. If at any point you want a peek behind the curtain at the actual historical
changes Lauvìnko underwent, you can read about it on my website.
Page 23
Lauvìnko
So I’m going to do the (the original draft of this article contained the phrase “hopefully
brief” here; that hope has since clearly been dashed) exercise of looking at some individual
affixes in Lauvìnko and exploring their allomorphs that appear in different contexts. It
should be entertaining! Some of Lauvìnko’s allomorphy that feels relatively humdrum when
you know the history looks a little wild when taken out of that context.
A taste of Lauvìnko phonology
For my last article, the Segments editors thought it was useful for the reader to know the
basics of Lauvìnko phonology. I think that’s even more true for this article, so here’s the
same summary I included last time:
Lauvìnko has 12 consonant phonemes, romanization the same as IPA except where noted:
Nasal
Stop/Affricate
Fricative
Approximant
Labial
/m/
/p/
/ʋ/ ⟨v⟩
Alveolar
/n/
/t/ /t͡s/ ⟨c⟩
/s/
/l/
Dorsal
/ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩
/k/
/j/ ⟨y⟩
Glottal
/h/
Lauvìnko has four vowel phonemes /a e i o/, as well as three diphthongs /eɐ̯ iɐ̯ oɐ̯/ ⟨ea ia
oa⟩.
Maximal Lauvìnko syllable structure is CVC. All consonants besides /h/ are permitted in
the syllable coda, although often with different realizations than in the onset:
• All stops lose distinctive place of articulation, debuccalizing to [ʔ h ɦ] before sonorants
or word-finally (written ⟨h⟩), and geminating following obstruents (simply indicated
with a double letter).
• Nasals also lose distinctive place of articulation in the coda, assimilating to a following
consonant (written ⟨m⟩ or ⟨n⟩), or appearing as [ŋ] ⟨ng⟩ word-finally.
• /ʋ/ becomes [w] ⟨u⟩.
• /t͡s/ becomes [s] ⟨s⟩.
• /l/ becomes [ɽ] ⟨r⟩ or turns a following alveolar consonant geminate and retroflex.
Lauvìnko has a pitch accent system which is structurally similar to Ancient Greek or modern Serbo-Croatian. One syllable per word bears an accent, and that syllable may carry one
of two pitch contours: high flat ⟨á é í ó⟩ or falling ⟨à è ì ò⟩.
Methodology: everything × everything
In this article I specifically focus on a group of affixes called the conjunct prefixes, and how
they combine with native Lauvìnko stems, mostly verbal stems. The conjunct prefixes are
basically those which date to the earliest constructed stage of Lauvìnko (which was nearly
exclusively prefixing) and are thus subject to the most extreme allomorphy. They include
verbal affixes for modal/adverbial functions, some aspect marking, and agreement with the
trigger (≈ subject).
As explained in my previous article, I perform all Lauvìnko morphological inflection via
software these days (you can play with it here.) So the methodology of this article just
involved analyzing the output of my existing morphology engine. I wrote up some pretty
straightforward code to take every native stem of Lauvìnko, and output its form with each
individual conjunct prefix. For example (pretending for a moment that I only have four
Page 24
stems and four conjunct prefixes in the entire language):
must
before
can
but
yèng “saw”
yosyèng
tayèng
sonèng
cayèng
tís “long”
yostís
tattís
sottís
cattís
tìnni “crafted”
yoslìnni
tattìnni
sontìnni
catìnni
asòsing “diced”
yosasòsing
tasòsing
sonasòsing
causòsing
Next, I wrote a second bit of code which computes phoneme substitution rules for each
prefix-stem pair, roughly signifying the allomorph the prefix has for that stem. For example,
it would compute the following phoneme substitutions for each of the combinations above
(note in particular that this is based off of phonemes, not romanization):
must
before
can
but
yèng “saw”
// → /jos/
// → /ta/
/j/ → /son/
// → /t͡sa/
tís “long”
// → /jos/
// → /tat/
// → /sot/
// → /t͡sat/
tìnni “crafted”
/t/ → /josl/
// → /tat/
// → /son/
// → /t͡sa/
asòsing “diced”
// → /jos/
// → /t/
// → /son/
/a/ → /t͡saʋ/
One limitation of this methodology that I acknowledge is that constraining the search space
to have only one prefix at a time on a given stem is not fully representative of the language.
Lauvìnko is a pretty synthetic language, and it’s not rare for several conjunct prefixes (and
some other less scary morphology) to appear on a single stem. However, relaxing that
simplifying assumption would require me to analyze many, many more combinations, and
I’m not convinced that the results would be much more interesting. Maybe in the future
I’ll try it out and realize I need to write another article about it, but this methodology was
plenty complex for now.
I was interested in sorting the stems into different inflection classes, perhaps motivated
by the language learning lens (for an analogous example: Spanish has three major verb
conjugation classes – ar, er, and ir – with many subclasses for behaviors like vowel breaking,
first-person conjugations in -go, etc.) I computed a grouping of all native Lauvìnko stems
into inflection classes, such that all stems in an inflection class have the same phoneme
substitution for every single prefix. For instance, tève ‘washed’ is in the same inflection
class as tìnni:
must
before
can
but
tìnni “crafted”
yoslìnni
tattìnni
sontìnni
catìnni
tève “washed”
yoslève
tattève
sontève
catève
Using this method, I identified 38 inflection classes, which can be manually grouped into
larger superclasses, which I’ll discuss in detail. This is not necessarily the total number of
possible inflection classes - I am well aware of gaps in my data that will give rise to new stem
classes if I coin new roots that happen to fill them (I estimate the number of theoretically
possible but unattested stem classes to be 10-15).
I was also interested in the set of allomorphs for each conjunct prefix. Because this is a
relatively small closed class (29 prefixes) they can’t really be divided into groups, but I do
discuss some general patterns.
Page 25
Lauvìnko
Consonant tricks
There’s one morphological process so widespread and important in Lauvìnko morphology
that I think it’s best to explain before describing specific allomorphy: consonant breaking
and mutation.
Some stems (and conjunct prefixes!) beginning with nasal and stop consonants undergo
consonant breaking after most conjunct prefixes, by which the one initial consonant breaks
into two consonants. Specifically, when /m n ŋ p t t͡s k/ break, they become /mp nt ŋk
pp tt tt͡s kk/, respectively. Due to the CVC syllable structure of Lauvìnko, this sometimes
forces vowel epenthesis between the prefix and the stem. Some examples of breaking vs.
non-breaking stems:
after
like
non-breaking
tìnni “crafted” mày “seem”
ngitìnni
ngimày
mittìnni
mihmày
breaking
tís “long” méke “carried”
ngittís
ngimpéke
mikattís
mikampéke
I say they break after “most” conjunct prefixes, because there’s a second phenomenon
going on - consonant mutation. 10 of the 29 conjunct prefixes cause consonant mutation
on the following consonant, with mutation coming in three flavors: lenition, fortition, and
nasalization. Breaking consonants respond to mutation differently than their non-breaking
counterparts, and the lenition mutation effectively cancels out consonant breaking. The full
set of mutations (with gray shading indicating no change):
no mutation
/m/
/n/
/ŋ/
/p/
/t/
/t͡s/
/k/
/mp/
/nt/
/ŋk/
/pp/
/tt/
/tt͡s/
/kk/
/s/
/ʋ/
/l/
/j/
lenition
/m/
/n/
/ŋ/
/ʋ/
/l/
/s/
/j/ or nothing
/m/
/n/
/ŋ/
/p/
/t/
/t͡s/
/k/
/s/
/ʋ/
/l/
/j/
fortition
/m/
/n/
/ŋ/
/pp/
/tt/
/tt͡s/
/kk/
/mp/
/nt/
/ŋk/
/pp/
/tt/
/tt͡s/
/kk/
/t͡s/
/ʋ/
/l/
/j/
nasalization
/m/
/n/
/ŋ/
/mp/
/nt/
/nt͡s/
/ŋk/
/mp/
/nt/
/ŋk/
/pp/
/tt/
/tt͡s/
/kk/
/s/
/m/
/n/
/n/
There are a few other odds and ends to explain. Vowel-initial stems undergo vowel coalescence with prefixes ending in vowels and do not undergo lenition or fortition, but nasalizing
prefixes will insert an epenthetic /n/ between the prefix and the vowel. When /k/ is lenited,
it may become /j/, or it may just disappear, which may lead to further vowel coalescence,
depending on phonological context. /h/ is not included in this chart because it cannot appear word-internally, so when a stem beginning in /h/ receives a prefix it simply disappears;
this permits normal vowel sandhi and blocks the epenthesis of /n/ following a nasalizing
prefix.
Page 26
Prefixes
I’ll briefly discuss all 29 prefixes here, and give some prototypical allomorph for each,
as well any mutation they cause, notated by superscripts: L is lenition, F is fortition, N
is nasalization. At the end of this section, I also have some brief notes on allomorphy of
prefixes, but discuss it in more detail in the discussion of individual stem classes.
It’s not relevant to the methodology of this article, but for the curious: I’ve ordered the
prefix sections according to the order they appear in the Lauvìnko verb template. A maximally inflected Lauvìnko verb could have a few modal prefixes, one tertiary aspect prefix,
one trigger agreement prefix, and one voice prefix.
Modal prefixes
The modal prefixes are a broad category of prefixes carrying modal, evidential, adverbial,
and other information. Lauvìnko verbs can have more than one modal prefix attached;
there is no fixed relative ordering of the modal prefixes and their ordering tends to be
configurational.
tiL mernoeuyosL coy-
if
while
after (different subject)
want to
must, have to
indirect evidential
kiL taF armikkor-
in order to
before
not
like to
very
ivoF ngitelesoN ca-
therefore, thus
after (same subject)
again
able to
but
Tertiary aspect prefixes
Lauvìnko verbal stems express core (so-called primary and secondary) aspect distinctions
via ablaut and partial reduplication, but there are two extra aspect markings which may
combine with the primary and secondary aspects.
mi- prospective aspect
laF - experiential aspect
Trigger agreement prefixes
Lauvìnko has a syntactic slot roughly similar to subject, which I’ve settled on calling the
“trigger” (a term taken from Austronesian linguistics). The main verb of a sentence agrees
with the trigger.
naiF asa-
1st person singular
2nd person singular
3rd person animate singular
3rd person inanimate singular
kaeF oso-
1st person plural
2nd person plural
3rd person animate plural
3rd person inanimate plural
Trigger role (voice) prefixes
The trigger of a Lauvìnko sentence is by default an agent, but it can also be other theta
roles, which are marked on the verb. I variously refer to this as trigger role marking, or
simply voice. There is also a prefix in this morphological slot that indicates that the verb is
in a dependent clause.
taN - genitive trigger
Page 27
pos-
locative trigger
et- dependent
Lauvìnko
Prefix allomorphy
It’s difficult to summarize all of the allomorphy that stems undergo, so I’m just going to
highlight a couple of groups of prefixes that show a particular kind of allomorphy. Look out
for these patterns in the section on stem classes.
The first group just contains the two modal prefixes mer- and taF -; their unique behavior
is that they often insert a /ʋ/ between them and the stem; the precise circumstances under
which this happens are given in the section on stem classes.
The second group contains the modal ca-, the aspect prefix laF -, and the trigger agreement
prefixes sa- and a-. These four prefixes often cause the following stem-initial vowel to shift
to a semivowel.
Stem classes
For this section, I’ve grouped the 38 stem classes into some larger groups of classes that
show similar or analogous patterns to each other.
I don’t necessarily intend for this section to be read in full by anyone; it’s an extremely
detailed reference of Lauvìnko inflection patterns. Just taking in the sheer size of this section
and maybe reading a few subsections to get an impression of what’s going on should be
sufficient.
The ordering of the subsections is highly intentional; I’ve tried to order them such that
new phenomena are gradually introduced alongside previously seen ones. As a result, the
subsections broadly progress from the most regular and predictable to the most chaotic.
Non-breaking nasal
This is both the simplest and most common stem class. Nasals are opaque to all consonant
mutations, so there’s really nothing exciting happening here.
In this and following subsections I show the inflection patterns of all stem classes in charts
like below, with an uninflected stem from the class in the top left, and the stem with each
of the 29 prefixes in the other cells. There’s no separation of prefixes according to function
because I’m much more interested in the phonological details than the semantic or syntactic
ones.
níh
nginíh
soníh
laníh
oníh
tiníh
noníh
yosníh
naníh
saníh
níh “stand”
kiníh
ivoníh
arníh
teleníh
korníh caníh
kaníh iníh
soníh
taníh
merníh
euníh
coyníh
eníh
posníh
taníh
mihníh
miníh
aníh
ehníh
Non-breaking stop/affricate (except /k/)
The stops /p t k/ and the one affricate /t͡s/ are all subject to all three types of mutation.
I’ll color-code cells which are affected by mutation: lenition purple, fortition green, and
nasalization yellow.
Page 28
tève
ngitève
sontève
lattève
otève
tilève
notève
yoslève
natève
satève
tève “wash”
kilève
ivottève
artève
teletève
kortève catève
katève ittève
sotève
tantève
mertève
eutève
coytève
ettève
postève
tattève
mittève
mitève
atève
ettève
Note that it can be difficult to tell where lenition and fortition are happening without
comparison to other stem classes. For instance, both tattève and mittève have a geminate
/t/, but the equivalent forms from the prior stem class taníh and mihníh reveal the full
story. The first prefix is /ta/ with a fortition mutation to which nasals are opaque: tève
→ tattève but níh → taníh. The second prefix actually ends in a stop consonant which
can be seen in both stem classes: tève → mittève and níh → mihníh (the actual identity
of the stop consonant is a bit obscured by Lauvìnko allophony rules, which have all stops
assimilate to a following stop and become [ɦ] before sonorant consonants, but other stem
classes make it clear that the stop is /k/).
The stem classes beginning with non-breaking /p/ and /t͡s/ look pretty similar, just with
/p/ leniting to /ʋ/ and /t͡s/ leniting to /s/, so I won’t show them here. The stem classes
beginning with non-breaking /k/, though, are much more diverse. The multiple stem classes
for stems beginning in /k/ are discussed in a later section.
Breaking nasal
Breaking nasals are subject to lenition, which cancels out the breaking, but not to fortition or nasalization. After all conjunct prefixes other than leniting ones, the initial nasal
breaks into a nasal + stop sequence. In order to maintain adherence to Lauvìnko phonotactics, breaking forces an epenthetic vowel to be added after all conjunct prefixes ending
in consonants.
náli
ngintáli
sontáli
lantáli
ontáli
tináli
nontáli
yosnáli
nantáli
santáli
náli “bind”
kináli
ivontáli
alantáli
telentáli
kolantáli cantáli
kantáli
intáli
sontáli
tantáli
melantáli
evontáli
coyintáli
entáli
posantáli
tantáli
mikantáli
mintáli
antáli
etantáli
Breaking stop/affricate
Like breaking nasals, breaking stops are subject to lenition, which cancels out their breaking, but not to any other mutations.
tís
ngittís
sottís
lattís
ottís
titís
nottís
yostís
nattís
sattís
tís “long”
kitís
ivottís
alattís
telettís
kolattís cattís
kattís
ittís
sottís
tattís
melattís
evottís
coyittís
ettís
posattís
tattís
mikattís
mittís
attís
etattís
Approximant
Stems beginning in approximants /ʋ l j/ inflect almost as uneventfully as stems beginning
in nasals, except that they are subject to nasalization. Here’s an example with /ʋ/ going to
/m/; /l/ and /j/ both nasalize to /n/.
Page 29
Lauvìnko
váy
ngiváy
somáy
laváy
ováy
tiváy
nováy
yosváy
naváy
saváy
váy “go”
kiváy
ivováy
arváy
televáy
korváy caváy
kaváy iváy
sováy
tamáy
merváy
euváy
coyváy
eváy
posváy
taváy
mihváy
miváy
aváy
ehváy
/s/
To round out the previous three groups, stems beginning in /s/ are only subject to fortition.
Other than that, it is similarly boring to the nasals and approximants.
séh
ngiséh
soséh
lacéh
oséh
tiséh
noséh
yosséh
naséh
saséh
séh “grow”
kiséh
ivocéh
arséh
teleséh
korséh caséh
kaséh icéh
soséh
taséh
merséh
euséh
coyséh
ecéh
posséh
tacéh
misséh
miséh
aséh
esséh
Up until this point, all stems have begun in consonants. Compared to the stem classes that
follow, their allomorphy is fairly tame. The really unpredictable complexity of Lauvìnko
allomorphy is caused by needing to resolve vowel hiatus, which is not permitted by Lauvìnko
phonotactics. The following stem classes all deal with vowel hiatus.
non-breaking /k/
My algorithm found five distinct stem classes for stems beginning in non-breaking /k/,
which differ in accent placement and the vowel phoneme following the /k/ (I am quite
sure that three or so more classes are theoretically possible, but the existing native stems
fall into only five). This is because non-breaking /k/ basically disappears under lenition;
Lauvìnko does not allow vowel hiatus so the disappearance of the consonant can be resolved
in multiple ways. If the vowel following /k/ is accented, an epenthetic /j/ can be inserted
to avoid vowel hiatus. Otherwise, various vowel coalescence occurs.
I’ll give an example stem from each of the five classes, with a bit of discussion for each.
Weird vowel shenanigans only happen under lenition, so only the cells highlighted red will
differ between the five.
The first class is the simplest, and encompasses all stems for which the vowel following
/k/ is accented. An epenthetic /j/ is simply inserted to avoid hiatus for the modal prefixes
tiL - and kiL -, while the /s/ of yosL - renders consonant epenthesis unnecessary:
kéa
ngikéa
sonkéa
lakkéa
okéa
tiyéa
nokéa
yoséa
nakéa
sakéa
kéa “dry”
kiyéa
ivokkéa
arkéa
telekéa
korkéa cakéa
kakéa ikkéa
sokéa
tankéa
merkéa
eukéa
coykéa
ekkéa
poskéa
takkéa
mikkéa
mikéa
akéa
ekkéa
The second class is comprised of stems in which /k/ is followed by an unaccented /i/. The
/i/ coalesces with the /i/ of tiL - and kiL -, and shifts to /e/ following yosL -:
Page 30
kikímpir
ngikikímpir
sonkikímpir
lakkikímpir
okikímpir
tikímpir
nokikímpir
yosekímpir
nakikímpir
sakikímpir
kikímpir “blow”
kikímpir
ivokkikímpir
arkikímpir
telekikímpir
korkikímpir cakikímpir
kakikímpir ikkikímpir
sokikímpir
tankikímpir
merkikímpir
eukikímpir
coykikímpir
ekkikímpir
poskikímpir
takkikímpir
mikkikímpir
mikikímpir
akikímpir
ekkikímpir
The next class is stems in which /k/ is followed by unaccented /e/. It coalesces with the
/i/ of tiL - and kiL - into /e/, and also remains as /e/ following yosL -:
keképah
ngikeképah
sonkeképah
lakkeképah
okeképah
teképah
nokeképah
yoseképah
nakeképah
sakeképah
keképah “command”
keképah
ivokkeképah
arkeképah
telekeképah
korkeképah cakeképah
kakeképah ikkeképah
sokeképah
tankeképah
merkeképah
eukeképah
coykeképah
ekkeképah
poskeképah
takkeképah
mikkeképah
mikeképah
akeképah
ekkeképah
The next class contains some stems in which /k/ is followed by unaccented /a/, predominantly frequentative-aspect stems where the accented vowel is /o/. For these, the /a/
actually becomes a semivowel /ʋ/ after tiL - and kiL -. remaining /a/ after yosL -:
kakómpir
ngikakómpir
sonkakómpir
lakkakómpir
okakómpir
tiukómpir
nokakómpir
yosakómpir
nakakómpir
sakakómpir
kakómpir “blew”
kiukómpir
ivokkakómpir
arkakómpir
telekakómpir
korkakómpir cakakómpir
kakakómpir ikkakómpir
sokakómpir
tankakómpir
merkakómpir
eukakómpir
coykakómpir
ekkakómpir
poskakómpir
takkakómpir
mikkakómpir
mikakómpir
akakómpir
ekkakómpir
The last attested class of stems beginning with /k/ only has one existing stem in it. /k/ is
followed by an unaccented /a/, which disappears entirely with tiL - and kiL -. and remains
/a/ after yosL -:
kavòng
ngikavòng
sonkavòng
lakkavòng
okavòng
tivòng
nokavòng
yosavòng
nakavòng
sakavòng
kavòng “tree”
kivòng
ivokkavòng
arkavòng
telekavòng
korkavòng cakavòng
kakavòng ikkavòng
sokavòng
tankavòng
merkavòng
eukavòng
coykavòng
ekkavòng
poskavòng
takkavòng
mikkavòng
mikavòng
akavòng
ekkavòng
unaccented /ant͡s/
I put this category after the disclaimer about vowel hiatus, but stems beginning with unaccented anc are actually a special class of vowel-initial stems that inflect much more simply
than all other vowel-initial stems. Essentially, the initial unaccented /a/ just gets dropped
following any prefix ending in a vowel, and stays as an epenthetic vowel following any prefix ending in a consonant. These stems don’t exhibit any mutation behavior; unlike all other
vowel-initial stems, stems beginning in anc don’t even get an /n/ inserted after nasalizing
prefixes.
The only unexpected behavior of this class of stems is something it shares with all vowelinitial stems: the appearance of a /ʋ/ following the modal prefix mer-.
Page 31
Lauvìnko
ancóy
ngincóy
soncóy
lancóy
oncóy
tincóy
noncóy
yosancóy
nancóy
sancóy
ancóy “traded”
kincóy
ivoncóy
alancóy
telencóy
kolancóy cancóy
kancóy
incóy
soncóy
tancóy
mervancóy
evancóy
coyancóy
encóy
posancóy
tancóy
mikancóy
mincóy
ancóy
etancóy
/h/
Like with non-breaking /k/, stems beginning with /h/ can be split into five classes. Unlike non-breaking /k/, stems beginning with /h/ are relatively more rare and each class is
smaller, with three of the five classes only containing a single stem. To be more specific,
one primary/secondary aspect form of the verb hànasvi ‘fight’ happens to appear in each of
the five stem classes, so that for three of the five classes, the only stem in the class is a form
of hànasvi! For this reason, I’ll show each of the five classes using the form of hànasvi that
belongs to that class. In the discussion on stems beginning in non-breaking /k/, I estimated
that about three more classes may be theoretically possible and emerge as I add new roots
to the language; for stems beginning in /h/ I think there may be five or more possible but
currently unattested classes, just because the examples of them are so sparse so far.
/h/ is only possible word-initially in Lauvìnko, and just disappears following any prefix.
It can be replaced by a semivowel to prevent vowel hiatus, or vowels may just coalesce. /h/
is not subject to any type of mutation, even blocking the insertion of /n/ after nasalizing
prefixes that occurs with vowel-initial prefixes.
Accented vowels tend to resist vowel coalescence, so stems with /h/ followed by an accented vowel usually replace the /h/ with a semivowel. If the final vowel of the prefix is
not /a/, it normally dictates the prefix, so the only variation between the three stem classes
with /h/ followed by an accented vowel occurs with prefixes ending in /a/. Since there is
no need for cell shading indicating mutation in these paradigms, I’ll highlight all the cells
differing between the three paradigms with gray shading.
The tendency is for accented /a/ to coalesce with the /a/ of the prefix, accented /e/ to
cause an epenthetic /j/ to be inserted, and accented /o/ to cause an epenthetic /ʋ/ to be
inserted. The oddball is that the modal prefix taF - has an epenthetic /ʋ/ even before /e/:
tavènasvi. Note that the genitive trigger prefix ta- still has epenthetic /j/ with the same
stem: tayènasvi. How odd!
hànasvi
ngiyànasvi
sovànasvi
lànasvi
ovànasvi
hènasvi
ngiyènasvi
sovènasvi
layènasvi
ovènasvi
tiyànasvi
novànasvi
yosànasvi
nànasvi
sànasvi
hànasvi “fight”
kiyànasvi ivovànasvi
alànasvi
teleyànasvi
kolànasvi cànasvi
kànasvi
iyànasvi
sovànasvi tànasvi
mervànasvi
evànasvi
coyànasvi
eyànasvi
posànasvi
tànasvi
mikànasvi
miyànasvi
ànasvi
etànasvi
tiyènasvi
novènasvi
yosènasvi
nayènasvi
sayènasvi
hènasvi “fought”
kiyènasvi ivovènasvi
alènasvi
teleyènasvi
kolènasvi cayènasvi
kayènasvi iyènasvi
sovènasvi tayènasvi
mervènasvi
evènasvi
coyènasvi
eyènasvi
posènasvi
tavènasvi
mikènasvi
miyènasvi
ayènasvi
etènasvi
Page 32
hònasvi
ngiyònasvi
sovònasvi
lavònasvi
ovònasvi
tiyònasvi
novònasvi
yosònasvi
navònasvi
savònasvi
hònasvi “was fighting”
kiyònasvi ivovònasvi
alònasvi
teleyònasvi
kolònasvi cavònasvi
kavònasvi iyònasvi
sovònasvi tavònasvi
mervònasvi
evònasvi
coyònasvi
eyònasvi
posònasvi
tavònasvi
mikònasvi
miyònasvi
avònasvi
etònasvi
Unaccented vowels, in contrast to accented vowels, are much more liable to be pushed
around by vowel coalescence. The only examples of stems beginning with /h/ followed by
an unaccented vowel are the frequentative forms of hànasvi.
There are so many things to mention about the following two paradigms! Firstly, there
is much more vowel coalescence because prefixes ending in /i/ or /e/ have it coalesce into
following unaccented /e/, while prefixes ending in /o/ have it coalesce into a following /o/.
Semivowels tend to otherwise be inserted between vowels of different frontness/rounding.
Except! That some, but not all, prefixes ending in /a/ reduce the first vowel of the stem to
a semivowel. For example: laF - (experiential aspect) + heyènasvi = layyènasvi, but na(first person singular trigger) + heyènasvi = nayeyènasvi.
Most of the cells in the following two paradigms have something interesting going on, but
I’ve chosen to highlight the cells where a vowel is reduced to a semivowel, because the same
pattern emerges with vowel-initial stems.
heyènasvi
ngeyènasvi
soveyènasvi
layyènasvi
oveyènasvi
hovònasvi
ngiyovònasvi
sovònasvi
lauvònasvi
ovònasvi
teyènasvi
noveyènasvi
yoseyènasvi
nayeyènasvi
sayyènasvi
heyènasvi “slaughter”
keyènasvi
ivoveyènasvi
aleyènasvi
teleyènasvi
koleyènasvi cayyènasvi
kayeyènasvi eyènasvi
soveyènasvi tayeyènasvi
hovònasvi “was slaughtering”
tiyovònasvi kiyovònasvi ivovònasvi
novònasvi
alovònasvi
teleyovònasvi
yosovònasvi kolovònasvi cauvònasvi
navovònasvi kavovònasvi iyovònasvi
sauvònasvi
sovònasvi
tavovònasvi
merveyènasvi
eveyènasvi
coyeyènasvi
eyènasvi
poseyènasvi
mervovònasvi
evovònasvi
coyovònasvi
eyovònasvi
posovònasvi
taveyènasvi
mikeyènasvi
meyènasvi
ayyènasvi
eteyènasvi
tavovònasvi
mikovònasvi
miyovònasvi
auvònasvi
etovònasvi
/i/
Stems beginning in /i/ only split into two classes: those in which the /i/ resists being
squished into a semivowel, and those in which it is happily squished. I’ve actually included
two examples of the first category, because /i/ may resist squishing for two reasons: it is
accented, or it is followed by a coda consonant.
Those two examples are below. Things to notice besides the lack of squishing include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Insertion of /n/ after nasalizing prefixes, like all vowel-initial stems.
The insertion of /ʋ/ after modals mer- and ta-, as usual.
Insertion of /ʋ/ after prefixes ending in /o/.
Insertion of /j/ after prefixes ending in /a/.
Coalesce with prefix-ending /i/.
Coalescence into /e/ with prefix-ending /e/. If the /i/ was accented, the /e/ takes
over that accent.
Page 33
Lauvìnko
• Shift to /e/ after certain other prefixes ending in consonants or /a/ (highlighted in
gray).
ìsing
ngìsing
sonìsing
layìsing
ovìsing
incày
ngincày
sonincày
layincày
ovincày
tìsing
novìsing
yosèsing
nayèsing
sayìsing
tincày
novincày
yosencày
nayencày
sayincày
ìsing “cut”
kìsing
ivovìsing
alèsing
telèsing
kolèsing cayìsing
kayèsing ìsing
sovìsing tanìsing
incày “wisen”
kincày
ivovincày
alencày
telencày
kolencày cayincày
kayencày incày
sovincày tanincày
mervìsing
evèsing
coyìsing
èsing
posèsing
mervincày
evencày
coyincày
encày
posencày
tavìsing
mikèsing
mìsing
ayìsing
etèsing
tavincày
mikencày
mincày
ayincày
etencày
In the squishable variety of stems beginning in /i/, everything is the same except that four
prefixes squish the /i/ into /j/ (highlighted gray). Note that these are the same four that
caused vowel squishing in heyènasvi and hovònasvi. Note also that these four are all of
the prefixes ending in /a/ which don’t shift the /i/ to /e/.
inóa
nginóa
soninóa
laynóa
ovinóa
tinóa
novinóa
yosenóa
nayenóa
saynóa
inóa “blacken”
kinóa
ivovinóa
alenóa
telenóa
kolenóa caynóa
kayenóa inóa
sovinóa taninóa
mervinóa
evenóa
coyinóa
enóa
posenóa
tavinóa
mikenóa
minóa
aynóa
etenóa
/e/
The stems beginning in /e/ show almost all the characteristics of stems beginning in /i/.
The only major differences pertain to vowel coalescence with other front vowels. After
prefixes ending in /e/, stems beginning with /i/ coalesced the two vowels into /e/; stems
beginning with /e/ also coalesce with prefix-ending /e/ into /e/, but obviously that doesn’t
represent a shift in vowel quality in these paradigms. After prefixes ending in /i/, stems
beginning with /i/ always coalesced; stems beginning with accented /e/ actually don’t coalesce, so that stems beginning with /e/ split into three stem classes: those with accented
/e/, those with unaccented /e/ followed by a coda consonant, and those with unaccented
/e/ and no coda consonant.
éhngi
ngiyéhngi
sonéhngi
layéhngi
ovéhngi
tiyéhngi
novéhngi
yoséhngi
nayéhngi
sayéhngi
éhngi “cross”
kiyéhngi ivovéhngi
aléhngi
teleyéhngi
koléhngi cayéhngi
kayéhngi iyéhngi
sovéhngi tanéhngi
mervéhngi
evéhngi
coyéhngi
eyéhngi
poséhngi
tavéhngi
mikéhngi
miyéhngi
ayéhngi
etéhngi
Page 34
ekkéhngi
ngekkéhngi
sonekkéhngi
layekkéhngi
ovekkéhngi
ekkéhngi “wander”
kekkéhngi
ivovekkéhngi
alekkéhngi
telekkéhngi
kolekkéhngi cayekkéhngi
kayekkéhngi ekkéhngi
sovekkéhngi tanekkéhngi
tekkéhngi
novekkéhngi
yosekkéhngi
nayekkéhngi
sayekkéhngi
mervekkéhngi
evekkéhngi
coyekkéhngi
ekkéhngi
posekkéhngi
tavekkéhngi
mikekkéhngi
mekkéhngi
ayekkéhngi
etekkéhngi
Like with /i/, stems beginning with unaccented /e/ and no coda consonant afterward have
that first vowel squished to /j/ (highlighted in gray).
ekéayi
ngekéayi
sonekéayi
laykéayi
ovekéayi
tekéayi
novekéayi
yosekéayi
nayekéayi
saykéayi
ekéayi “manufacture”
kekéayi
ivovekéayi
alekéayi
telekéayi
kolekéayi caykéayi
kayekéayi ekéayi
sovekéayi tanekéayi
mervekéayi
evekéayi
coyekéayi
ekéayi
posekéayi
tavekéayi
mikekéayi
mekéayi
aykéayi
etekéayi
/o/
Stems beginning in /o/ show many parallels with the stems beginning in front vowels. Like
with stems beginning with /e/, they are divided into three stem classes: those beginning
with accented /o/, those beginning with unaccented /o/ followed by a coda consonant, and
those beginning with unaccented /o/ in an open syllable. Patterns to notice, most of which
are analogous to patterns with /e/, include:
• Insertion of /n/ after nasalizing prefixes.
• The insertion of /ʋ/ after modals mer- and ta-.
• Insertion of /ʋ/ after prefixes ending in /o/ if the stem-initial /o/ is accented, coalescence otherwise.
• Insertion of /ʋ/ after prefixes ending in /a/, except that unaccented open /o/ squishes
to /ʋ/ ([w]) after the same four prefixes.
• Insertion of /j/ after prefixes ending in front vowels.
òving
ngiyòving
sonòving
lavòving
ovòving
okkóhngi
ngiyokkóhngi
sonokkóhngi
lavokkóhngi
okkóhngi
Page 35
tiyòving
novòving
yosòving
navòving
savòving
tiyokkóhngi
nokkóhngi
yosokkóhngi
navokkóhngi
savokkóhngi
òving “deep”
kiyòving ivovòving
alòving
teleyòving
kolòving cavòving
kavòving iyòving
sovòving tanòving
mervòving
evòving
coyòving
eyòving
posòving
okkóhngi “wandered”
kiyokkóhngi ivokkóhngi
alokkóhngi
teleyokkóhngi
kolokkóhngi cavokkóhngi
kavokkóhngi iyokkóhngi
sokkóhngi
tanokkóhngi
tavòving
mikòving
miyòving
avòving
etòving
mervokkóhngi
evokkóhngi
coyokkóhngi
eyokkóhngi
posokkóhngi
tavokkóhngi
mikokkóhngi
miyokkóhngi
avokkóhngi
etokkóhngi
Lauvìnko
I’ve highlighted the squishing of /o/ to /ʋ/ in gray here, for consistency:
okóayi
ngiyokóayi
sonokóayi
laukóayi
okóayi
okóayi “manufactured”
kiyokóayi ivokóayi
alokóayi
teleyokóayi
kolokóayi caukóayi
kavokóayi iyokóayi
sokóayi
tanokóayi
tiyokóayi
nokóayi
yosokóayi
navokóayi
saukóayi
mervokóayi
evokóayi
coyokóayi
eyokóayi
posokóayi
tavokóayi
mikokóayi
miyokóayi
aukóayi
etokóayi
/a/
I consider stems beginning in /a/ to be the extreme of complexity and unpredictability in
Lauvìnko. Stems beginning in other vowels are relatively predictable in terms of which stem
class they fall into just on the basis of the appearance of the bare stem; this is somewhat less
true for stems beginning in unaccented /a/.
For stems beginning with accented /a/, many of the by-now familiar patterns hold true:
/n/-insertion, coalescence with prefix-ending /a/, insertion of /j/ after front vowels and /ʋ/
after /o/, etc.
ànosi
ngiyànosi
sonànosi
lànosi
ovànosi
tiyànosi
novànosi
yosànosi
nànosi
sànosi
ànosi “help”
kiyànosi ivovànosi
alànosi
teleyànosi
kolànosi cànosi
kànosi
iyànosi
sovànosi tanànosi
mervànosi
evànosi
coyànosi
eyànosi
posànosi
tànosi
mikànosi
miyànosi
ànosi
etànosi
A majority of stems beginning with unaccented /a/ are a particular aspect/tense combination: the frequentative past. For instance, antónokki ‘devised’ is the frequentative past
of énokki ‘depict.’ This fact skews the set of available stem classes somewhat; I believe that
more classes of stems beginning in unaccented /a/ are possible, but even as new stems are
added to the language would remain relatively rare.
Like with other vowels, stems beginning in unaccented /a/ followed by a coda consonant
show a somewhat similar paradigm to those beginning with accented /a/. However, in the
single extant stem class of stems beginning in unaccented /a/ followed by a coda consonant,
two surprising differences appear that I would expect to be particular to frequentative past
stems, namely deletion of the initial /a/ following prefix-final /o/ (or, put another way,
coalescence with preceding /o/ into /o/) as well as the insertion of /ʋ/ after prefix-final /a/
(marked in gray).
antónokki
ngiyantónokki
sonantónokki
lavantónokki
ontónokki
tiyantónokki
nontónokki
yosantónokki
navantónokki
savantónokki
antónokki “devised”
kiyantónokki ivontónokki
alantónokki
teleyantónokki
kolantónokki cavantónokki
kavantónokki iyantónokki
sontónokki
tanantónokki
mervantónokki
evantónokki
coyantónokki
eyantónokki
posantónokki
tantónokki
mikantónokki
miyantónokki
avantónokki
etantónokki
Another class of frequentative past stems which do not have a coda following the /a/ also
show patterns relating to back vowels and /ʋ/. Like with the previous stem class, the /a/
tends to disappear following /o/. After any other prefix-final vowel, the /a/ becomes /ʋ/
(as it is always in the syllable coda in this case, it is pronounced [w] and romanized ⟨u⟩).
This second behavior in particular surprised me quite a bit when I first saw it!
Page 36
asòsing
ngiusòsing
sonasòsing
lausòsing
osòsing
tiusòsing
nosòsing
yosasòsing
nausòsing
sausòsing
asòsing “diced”
kiusòsing
ivosòsing
alasòsing
teleusòsing
kolasòsing causòsing
kausòsing iusòsing
sosòsing
tanasòsing
mervasòsing
evasòsing
coyasòsing
eusòsing
posasòsing
tasòsing
mikasòsing
miusòsing
ausòsing
etasòsing
For perhaps a more “typical” stem class beginning in unaccented /a/ (perhaps not by total
number of stems, but at least in that most such stems that do not fall into the peculiar
grammatical box of frequentative past would behave something like this) I have only one
extant example right now, which happens to be a proper noun. Unlike the previous two
classes, in this class the initial /a/ coalesces with prefix-final /a/, not /o/, and becomes the
diphthong component /ɐ̯/ rather than /ʋ/ after other vowels.
atinèni
ngiatinèni
sonatinèni
latinèni
oatinèni
atinèni (name of a town)
tiatinèni
kiatinèni
ivoatinèni mervatinèni
noatinèni alatinèni
teleatinèni evatinèni
yosatinèni kolatinèni catinèni
coyatinèni
natinèni
katinèni
iatinèni
eatinèni
satinèni
soatinèni tanatinèni posatinèni
tatinèni
mikatinèni
miatinèni
atinèni
etatinèni
And finally - the very last stem class I have to discuss is one more “atypical” class of stems
which begin in /ají/. For these stems, the initial /a/ is simply lost following any prefix-final
vowel.
ayísmi
ngiyísmi
sonayísmi
layísmi
oyísmi
tiyísmi
noyísmi
yosayísmi
nayísmi
sayísmi
ayísmi “narrow”
kiyísmi
ivoyísmi
alayísmi
teleyísmi
kolayísmi cayísmi
kayísmi
iyísmi
soyísmi
tanayísmi
mervayísmi
evayísmi
coyayísmi
eyísmi
posayísmi
tayísmi
mikayísmi
miyísmi
ayísmi
etayísmi
And that, at last, concludes the discussion of every single stem class (or, in a few cases,
groups of stem classes that could succinctly be described as a unit). Thanks for making it
this far!
To close, I’d like to reflect on the degree of naturalism of the irregularity we’ve just seen. I
do believe that this falls within the realm of realistic irregularity. I don’t know much about
Old Irish or modern Georgian, but from the impressions I’ve gotten they may be scarier
still. Even so (and especially keeping in mind that this entire article only discusses the
irregularities of a particular kind of prefix, saying nothing of other types of irregularity in
the language), I think it’s safe to say that Lauvìnko falls somewhere on the irregular end of
the spectrum. I cannot imagine trying to actually become a fluent user of it!
Page 37
05
Plurals in Patches
by Akam Chinjir
Earlier this year I managed to sketch a diachronic account of plural morphology in my
conlang Patches. Across a large range of cases, it got me results I liked, and it promised to
supply the basis for a more comprehensive morphophonological history of Patches. So this
is a article about that.
It’s a work in progress. Even while writing this article, I’ve changed my mind about some
important things, and there remain many fiddly details and corner cases that I’m not yet
sure how to handle. Luckily, most of these don’t affect the nouns I’ll be discussing here.
I’ll be referring to Early Proto-Patches, or EPP. That’s the earliest form of the language I’m
interested in. Naturally there’s also Proto-Patches proper, and there are also White Patches
and Red Patches, but I won’t be talking about those. To be honest, I so far don’t really have
Patches’ linguistic history pinned down to a concrete timeline.
For reference, I’ve put the consonant inventories of both EPP and Patches in Table 1, with
IPA equivalents where that seems helpful. All EPP transcriptions will be marked with an
asterisk, even though they’re not actually reconstructions.
Plurals
From early on I wanted nouns to have an alternative, augmented stem that would occur in
the plural. Originally there were also plural suffixes, but I’ve abandoned that idea. My current view is that EPP had plural suffixes, and they eventually conditioned stem alternations,
but in Patches itself only the stem alternations have survived.
I had a bunch of different ideas of how this might work, but the one that eventually stood
out is that many monosyllabic nouns would mark the plural by infixing a sonorant consonant
and adding a copy vowel. For example, the plural of the noun gíìb ‘oddity’ is gíríb (from
EPP *ginĭb and *ginĭbă, respectively). The infix can be h or an oral sonorant, and I thought
it might sometimes also be a plosive, deriving perhaps from an original geminate.
Naturally there would be variations. In some nouns, the medial sonorant could also occur
in the singular. Originally I allowed a plural like bówòj ‘kisses’ to correspond to either búwj
Page 39
f
m
n
l
t
ts
dz
ch
j
s
z
sh
zh
r (ɾ)
k kʷ
g gʷ
q qʷ
x xʷ
ḥ ḥʷ
ʁ ʁʷ
ŋ ŋʷ
y
ele
ss
Pla
c
Uv
ula
r
lve
ola
r
Ve
lar
Po
sta
d
eo
lar
l
p
b
Plosives
Plain
Voiced
Sibilant
Voiced sibilant
Fricatives
Voiceless
Voiced
Nasals
Oral sonorants
Stops
Glides
Glottals
Spread
Constricted
Alv
De
nta
La
b
ial
Patches
w
h
ʔ
Plosives
Plain
Voiced
Glottalised
Sibilant
Voiced sibilant
Glottalised sibilant
Fricatives
Voiceless
Voiced
Nasals
Oral sonorants
Stops
Trill
Approximants
Glottals
Spread
Constricted
p
b
pʼ
t
d
tʼ
ts
dz
tsʼ
thʼ (t͡θʼ)
f
v
m
th
dh
nh
s
z
n
l
r (ɾ)
sh
zh
y
k kʷ
g gʷ
kʼ kʷʼ
ŋ ŋʷ
kp
gb
kpʼ
ŋm
w
ss
eal
Pla
cel
e
ryn
g
Ph
a
Uv
ula
r
lar
ve
bio
La
r
ve
ola
ch
j
chʼ
Ve
la
sta
l
Po
ola
r
Alv
e
nta
l
De
La
bia
l
r
(a) EPP
q qʷ
qʼ qʷʼ
x xʷ
gh ghʷ
ḥ
ṛ (ʢ)
h
ʔ
(b) Patches
Table 1: Consonant inventories
Page 40
or bwúj, though (as we’ll see) it’s turned out that bwúj is not possible. As that example
indicates, the singular and plural stems could also differ in their vowel and their tone. There
are also cases where the plural is marked by lengthening the vowel, like chwom ‘club’,
whose plural is chwoom. (Table 2 gives some examples, including several not mentioned
elsewhere in this article. As you can probably tell, one idea I was playing with was an
augmentative prefix *tsṳ-.)
EPP root
Singular
Plural
Gloss
*bohŏm
*bubŏdz
*dzaahăʁ
*ga̤făs
*ginĭb
*hagĭts
*ka̤tăw
*matăn
*ragă
*tsetĭz
*tsodŭm
*tsṳba̤ttăq
*tsṳbo̤hŏ̤m
*tsṳtsodŭm
bom
búwj
dzáàṛ
ghassa
gíìb
háych
kath
máʔn
rag
chéj
chówm
chwaʔqa
chwom
chʼówm
bóóm
bówòj
dzááṛ
ghawas
gíríb
hóyòch
kalaw
márán
rayaw
chíríj
chówòm
chwadáq
chwoom
chʼúwúm
cudgel
kiss
zither
woman
oddity
person
oar
fish
gap
bat
hole, depression
mountain
club
pit, cave
Table 2: Some Patches plurals
I adopted a fairly straightforward account to generate patterns like these:
• Many EPP noun roots have the shape cvcv̆c and took a plural suffix of the form -v̆ (v̆
represents a weak or extra-short vowel).
• Stress would go to the heaviest syllable, with ties being broken towards the right. This
is the basic Patches stress rule, and I wanted it in EPP too. This means that a cvcv̆c
noun root would always have stress on its initial syllable.
• The original plural form would then be cvcv̆cv̆, with a stress lapse. That wouldn’t be
a problem in EPP itself, but later the language would require stress to fall on one of
the two final syllables.
• The repair would be to shift stress right one syllable. To conform to the stress rule, this
would require strengthening the newly-stressed vowel (without changing its quality).
The plural would then be cvcvcv̆.
• Later sound changes would delete weak vowels, yielding a cvcc singular and a cvcvc
plural. The cluster in the singular would usually simplify, often simply by deleting the
medial consonant. Meanwhile, the medial consonant would lenite in the plural.
• Roots would also undergo a process of (eventually total) vowel assimilation. I’ve ended
up wanting this to happen after the two stems have diverged, which means they can
end up with different vowels.
It’s essential to this account that EPP have a set of weak or extra-short vowels. These are
the same in quality as regular vowels, but have two key properties: they count as lighter
than regular short vowels for the purposes of stress computation, and they’re especially
prone to delete over time. (Both Patches and EPP also have long vowels, so this amounts to
a three-way weight distinction in EPP.) Weak vowels do a lot of work in my current thinking
about Patches diachronics:
• They help generate the stem alternations I want in plurals.
Page 41
Patches
• They do not delete when they occur in contexts where phonotactics require a vowel,
so in Patches they can behave a bit like epenthetic vowels, except that their quality is
unpredictable.
• They survive in some suffixes, and though they are no longer phonetically distict from
regular short vowels, they still behave as if lighter than regular short vowels, meaning
that stress is somewhat unpredictable in Patches. (Both this and the previous point
involve complexity of a sort that I’ve wanted in Patches from the beginning.)
• Together with the assumption that weak vowels cannot host tones, they also help
generate the accentual system I want. (More on this below.)
This is all good: I don’t want to put a significant phonological contrast into my protolanguage
if it’s only going to do one thing.
As I mentioned above, this cannot yield a noun bwúj whose plural is bówòj. On the
assumptions I’m making, stress can only move to the right, so it must be the second of the
two vowels that is preserved in the plural but lost in the singular. Of course in principle I
could reverse everything, and mark the plural with a prefix and assign stress to the first of
two equally heavy syllables. But at this point the Patches stress rule is not really negotiable,
and I’d prefer not to engineer a stress flip this time—I did that when working on the history
of my conlang Akiatu, and not enough time has passed. In any case, allowing bwúj~bówòj
but disallowing búwj~bówòj would not really seem like an improvement.
This account only works with noun roots of the form cvcv̆c, so these had better be very
common. I’d especially like to suppose that EPP has few if any noun roots that are cv̆cvc,
cvcvc, or cv̆cv̆c, none of which would generate the desired alternation.
My current plan is to rule those out with the following stipulations:
• In EPP, noun roots of more than one syllable always have stress on the penult.
• There’s a general rule that posttonic root vowels be weak.
The second point is just a reasonable rule, and I won’t discuss it further. The first point
needs comment, however, because the same rule doesn’t apply to bisyllabic roots of other
classes, all of which normally get stress on the first syllable. What explains the difference?
Of course the real answer here is that it gets me the results I want—but there’s also an
in-world rationale. In Patches and presumably also in EPP, nouns very frequently occur
preceded by an unstressable article (and nothing else). Thus, if the noun-initial syllable is
not stressed, that creates a stress lapse. The same is not true of roots of other classes. On the
contrary, verbs and positional roots usually occur suffixed, which could easily make them
prefer stress on the root-final syllable. And that’s how I’ve decided it works.
(Maybe you know that English nouns and verbs can differ stress-wise in exactly the same
way; I have no idea if this also has something to do with unstressed articles and verbal
suffixes.)
EPP nouns certainly aren’t all cvcv̆c. The first syllable can be heavy, with a long vowel
or a coda, and there are probably trisyllabic noun roots. But I’m going to ignore those
possibilities here, and focus on the simplest and most common case.
A further question is whether non-nouns ever have the cvcvc shape (with no weak vowels)
that’s eventually characteristic of plural nouns. The alternative is that the pretonic vowel
must normally be weak, just like posttonic vowels, and will also eventually delete. It would
then be a distinctive feature of plurals that they have two full vowels, and remain bisyllabic.
Page 42
Maybe bisyllabic words formed by CV- reduplication could share this feature. They could
then develop in the same way as plurals, with the medial consonant leniting and eventually
looking like an infix. If EPP verbs use this sort of reduplication to indicate iterativity or pluractionality, there’d even be a semantic difference to correspond to the prosodic difference:
both nouns and verbs would end up marking a sort of plurality with an infixed sonorant.
In any case, that’s the outline of how Patches nouns acquire distinct singular and plural
stems; for the rest of this article I’ll try to fill in some of the details.
Accent
Simplifying a bit, a Patches word can have a high tone or a high-low contour anchored to
its stressed syllable, or it can be unaccented; whether and how a word is accented is not in
general predictable from it’s phonological form.
EPP, by contrast, does not have lexical tone of any sort. Instead, stressed syllables get
assigned intonational pitch accents. Unlike in English, the choice of accent is not affected
by pragmatics; instead, it’s determined by the phonological form of the syllable or word in
question. Later sound changes make a word’s accent unpredictable, and you’ve got lexical
tone.
Starting with intonational pitch accents means that I get high tones for free, and have to
figure out why some words end up with a falling contour and others are unaccented. My
main decision on this point is that EPP vowels can be breathy, and a breathy vowel gets
assigned a low rather than a high pitch accent.
Here are the details:
• A stressed weak vowel cannot be assigned a high tone, and is left unaccented. This
doesn’t matter for nouns, though, since the stressed vowel in a noun cannot be weak.
• EPP has a rule that a short vowel before a coda h must be breathy, and thus must
get a low pitch accent if stressed. (Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that in Patches and
maybe also in EPP coda h is voiced.) A regular long vowel before coda h will be
allophonically breathy in its latter part, resulting in a falling pitch contour; but this
can only happen word-finally, and not in nouns. Stressed vowels can also be breathy
even without coda h.
• When a word undergoes a stress shift, this does not affect its pitch contour. If it originally had a high tone on its first syllable, then it will end up with a high or falling
contour depending on whether that high tone is able to spread across the intervening
consonant; high tone spread is blocked by voiced obstruents, for example. For example, bówòj ‘kisses’ has a falling contour because its medial w represents an original *b,
which blocked high tone spread (originally it was bubŏdz in the singular and bubǒdzǎ
in the plural).
Incidentally, my earliest sketches of Patches tone posited tone melodies that anchored
to the pretonic syllable, and this account of how tone interacts with stress shifts gives
me exactly that in an important class of cases.
Now, the preservation of a word’s accent despite a stress shift suggests that when the
stress shift occurs, we’re already dealing with a regimen that’s basically tonal rather
than intonational. A consequence, which I’ll accept, is that the plural suffixes did not
already shift stress already in EPP, but that the stress shift must be a later change; in
the meantime, something else must have happened to lexicalise the EPP pitch accents.
In particular:
– Unstressed root-final weak vowels deleted, resulting in a contrast between forms
Page 43
Patches
like *padĕ→pâd, with a falling contour, and *pad→pád, with no fall.
– Root-medial consonants lenited, leading to a contrast between forms like *paděs→
pálès and forms like *palĕs→pálés.
• Many consonant clusters end up getting simplified, often by deleting or debuccalising
a consonant, and this can affect the word’s pitch contour, with the most common
result being a fall. This happens especially often in singular nouns after they lose their
posttonic vowel. For example, gíìb ‘oddity’ derives from an EPP root *ginĭb. Deletion
of its weak vowel resulted in *gínb, which eventually simplified to gíìb, perhaps after
a stage as gíĩb (with the coda nasal being replaced with a nasal vowel). Meanwhile,
the plural deriving from the same root is gíríb, with no fall.
• A word with no high tone ends up unaccented, as do at least some words with rising contours. (I suspect that other words with rising contours will end up with high
accents, but I haven’t figured out what would condition this.)
I’m basically happy with this overall story. The main thing that makes me nervous is the
essential role played by breathy vowels, because it looks like I’m in danger of violating a
principle I mentioned above, that I shouldn’t put something in the protolanguage that’s only
got one thing to do. As it stands, it looks like I can just make the vowel breathy whenever
I want an unaccented word, and that’ll have no other consequences; I might as well just
stipulate that some EPP words are unaccented.
What would be nice would be to find behaviour that’s characteristic of breathiness but that
would be unexpected when inherited by Patches tones. I’m currently adopting two ideas:
• In EPP as in some other languages with breathy vowels, u is especially prone to be
breathy. Consequently, Patches words with u are especially likely to be unaccented,
a neat distributional quirk (though it’ll be diluted by some of the changes vowels go
through, described below).
• Breathiness can spread, and in particular it can spread to voiced plosives, which will
eventually become voiced fricatives. As a consequence, in Patches unaccented nouns
never begin with voiced plosives.1
In any case, I don’t have a better idea than breathiness, so I think EPP is stuck with it.
Secondary articulations
From early days I’ve planned sound changes of the following sorts:
•
•
•
•
pʷ → kp (I’ve seen this, but I don’t remember where)
tʷ → t ̪ → th (I made this up, but it seems reasonable)
tsʸ tsʷ → ch (presumably via a stage with distinct tɕ and tʃʷ)
rʷ → b (this is just a flourish, because EPP already has b, but I love this sound change
and use it whenever I can; recall that r represents IPA ɾ)
So it looks like I want a wide range of rounded/velarised segments, and it’s nice if at least
the sibilants can be palatalised as well.
EPP itself only has rounded dorsals, so all other secondary articulations have to be derived.
That’s fine: I already know I’m going to be deleting a lot of vowels and resolving a lot of
1
I only just had this idea while writing this article, so I haven’t really tried it out yet. It does have some
nice consequences. It interacts nicely with my decision to make EPP d dental rather than alveolar, since it
will lenite to ð rather than z, and thus not merge with dz. This probably also allows me to do without some
voiced fricatives; currently I’ve dropped v and gh, retaining z and ʁ (because I know they have other work to
do) and zh (which is required in EPP at least as an allophone of z).
Page 44
consonant clusters, so I’ve got lots of potential sources for ◌ʷ and ◌ʸ.
At one point I hoped that all postalveolars could be derived. However, ch and j are very
common in Patches, including in bound morphology, and I’m not sure I can generate enough
secondary articulations to account for all instances, so for now EPP is stuck with them.
I’ll probably subject sibilants to a sort of harmony, whereby you can’t have plain ts in
a word that also includes a rounded or palatalised segment—on the assumption that EPP
treated ch phonologically as if it were tsʷ. Something like *kʷats would then become
*kʷach, and *chats would become *chach. This would help make postalveolars common,
but probably wouldn’t get them into bound morphology.
EPP will probably also allow Cw clusters. These often survive into Patches, but maybe
in some contexts (when followed by a weak vowel?) they could turn into Cʷ. I’m most
concerned about a verbalising suffix whose form in Patches is just -ch; maybe this could
derive from *tswă, which would become chwă due to sibilant rounding harmony; then the
loss of final vowels could put presure on that w as well, yielding the form I want.
As you can probably tell, I have a lot of work for labiovelarisation to do, and not so much
for palatalisation. Still, if dropping u is going to result in ◌ʷ, then dropping i should probably
result in ◌ʸ, and I’d better find something to do with that.
Of course I can use palatalisation to generate postalveolars, certainly from sibilant alveolars like ts, and maybe also from velars. I also like the idea of palatalising labials, which I’ve
never done before, so maybe I’ll at least have pʸ→tʸ (and so on). I’ve toyed with having tʸ
also become postalveolar, or maybe go through tʸ→c→t ̪→th (resulting in a dental fricative),
but so far think that pʸ→tʸ→t might be enough.
One possible consideration here is that I might end up with a significant class of plurals
that have palatalisation on the stem-final consonant due to loss of a suffix -ĭ. If this ends
up being very common, this might look like a predictable sort of consonant mutation, one
that could even spread by analogy. This would probably seem nicer the more natural the
resulting alternations seemed; given that tsʸ and kʸ both become ch, maybe pʸ and tʸ should
as well (or at least maybe they’d better not become th). (I won’t make up my mind about
this until I have a better sense of how often that sort of alternation would actually occur.)
The vowels
A noun root of the shape cv₁cv₂c can give rise to singular cv₁c and plural cv₂cv₂c, with a
different vowel in the two stems. But I don’t want the two vowels to differ too much: I want
them to agree in frontness and I’d prefer them to differ by at most one degree of height.
What this means is that I want an earlier system of vowel harmony obscured by later full
vowel assimilation, at least within roots.
I’ll assume that EPP itself doesn’t already have vowel harmony. By deriving harmony
explicitly, I should end up with a better idea how it works, and with any luck, I can leverage
side effects.
The main side effect I have in mind is that when harmony requires a high vowel to change,
it could break, putting a secondary articulation on a preceding consonant. This could work
in two different ways:
• If a high vowel breaks due to frontness harmony, you might get changes like i→ʸo and
Page 45
Patches
u→ʷe, ironically producing what look like disharmonic sequences.2
• If a high vowel breaks under the influence of a nearby low vowel, you could get changes
like i→ʸe and u→ʷo, where the secondary articulation agrees in frontness with the
following vowel.
As it happens, I know that I want changes like pʷo→kpo, tʷo→tho, and rʷo→bo a lot more
than I want changes like pʷe→kpe, tʷe→the, and rʷe→be—so it’s the second sort of vowel
breaking I’ll encourage. That means that frontness harmony is only going to cause vowels
to switch from front to back or back to front, and high vowels will break only when they
have to lower due to a nearby low vowel.
I’m currently leaning towards the following further decisions:
• Restrictions on vowel height operate only within roots.
• Suffixes with back vowels will harmonise with a stem front vowel, but suffixes with
front vowels will not harmonise with a stem back vowel.
• Within roots, all unstressed vowels will harmonise in frontness with the stressed vowel.
• There’s a front/back distinction even among low vowels, though it’s not retained in
Patches.
However, each of these decisions is subject to complex considerations, and I could easily
change my mind.
Beside the two forms of vowel harmony, there’s also the full vowel assimilation that eventually occurs in plurals. This is a somewhat odd change; as I understand it, real cases of full
vowel assimilation mostly occur only across glottals. However, the scope of the change will
be quite limited, since it only needs to occur in words that still, in Patches, have a cvcvc
shape. As noted above, it’s possible that all such words will fall two categories:
• words derived by partial reduplication—in which the vowels will already be the same
• words, like plurals, that have undergone a morphologically-induced stress shift, and
which are beginning to look like they’ve been augmented with an infixed sonorant—in
which case maybe it would feel natural to think of one of the vowels as an epenthetic
copy
(Maybe some borrowed words would also fall into this category, but I don’t yet have anything to say about those.)
Consonant lenition and cluster resolution
Singular nouns will often end up with a final consonant cluster that requires simplification,
and plurals have a medial consonant that will probably lenite. Here I’ll survey some of the
main ways this can turn out.
First, some cases where I’m happy with the outcomes:
• When the medial consonant simply drops from the singular, you get the simplest case,
found with chéj ‘bat’ and chíríj ‘bats’, deriving from an EPP root *tsetĭz.
• Sometimes when the medial consonant drops the vowel lengthens. We saw one example of that above, with gíìb ‘oddity’ from EPP *ginĭb, with plural gíríb. I think this only
2
Though they’re not really disharmonic, because frontness harmony is going to have to ignore secondary
articulations, and also glides (I already know I want to allow kʷi and yo, for example). To be honest this
doesn’t sit too well with me, though there are real languages that work this way, so I probably shouldn’t worry
about it.
Page 46
occurs when the original medial consonant was a nasal, which would always result in
a falling contour in the singular.
• Sometimes a medial glide survives in both the singular and the plural, as we saw with
búwj ‘kiss’ and bówòj, from EPP *bubŏdz.
• Sometimes you get a glottal stop in the singular but not in the plural, like máʔn ‘fish’
with plural márán; in this case the EPP root is *matăn.
• Sometimes the final consonant gets geminated in the singular (which triggers a following epenthetic copy vowel), like ghassa ‘woman’ with plural ghawas, which comes
from EPP *ga̤făs.
There are also cases where a change will occur in the singular and then spread by analogy
to the plural (at least most of the time):
• When the medial consonant deletes in the singular it can put a secondary articulation
on the final consonant.
• The two consonants can fuse to form a single complex segment; for example, t and s
can fuse to yield ts.
The noun chéj ‘bat’ illustrates both sorts of case. Its EPP root was *tsetĭz. Loss of the i results
notionally in *tsetʸz, but tʸz unsurprisingly becomes dzʸ and thus j (and the secondary
articulation also spreads to the root-initial sibilant). Meanwhile, the EPP plural was *tsetĭză,
which would normally yield tsíríz. However, due to analogical leveling the actual plural of
chéj is chíríj.
In that example, the two consonants fuse to form a postalveolar. You might wonder if
consonant clusters can also give rise to labiovelars like kp. Currently I don’t think they do.
At the time when these clusters get resolved, the language does not yet have labiovelars,
and I think instead pk will become kʷ and kp will become ʔp (for example).
You get a special case of secondary articulation spreading from the singular to the plural
when the EPP root ended in a glide. For example, EPP *ka̤tăw yields Patches kath ‘oar’
(via *katʷ), and the plural form then goes from *ka̤tăwă via *kadʷaw (with the rounding
acquired by analogy from the singular) to kalaw. Comparing the Patches forms, káth and
káláw, it looks like the plural is formed by a suffix -aw that causes lenition of the stem-final
consonant.
As it happens, there’s another potential source for nouns whose plural looks like it takes a
suffix like that. An EPP noun root can end in a vowel, in which case the plural suffix would
trigger an epenthetic glide. For example, the noun *ragă had the plural *ragăwă, and these
yield Patches rag ‘gap’ and rayaw by regular sound changes. Again, you seem to have a
plural marked by -aw.
(Naturally you can get the same thing but with y instead of w. And in both cases it probably
makes most sense to think of the glide as constituting the whole suffix, with the additional
vowel being an epenthetic copy vowel—though I still have to allow for cases where a noun
takes a different stem vowel in the singular and plural.)
So in these two classes of case, it looks like Patches nouns will take a plural suffix. This
was not expected, and arose quite naturally; I’m quite pleased.
Conclusion
So that’s how Patches got its plurals.
Page 47
Patches
There are parts of the story that I really like, some of which I was hoping for from the
beginning, while others were nice surprises. There are also frustrations, mostly having to
do with the resolution of consonant clusters and the behaviour of EPP *h. And I’m not sure
it’s realistic to entirely rule out nouns with final stress, including monosyllabic nouns and
nouns with heavy final syllables.
A potentially bigger issue is how to extend this story to verbs. The Patches verb is quite
complex, but if I’m deleting all weak vowels and leniting all intervocalic consonants, verbs
are going to collapse. To avoid this, I’ve had to stipulate that many of the changes nouns
go through occur only within roots, or can only be triggered by especially tightly bound
suffixes, including the plural suffix but omitting many others.
I mostly like where this is taking me. There’s a class of verbal suffixes, which include
verbalising suffixes and valency-adjusting ones, that attach only to roots and behave much
like plural suffixes: they take part in the root’s stress domain, and can be subject to sound
changes that delete final vowels. This gives me an appealing layer of ancient morphology,
but also lets me exempt much of the verb template from really destructive changes. Overall,
my work on noun plurals has helped me understand the more complex morphology and
prosody of verbs; though many details remain to be sorted out.
Finally, you’ll have noticed that I’m approaching Patches diachronics sort of backwards:
I’ve started out with ideas of how Patches works, and then tried to construct a protolanguage
and some changes that will give me what I’ve already decided I want. Sometimes this sort
of approach can lead to trouble, when it turns out that changes that will give one desired
result can’t give another—like when I realised a Patches plural like bówòj ‘kisses’ could
have singular búwj but not bwúj. Luckily most of my ideas for Patches are still negotiable,
including most particular word forms, and so far the fixed points seem mostly to provide
the sort of constraint that feeds creativity rather than stifles it.
In any case, this is the only way I’ve ever been able to do diachronics. Whenever I’ve
tried starting with the protolanguage, I’ve ended up getting interested enough in that language that it becomes the main project—and ends up needing its own ancestors. The most
ridiculous case of this was my conlang Akiatu, which was supposed to have so simple a
phonology and morphology that I would never feel the need to work out its history. The inevitable happened: I ended up enjoying Akiatu so much that I never got around to deriving
its descendents, but I did feel a need to work out its history, and ended up with sketches
going back at least 5000 years.3 So the way I’m approaching Patches diachronics is really
the only way that works for me.
3
It turns out that even very simple phonology and morphology is likely to gain the sort of complexity that
I’d prefer to understand in a historical context; and I also end up wanting that sort of context when working
out a language’s lexicon—not just its word forms but the ways it tends to lexicalise different matters.
Page 48
06
Consonant Phonology of
the Mmatɨʂ Family
by Jason Hershey (u/vokzhen)
Gemination and Alternations
The Mmatɨʂ family is a small group of languages spoken in the “uncivilized” northeast.
Nestled in a few wide river valleys in the rain shadow of coastal mountains, the speakers live in small, permanent settlements based around “cliques” or peer alliances of male
warriors. Different groups practice a mix of small-scale wheat agriculture supplemented
heavily by hunting, gardening of wild plants, as well as raiding, kidnapping and ransoming,
and “taxing” (or extorting) merchants who risk going through this more direct, less mountainous path to richer principalities of Koddarğoğ in the south. Three varieties are used here
for examples: Kkaːʂa, a variety spoken by the most dominant group in the savanna region,
Kʃê a small but prosperous group that controls the largest waterway, and Sãːht, a fringe
group with little influence outside their small valley.
The family is one I’ve been working on to try and get back into conlanging after not doing
much of my own for years. I started out with a few different sketches that didn’t really go
much of anywhere, then decided to make an effort to unify them into a definite family. I
had a few specific goals:
• Keep in line with many already-establish areal features (extensive nominal inflection,
large case systems, presence of multiple past tense distinctions, thoroughly nom-acc,
honorific systems including an ingroup-outgroup distinction, vowel inventories not
diverging far from a simple 5-place system)
• A singleton-geminate contrast throughout the consonant system
• An abundance of shibilants
• Prime it to phonemicize retroflexes, a simple tone system, and/or vowel harmony,
depending on branch
In this article, I’ll be focusing on the second point: correspondences of geminate consonants
between these three varieties. This also necessitates mentioning some related sound changes
that happened in each branch, and of course other correspondences will be noticeable in the
examples, but not discussed here. The examples will also focus on noun roots with occasional
nominal morphology.
Page 49
Mmatɨʂ
The Consonant Systems
The three languages share a number of obvious similarities, such as the abundance of
singleton-geminate phonemic pairs. When combined with the lexicon, it becomes clear
that these make up the primary “phonation” contrast, with actual voicing being of rare,
secondary origin. In these charts, geminate consonants are listed individually and written
/mm tt/ etc. mostly for readability’s sake. Other features shared by at least two include
nasals at all places of articulation, the presence of retroflexes, a limited and rare selection of
voiced fricatives, the comparative rarity of /s/ and abundance of /ʃ/ or /ʂ/, multiple series
of laterals, and no rhotics.
As an additional note, Kʃê has a minimal tone system: high tone /á é/, low tone /a e/,
falling tone /â ê/, and rising tone /ǎ ě/.
Labial
mm m
pp p
bb b
f
β
w
Nasal
Stop
Fricative
Glide
Dental
nn n
tt t
dd d
sθ
zð
ll l
Retroflex
ɳɳ ɳ
ʈʈ ʈ
ɖɖ ɖ
ʂʂ ʂ
ɭɭ ɭ
Dorsal
ŋŋ ŋ
kk k
gg g
x
ɣ
j
Table 1: Kkaːʂa Consonants
Nasal
Stop
Fricative
Glide
Labial
mm m
pp p
bb b
ff f
v
w
Dental/Alveolar
nn n
tt t tts ts
dd d ddz dz
ss s
z
ll l
Postalveolar
ɲɲ ɲ
ttʃ tʃ
ddʒ dʒ
ʃʃ ʃ
ʒ
ʎʎ ʎ j
Dorsal
ŋŋ ŋ
kk k
gg g
h
Table 2: Kʃê Consonants
Labial
mm m
Dental
nn n
tt t
Postalveolar
ɲɲ ɲ
ttʃ tʃ
Fricative
ff
s
ʃʃ ʃ
Glide/Liquid
v„w
ll l r
ʎʎ ʎ
Nasal
Stop
Retroflex
ɳɳ ɳ
ʈʈ ʈ
ɭɭ ɭ
Dorsal
ŋŋ ŋ
kk k
xx x
ɣ
jh
Table 3: Sãːht Consonants
Voice and Length Contrasts in Consonants
All groups have a singleton-geminate contrast, but where it applies and to which sets of
consonants varies between groups. Table 4 shows examples of initial and medial geminates
stops. Medials are present and (frequently) cognate in all the languages, but initial geminates
were lost in Kʃê.
As seen in Table 5, Kkaːʂa and Kʃê singleton voiced stops correspond to nasal-stop clusters
in Sãːht, but Kkaːʂa only has these when preceded by a long vowel. This is a “weak” position
that shows other lenitions as well. Where Kkaːʂa has geminate voiced stops, Kʃê has geminate nasals and Sãːht has singleton voiceless-sonorant clusters. These go back to stop-nasal
clusters that were simplified in different ways in different varieties.
Page 50
wheat flour
joint, crook of branch
sand
Kkaːʂa
taːɣe
ttaːɣe
kakki
Kʃê
tátsek
tátsek
káttʃim
Sãːht
taːrik
ttaːrik
kaːkkim
Table 4: Initial and Medial Geminates
apple, crabapple
house gecko
net, spiderweb
Kkaːʂa
pəntu
toːdu
ʂuːgge
Kʃê
pódu
twǐdu
ʃûnna
Sãːht
haːwnt
tɔint
ʃɨːkrə
Table 5: Voiced Stops and Geminates
candle
food roasted by burying in embers
daily monsoon rains
Kkaːʂa
eŋkke
eŋŋke
aŋŋe
Kʃê
éɲttʃat
éːɲdʒaw
éddʒem
Sãːht
haŋkkəʈ
haŋŋkəɭ
ŋaːŋŋəm
Table 6: Long Nasals and Clusters
All three languages share singleton nasal-geminate voiceless correspondences. However,
Kʃê shows different reflexes for the other two (Table 6): geminate nasal-singleton voiceless
is reflected instead as a long preceding vowel-nasal-singleton voiced, and geminate nasals
are reflected as long voiced stops.
In summary, geminate voiceless stops are typically cognate between the three varieties, but
voiced stops, geminate voiced stops, and geminate nasals have different origins in different
branches.
man’s male peers, members of clique
glue, esp. animal
soil
picture, etching
mockingbird, evil spirit found in reflections
wild carrot
your wild carrot
Kkaːʂa
neʂʂe
oɳʂʂu
nekka
kɨʂʂuːma
ttaltəʂʂu
fiː
ʂe-ppiːf-et
Kʃê
naʃáp
wânʃu
hnǎt
tʃǔma
tawtséʃu
fɲěf
ʃe-ffɲěf-et
Sãːht
naʃʃɛh
vãːʃ
naxaːt
kiʃuːm
ttaɭʈɨʃ
heɲiʃ
ʃɛ-heɲiʃ-it
Table 7: Geminate Fricatives
Fricatives also have singleton-geminate pairs, but they show far less consistency between
languages (Table 7). Kkaːʂa shows by far the most lengthened fricatives historically, but nonsibilants were hardened to their respective stops. Kʃê only shows geminate fricatives under
predictable morphological rules, such as the 2nd person singular possessive that regularly
geminates a following consonant throughout the family. Sãːht shows a few rare geminate
fricatives in roots, but fails to geminate fricatives even where expected morphologically.
Other Alternations and Irregularities
There are a number of irregularities in the system, with consonants that “geminate” to a
completely different sound. These are identifiable especially by the addition of morphology,
such as the 2nd person singular possessive which regularly geminates initial consonants
when applied. In Table 8, pairs are shown between regular and irregular geminates: regular
Page 51
Mmatɨʂ
/l ll/ is contrasted with irregular /l kk/, and regular /j j/ which resist gemination (with initial
hardening, in Kkaːʂa) with irregular /j tt/ or /j ttʃ/. There’s also vowel-initial words that
have nothing to lengthen contrasting with a “long” /k/ (Kkaːʂa) or /ɣ/ (Sãːht) that’s inserted
in other vowel-initial words, though in Sãːht this is masked and made even more irregular
by historical avoidance of vowel-initial words.
arrow
thumb
rug
pig
lotus root
daughter
Kkaːʂa
ləːɣu
ləːxu
djeθke
djempi
enθi
oppu
ʂa-lləːɣuɳ-ʈ
ʂa-kkəːxu-ʈ
ʂe-jeθkel-t
ʂe-ttempi-t
ʂ-enθi-t
ʂa-koppu-ʈ
Sãːht
liːrun
liːw
jaʃklə
jãːh
ɲɛttʃ
hɔː
ʃɛ-lliːruɳ-ɨʈ
ʃɛ-kkiːw-ʈ
ʃɛ-jaʃkaɭ-ɨʈ
ʃɛ-ttʃãːhi-t
ʃɛ-ɲɲɛttʃi-t
ʃɛ-ɣaffu-ʈ
Table 8: Regular and Irregular Geminates
Another type of irregularity is roots that alternate between long and short with additional
morphology. These are especially present in Kʃê, where many of them are cognate with
words that have initial geminates in the other languages, but only a small number of the
total actually do so and many alternate throughout the languages, as shown in Table 9.
table
my table
arm
my arm
spear
my spear
Kkaːʂa
kkaɭo
po-kkaɭo-ʈ
mɨːɣu
po-mmɨːɣu-ʈ
θaɳʈu
po-ttaɳʈu-ʈ
Kʃê
klôt
pa-kklôts-et
méto
pa-bbéto-t
tʃádu
pa-ttʃádu-t
Sãːht
kkaɭuʈ
hɔ-kkaɭuʈ-əʈ
mɨwr
hɔ-mmɨwr-əʈ
tʃaɳʈ
hɔ-ttʃaɳʈ-əʈ
Table 9: Morphological Lengthening
False Diachrony, Failure, and Repair
Much of what’s just been presented has been fully mapped out (with likely more revisions
in the future). However, one of the things I like to do when creating a proto-language is to
still throw in irregularities that have no clear explanation. This was originally what much
of the gemination of the system was going to be, simply hand-waved in with a vague idea
that singleton-geminate /t tt/ might originate in a voiced-voiceless distinction /d t/ that
strengthened. The one exception was the fricatives, which I intended to have no length contrast in the proto-language and each branch created their own system for adding geminate
fricatives.
The more I worked on this, however, the less satisfying that was and the more problems I
ran into. For one, I wanted geminate initials to be quite common, and languages that have
or are theorized to have undergone similar changes typically collapse initial consonants to
a single series. It also leaves nasals and laterals unexplained entirely.
As a result of this, I ended up deciding to go back another layer, at least partially, and
actually map out more fully in what instances geminates would arise, so that they were
both better-explained and more fully integrated into the language once I got around to
messing more fully with the morphology. While the core of a voiced-voiceless distinction is
still there, I added numerous other sources of geminates as well. Among them included:
• Loanwords from nearby languages
Page 52
• Original word-initial short vowels that were dropped, but allowed“initial geminates”
to form and accurately reflect their original voicing as well as creating initial geminate
nasals
• Medial weak vowels that dropped out with compensatory lengthening of an adjacent
consonant, which is where many long nasals as well as short nasal-long stop clusters
originate from
• While not really covered here, as it’s more relevant for verbs (which are still very rudimentary), weakening of consonants in extrametrical syllables triggering their merger
with adjacent consonants to morphological gemination
Along with this, I took a few scattered irregularities–like a few random choices for the
irregular singleton-geminate pairs, such as /l-tt/–and more fully committed to specific original sounds they come from, which also resulted in some additional changes, like in that
case to make it /l-kk/ instead. The result has been something that I’m much more satisfied
with.
Page 53
07
From "Skin Condition" to
"Strong" and Other
Changes
by Matt M.
An Overview of the Athmo-Xlaccic Languages
Introduction
The Athmo-Xlaccic languages represent the current manifestation of my earliest attempts
at conlanging. It began as a simple cipher of English circa 2004-2005 (my freshman year
of high school), and I have scrapped and started over on it a number of times. Since about
2018, though, I have finally come up with something that is both coherent and pleasing to
me.
This is by far my most expansive conlanging project. Other individual languages of mine
may have larger lexicons, but this language family holds a special place in my heart.
For all the languages covered here, I could have gone into more detail, but the idea of
doing something a little shallower but a lot broader appealed to me.
Each language highlighted has two subsections: overviews of major phonological changes
and overviews of major grammatical changes. At the end of this article is a comparison of
ten root words and their descendants, as well as other language-family-wide comparisons.
Proto-Athmo-Xlaccic
Proto-Athmo-Xlaccic (hereafter referred to as PAX) was pretty much just Proto-Indo-European
a highly-fusional language spoken by horse-riding pastoralists in a somewhat hilly territory
crisscrossed by many rivers. It had a strict SOV word order, flexible phonotactics, and
complex verbal conjugation patterns. Head-directionality was mixed. Verbs were nearly
always at the ends of phrases, nouns were modified with postpositions, and nouns preceded
adjectives.
I have quite the lengthy Word Doc and hefty Excel Workbook for PAX. The verbs are
especially complex, but here is a super-quick overview of what the language was like.
Page 55
Athmo-Xlaccic
In-Universe History
PAX was spoken approximately 5,000 years before present in what is now southwestern
Mesemyu and northeastern Shomfur. Beginning not long after that, the PAX peoples began
spreading out. Initially, they moved southward, where the population was sparser. But in
time, they came to dominate the central section of the continent of Rathnaes. In the map
below, the PAX urheimat is marked with a red dotted line.
PAX was an unwritten language, but all daughter languages discussed here are written.
The earliest written record of an AX language is a funerary stela in an ancient Athmic variety.
Phonology
PAX had a rather large consonant inventory, and phonotactics were flexible. Stress was
regular and predictable, though convoluted. It usually fell on the penultimate or ultimate
syllable.
PAX had a six-vowel system with a length distinction. The sonorants ⟨m n l r⟩ could also
act as syllabic cores, though there was no length distinction.
Verbs
Verbs had two aspects (imperfect (marked with an infixed ⟨s⟩) vs. perfect (marked with an
infixed ⟨n⟩)), three voices (active, middle/reflexive, and passive), and five tenses (present
indicative, past indicative, subjunctive, jussive-optative, and imperative). (The word “tense”
really is not particularly accurate here, but there were five elements that could interact with
Page 56
Stop
Affricate
Fricative
Nasal
Trill
Approximant
Voiceless
Voiced
Aspirated
Voiced Aspirated
Voiceless
Voiceless
Plain
Plain
Plain
Lateral
Labial
p ⟨p⟩
b ⟨b⟩
pʰ ⟨ṗ⟩
bʱ ⟨ḃ⟩
m ⟨m⟩
Alveolar
t ⟨t⟩
d ⟨d⟩
tʰ ⟨ṫ⟩
dʱ ⟨ḋ⟩
ts ⟨c⟩
s ⟨s⟩
n ⟨n⟩
r ⟨r⟩
l ⟨l⟩
Front Vowels
i ⟨i⟩
i: ⟨ī⟩
e„ɛ ⟨e⟩
e: ⟨ē⟩
æ ⟨æ⟩
æ: ⟨ǣ⟩
Palatal
j ⟨y⟩
Velar
k ⟨k⟩
g ⟨g⟩
kʰ ⟨ḱ⟩
gʱ ⟨ġ⟩
Uvular/Glottal
q ⟨q⟩
x ⟨x⟩
h ⟨h⟩
qʰ ⟨ɋ⟩
w ⟨w⟩
Back Vowels
u ⟨u⟩
u: ⟨ū⟩
o„ɔ ⟨o⟩
o: ⟨ō⟩
a„ɑ ⟨a⟩
ɑ: ⟨ā⟩
the aspect and voice markers.) Verbs had to agree in number and person with the subject
of the clause.
Verbs could conjugate in four slightly-different patterns, depending on what the nuclear
vowel was and if the word ended in a consonant or vowel. Verbs could have ⟨a e u⟩ as
its nuclear vowel. Verbs with ⟨a⟩ or ⟨e⟩ as its nuclear vowel were largely regular and
predictable. Verbs with ⟨u⟩ as the nucleus were subject to ablaut in many conjugations.
Nouns & Adjectives
PAX nouns fell into one of four grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, neuter-1, and
neuter-2. Nouns were differentiated in gender by their final phoneme. The genders were
somewhat intuitive.
Masculine and feminine nouns were almost all animate. For example, somuh ‘man’ ended
in the masculine consonant ⟨h⟩; and nucpar ‘wife’ ended in the feminine consonant ⟨r⟩.
There were plenty of unintuitive terms, though, as the result of phonological pressure on
the language’s semantics. Nayc ‘horse’ was feminine due to ending in ⟨c⟩, and ṫāmu ‘tree
sap’ was masculine because it ended in ⟨u⟩.
Neuter-1 mostly consisted of inanimate objects, such as ōsmlex ‘tree,’ psek ‘stomach,’ and
ecka ‘copper.’ Neuter-2 consisted mostly of abstract concepts, like āluġ ‘handiwork,’ gasay
‘night or darkness,’ and iṫōxuyā ‘hatred.’
Gender
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter-1
Neuter-2
Final letters
p, b, ṗ, ḃ, h, m, w, o, ō, u, ū
t, d, ṫ, ḋ, s, c, n, r, l, i, ī, e, ē
k, ḱ, x, a, ā
q, g, ɋ, ġ, y, i, ī
Nouns could be one of three grammatical numbers: singular, dual (marked with -sko or
-ske), and plural (marked with -k, -ik, or -uk). Masculine nouns – which could end in round
Page 57
Athmo-Xlaccic
vowels – were subject to ablaut during pluralization.
PAX had seven cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, oblique, essive, and vocative. They were marked with suffixes, and differences between the genders were minimal
in declension.
Case
Nominative
Accusative
Dative
Genitive
Oblique
Essive
Vocative
Suffix (singular)
(unmarked)
-(o)n (m/f), -(o)nt (n1/n2)
-(a)d
-(a)mho
-(a)lā
-wē
-oy
Adjectives followed nouns and needed to agree in gender, number, and case. PAX adjectives had two basic suffixes. The ending -inem indicated so-called “semblative adjectives.”
For example, the word ṫāminem ‘slow’ was derived from ṫāmu ‘tree sap’ + -inem, making
it ‘like tree sap.’ “Stative adjectives” indicated states. For example, the word dolqoh ‘great’
or ‘large’ came from dolq ‘power’ plus the -oh suffix. Adjectival declension was much more
complex than noun declension; noun declension for different genders largely collapsed in
daughter languages.
Pronouns
PAX had a simple pronominal system. First- and second-person singular and plural pronouns, as well as a reflexive pronoun, can be reconstructed across all extant AX branches.
Whether PAX had distinct third-person pronouns is unknown. No pronouns can be reconstructed from daughter languages. However, demonstrative pronouns (“this” and “that”)
can be reconstructed. Non-nominative forms of the pronouns differed significantly from the
nominative forms.
Pronoun
1SG – I
2SG – You, Thou
1DU/1PL – We
2DU/2PL – You, Y’all
REFL – Oneself
PROX.DEM – This
DIS.DEM – That
PAX (Nominative)
Haw
Twā
Ḱæwm
Qwēc
Iwot
Ṗāyx
Mēyeq
Daughter Languages
In the map below, the modern-day spread of the AX languages can be seen. Not included
are overseas colonial settlements. Those are primarily Athmir-speaking and often are somewhat tenuous in their permanence.
Page 58
The key reads:
• Yellow: Demitian (only living member of its branch)
• Purple: Athmir
– Lavender: Other Athmic languages
• Green: Alwakha
– Light green: Other Xijilic languages
• Hot pink: Areas where Upland Maroian is the governmental and scholarly language.
All varieties of Maroian are extinct as common languages.
• Blue: Itatian
– Light blue: Other Sekteric languages
• Red: Icnab
– Pink: Other Ixinic languages
• Orange: Xlacu
– Light orange: Other Iwidic languages
In addition to the branches listed above, there are two other extinct branches: Snaxthoian
and Littoral.
Snaxthoian was spoken in the Snaxthoim Desert (the roughly-triangular area between two
mountain chains near the bottom of the above map) and went extinct about 2,000 years
before present. It is only recorded in a handful of documents, most of them edicts issued by
the now-long-gone Vanya Empire. The edicts were carved in stone and were presented in
Vanyic (my universe’s Sumerian a now-extinct language isolate) and regional languages.
The Littoral languages were spoken around the string of large lakes in Northern Tanhi.
(The area is currently Xlacu-speaking. Look to the southwest of the westernmost portion
of the Sekteric languages.) These languages are well-attested, as they were the languages
Page 59
Athmo-Xlaccic
of conquerors who overran the indigenous Mesman speakers. The Littoral languages would
gradually be pushed to extinction as Xlacu-speaking peoples spread through the region.
These languages went extinct about 500 years before present. A few phrases of Ulhamitsan
persist in legal jargon on the island of Ulha.
In the real world, I’ve done next to no work on these branches, so I will not be covering
them beyond this passage here.
Maroian went extinct about 300 years ago, but it persists as the language of government
and learning in the semi-autonomous Duchy of Maroia within the Kingdom of Zuwia.
I will be addressing each of the highlighted languages in its own sub-section below.
Alwakha
Alwakha is a member of the Xijilic branch of the AX language family. The word xijil
[ˈdziʤil] (or something similar) means “small valley” in many languages. This branch is the
most numerous, in terms of the number of languages spoken. The territory Xijilic speakers
inhabit is largely mountainous in the west and fairly flat in the east.
Notable Phonological Changes
Stop
Fricative
Affricate
Nasal
Trill
Liquid
Voiceless
Voiced
Ejective
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Plain
Plain
Plain
Lateral
Labial
p ⟨p⟩
b ⟨b⟩
pˀ ⟨ṗ⟩
f ⟨f, v⟩
v ⟨v, b⟩
m ⟨m⟩
Alveolar
t ⟨t⟩
d ⟨d⟩
tˀ ⟨ṫ⟩
s ⟨s⟩
z ⟨z⟩
ts ⟨c⟩
dz ⟨ẑ⟩
n ⟨n⟩
r ⟨r⟩
l ⟨l⟩
Close
Mid
Open
Front
i ⟨i⟩
ɛ ⟨e⟩
Palatal
ʃ ⟨ś⟩
ʒ ⟨ź⟩
ʧ ⟨ć⟩
ʤ ⟨ĵ⟩
ɲ ⟨ń⟩
j ⟨j⟩
Velar
k ⟨k⟩
g ⟨g⟩
kˀ ⟨ḱ⟩
x ⟨x⟩
ɣ ⟨ğ⟩
Uvular
Glottal
χ ⟨ẋ⟩
h ⟨h⟩
ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩
w ⟨w⟩
Central
Back
ɨ ⟨y⟩
u ⟨u⟩
ə ⟨ə⟩
o„ɔ ⟨o⟩
a„ɑ ⟨a⟩
Ejectives
As with almost all modern AX languages, Alwakha’s ancestors dropped the voiced aspirants
early on. By and large, they either lenited into fricatives or merged with their unaspirated
counterparts. What makes Alwakha (and many other Xijilic languages) distinct in an AX
context is what happened to its voiceless aspirants. They (mostly) became ejective stops.
The aspirated uvular stop weakened to a uvular fricative.
Page 60
Reflexes of PAX aspirated consonants
PAX
ṗāyx [pʰɑːjx]
xpōṫelc [xpoːˈtʰɛlts]
ḱert [kʰɛrt]
ɋuyom [ˈqʰujɔm]
Alwakha descendent
ṗav [pˀav]
oṫel [oˈtˀɛl]
ḱyr [kˀɨr]
ẋoj [χɔj]
Phonemic Schwas
Alwakha’s phonemic central vowels of ⟨y⟩ and ⟨ə⟩ are uncommon in AX languages. Vowels underwent many rapid changes in earlier stages of the language. Rounded front vowels
arose in the late stages of PAX. These eventually unrounded messily, merging with multiple other vowel phonemes. This was further complicated by the fracturing of stressed long
vowels into diphthongs. From this mess, two distinct central vowels, both called jelaṫun
(“vague”) vowels, emerged.
Notable Grammatical Changes
Grammatical Dual
Before plunging into its innovations, one of its rare bits of conservatism is noteworthy. It
is one of only a few living AX languages to maintain the grammatical dual. This persists
primarily in distinct dual verbal conjugations. No distinct dual pronouns exist. In colloquial
use, the dual is declining.
Loss of Grammatical Gender
A series of sound changes rendered the old PAX grammatical genders impossible to differentiate from one another on nouns. This soon led to the collapse of grammatical gender
altogether. Adjectives still have two different endings (-ine, cf. PAX -inem; and -Ø) with
two different pluralization and declension schemes, but there is no longer a differentiation
between masculine, feminine, and neuter. The -ine suffix is often applied to loanwords and
can be treated as an adjectivizing suffix. No semantic distinction exists between -ine and
null-suffixed adjectives. The Alwakha adjectival paradigm descends from the PAX masculine
adjectives.
Verbal Negation
Negation is another area where the Xijilic languages are distinct from most other AX
branches. PAX negation was marked with the particle ġōwye. In Proto-Xijilic, ġōwye eventually became the verbal prefix gōw. This eventually shifted to gø̄-, then gē-, and finally
the modern je-.
Comparison of PAX and Alwakha verbal negation
(1)
Negation in PAX:
Sōmuh ġōwye yetenuwnma.
sōmuh ġōwye
man
NEG
yetenuw -n -ma
arrive
-PFV -ACT.3SG.PST.IND
“The man didn’t arrive.”
Page 61
Athmo-Xlaccic
(2)
Negation in Alwakha:
Swa jenajete.
swa
jena- jete -Ø
man NEG- ACT.PST.IND- arrive -3SG
“The man didn’t arrive.”
Past-Tense Circumfixation
The above example serves as a nice segue into discussing the next major grammatical shift
that makes Alwakha distinctive. The past tense for singular subjects in the active voice is
marked with a circumfix. This was the result of several word-final sounds being dropped that
eventually led to the past and present tenses in the active voice being identical for singular
subjects. As a result, the Proto-Xijilic verb ny ‘go, occur,’ cf. PAX nuw ‘walk, move’ began
to be used as a preverbal particle to indicate the past tense. This eventually fused onto the
verbal root as a prefix, and the weakened [y] vowel was reanalyzed as an unstressed [a].
Comparison of the active present and past tenses for singular subjects
Zğalna ‘hurt, injure’
1SG
2SG
3SG
Present
zğalna-Ø
zğalna-Ø
zğalna-Ø
Past
na-zğalna-Ø
na-zğaln-is
na-zğalna-Ø
Certain common monosyllabic verbs with ⟨o⟩ or ⟨u⟩ (or more rarely, ⟨a⟩) are subject to
ablaut in certain conjugations.
Juń ‘run (away)’
1SG
2SG
3SG
Present
juń-Ø
jiń-Ø
juń-Ø
Past
na-jiń-Ø
na-jiń-is
na-juń-Ø
Athmir
Athmir is the most widely-spoken of the AX languages. It is a member of the Athmic
branch and is the majority language of Athimriss.
Notable Phonological Changes
Stop
Fricative
Affricate
Nasal
Trill
Liquid
Voiceless
Voiced
Aspirated
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Plain
Plain
Plain
Lateral
Labial
p ⟨p⟩
b ⟨d⟩
bʱ ⟨ḃ⟩
f ⟨f⟩
v ⟨v⟩
m ⟨m⟩
ʋ„w ⟨w⟩
Dental
θ ⟨þ⟩
ð ⟨ð⟩
Alveolar
t ⟨t⟩
d ⟨d⟩
dʱ ⟨ḋ⟩
s ⟨s⟩
z ⟨z⟩
ts ⟨c⟩
n ⟨n⟩
r ⟨r⟩
l ⟨l⟩
Palatal
ʃ ⟨ś⟩
ʒ ⟨ź⟩
ʧ ⟨ć⟩
ʤ ⟨j⟩
Velar
k ⟨k⟩
g ⟨g⟩
gʱ ⟨ġ⟩
Uvular/Glottal
q ⟨q⟩
h„ɦ ⟨h⟩
j ⟨y⟩
Page 62
Front
Close
i ⟨i⟩
Mid
Open
Diphthongs
Central
ɪ„ɨ ⟨ĭ, i*, e*, u*⟩
ʊ ⟨u*⟩
Back
u ⟨u⟩
e ⟨e, ë⟩
ə ⟨a*, æ*, e*, ë*, o*⟩ o„ɔ ⟨o⟩
ɛ ⟨æ*, e*⟩
æ ⟨æ⟩
ɑ ⟨a⟩
aʊ ⟨ao, au⟩, eɪ ̯ ⟨ë, ei, ey⟩, ɔɪ ̯ ⟨oi, oy⟩, oʊ̯ ⟨ou⟩, ʊə̯ ⟨ua⟩
Athmir has a strong tendency to reduce unstressed vowels. In the chart below, any letter
marked with an asterisk indicates that that realization is a common unstressed allophone.
In certain dialects, ⟨e⟩ and ⟨ë⟩ are pronounced identically. However, in Uthri Athmir (the
prestige accent), ⟨e⟩ is a monophthong, and ⟨ë⟩ is strongly pronounced as the diphthong
⟨eɪ ̯⟩. ⟨ë⟩ is almost always stressed, with the main exceptions of the indefinite article ⟨ë(m)⟩
and the negation particle ⟨më⟩.
Voiced Aspirants
Athmir is notable for being one of the few extant AX languages to retain voiced aspirated
consonants. The few other AX languages that retain them are all also in the Athmic branch
of the language family.
Reflexes of PAX voiced aspirated consonants
[bʱ]
[dʱ]
[gʱ]
PAX
ar sḃēhs
[ɑrˈzbʱeːhs]
nurḋāt
[nurˈdʱɑːt]
ġāmhodrebyo
[ˈgʱɑːmɦodrɛbjo]
Athmir
arzḃës
[ərzˈbʱeɪ ̯s]
uḋau
[uˈdʱɑʊ̯]
ġaunðrey
[ˈgʱaʊ̯nðrɛj]
Itatian
irvē
[irˈveː]
nuzāt
[nuˈzaːt]
āmodreb
[ˈaːmodreb]
Icnab
zveks
[zvɛks]
nâẑei
[nʌˈdzɛɪ ̯]
źambodre
[ˈʒɑmbodrɛ]
Interdental Fricatives
Interdental fricatives are among the most common consonants in Athmir due to a number
of convergent sound shifts. The clusters ⟨þm⟩, ⟨þn⟩, and ⟨þr⟩ are so common that all three
clusters have commonly-used ligatures in handwritten Athmir.
Sound changes that resulted in [θ] and/or [ð]
• [tʰ] when not adjacent to another consonant
– PAX ṫūsp [tʰuːsp] Ñ Athmir þuaf [ˈθuəf]
• Alveolar stops before [r]
– PAX stre [stre] Ñ Old Athmir sþre [sθre] Ñ Athmir þrë [θreɪ ̯]
– PAX hdrīmilh [ɦdriːˈmilɦ] Ñ Old Athmir ðrīmilh [ðriːˈmilɦ] Ñ Athmir ðrimĭl
[ðriˈmɪl]
• Intervocalic [θ] voiced
– PAX ḱaṫoh [ˈkʰɑtʰoh] Ñ Old Athmir xaþoh [ˈxɑθoh] Ñ Athmir haðo [ˈhɑðo]
• [s] before [m, n, r]
– PAX rōsmlex [ˈroːsmlɛx] Ñ Athmir rouþmes [ˈroʊ̯θmɛs]
– Old Athmir ḋēġusna [dʱeːˈgʱusnɑ] Ñ Middle Athmir ḋeġuþna [dʱeˈgʱuθnɑ] Ñ
Modern Athmir ḋejuþ [dʱeˈʤuθ]
– PAX sradug [ˈsrɑdug] Ñ Athmir þraj [ˈθrɑʤ]
Page 63
Athmo-Xlaccic
• Word-final [dʱ]
– PAX ikdēḋ [igˈdeːdʱ] Ñ Athmir ædëð [əˈdeɪ ̯ð]
• Word-initial [dw]
– PAX mdwāca [m̩ ˈdwɑːtsɑ] Ñ Old Athmir dwāca [ˈdwɑːtsə] Ñ Athmir ðauc [ðaʊ̯ts]
• [sj] in any context
– PAX arsyā [ɑrˈsjɑː] Ñ Athmir aþo [əˈθo]
The prevalence of these sounds has led to several tongue-twisters notorious among nonnative speakers.
An Athmir tongue-twister
(3)
Jaþmik go oþpæþĭk þænþaþ yaula þnëk þmo nëþĭk ḋuþiþ þëmþa.
[ˈʤɑθmɪk g(ə) əθˈpæθɪk ˈθænθəθ jau̯lə θneɪ ̯k θmo ˈneɪ ̯θɪk ˈdʱuθɪθ ˈθeɪ ̯mθə]
jaþmi - k
sparrow - PL
go
and
oþpæþ - ĭk
finch - PL
þænþa - þ
land - 3PL.IMP.PRS
yaula
in
þnë
-k
maple_tree - PL
þmo
near
nëþ -ĭk ḋuþi -þ
þëmþa
horse -PL feed -3PL.IMP.PRS grain
“Sparrows and finches land in maple trees near horses that feed on oats.”
For the sake of brevity, this is often reduced to just þnëk þmo nëþĭk, to be said rapidly
and repeatedly.
Vowels
Like many AX languages, Athmir has lost the length distinctions for vowels that PAX
had. When this occurred, many diphthongs arose, particularly on stressed long vowels.
While there were many instances of general vowel “funkiness” in the Middle Athmir period
(roughly 600 years before present), where non-prestige dialects borrowed from prestige dialects, and vice-versa, there were overarching sound changes. (This “funkiness” was borne
in part out of that era’s political instability. At this point, the Athmir-speaking world was
pluricentric. The Kingdom of Uthri would come to dominate in the following centuries,
and with its political ascendency, it has made an effort to impose its own standards on the
language.)
PAX and Proto-Athmic long vowel reflexes in Modern Athmic
PAX
Ā
Ǣ
Ǣw/Ǣo/Ǣu
Ē
Ēw/Eo/Ēu
Ī
Īw/Īu
Ō
Ū
Proto-Athmic
Ā
Ǣ
Ȫ
Ē
Ō
Ī
Ǖ
Ō
Ū
Athmir
Au
Ë
Ë
Ë
Ou
Ie
Ĭ, Iu
Ou
Ua
Where Athmir has a relatively large inventory of stressed vowel sounds, unstressed vowels
undergo aggressive reduction in rapid or informal speech. This has led to a common joke
Page 64
among those on the periphery of the Athmirophone world that Athmir speakers’ tongues are
too big for their mouths and the whole language sounds like [θəθəθə].
Such vowel reduction has led to Athmir having a relatively large number of homophones
in casual speech.
Some Athmir homophones caused by vowel reduction
Ivas ‘start, begin’
Ivos ‘turnip’
Careful pronunciation: [ˈivɑs] Careful pronunciation: [ˈivos]
Casual pronunciation: [ˈivəs]
Iza ‘he/she/it lived’
Izæ ‘loam’
Careful pronunciation: [ˈizɑ] Careful pronunciation: [ˈizæ]
Casual pronunciation: [ˈizə]
Uyok ‘ears’
Uyek ‘carp’
Careful pronunciation: [ˈujok] Careful pronunciation: [ˈujɛk]
Casual pronunciation: [ˈujək]
Notable Grammatical Changes
Conjugation
In PAX, two factors affected the specifics of how a verb conjugated: its nuclear vowel and
if it ended in a consonant or vowel. For my own purposes, I refer to PAX verbs with ⟨a⟩ or
⟨e⟩ at the nucleus as A verbs and ⟨u⟩-nucleic verbs as U verbs. Should the verb end in a
consonant, I refer to them as AC or UC verbs. The distinction between A and U verbs was
lost in the Proto-Athmic stage of the language, but the C-V distinction persists.
Despite originally standing for “vowel,” V-verbs often end in consonants in the modern
language. (Within Athmir philology, the two classes of verbs are referred to as “empty
verbs” and “ma verbs,” in reference to how first-person singular perfect present-tense verbs
end. Compare the C-verb haus-Ø ‘I carry’ and the V-verb ruaź-ma ‘I drive, I lead.’) This
verbal distinction is found in only a handful of other extant languages. Most living AX
languages have undergone drastic verbal simplification.
Even Athmir’s relatively complex paradigms are notably simpler than PAX’s verbal patterns. In PAX, every verb could be in one of three voices: active, middle, or passive. Athmir’s verbs conjugate into the active by default, with middle/reflexive constructions utilizing
auxiliary words. A distinct passive conjugation exists in modern Athmir, but it is limited
compared to its predecessors. Passive PAX verbs could explicitly be past, present, subjunctive, jussive/optative, or imperative. Modern Athmir passive conjugations are implied to be
in the past, but context can affect that.
Negation
Negation in PAX was done with an all-purpose negation article, ġōwye. This article would
precede whatever was being negated. During the Old Athmir period, an emphatic article,
ḋmöxün, (literally ‘speck,’ as in, ‘not a speck’) began being placed after what was negated.
This has since evolved into the article më, which follows what is being negated. The descendent of ġōwye still exists in Modern Athmir as gu. This appears in a handful of fossilized
phrases, but it is primarily used as a declarative “no.”
Page 65
Athmo-Xlaccic
Evolution of negation in Athmir
(4)
PAX
Sōmuh ġōwye ǣwgyecamhok ġōwye drunnma.
[ˈsoːmuh ˈgʱoːwje ˈæːʊ̯gjetsəmɦok ˈgʱoːwje ˈdrunᵊnmɑ]
sōmuh
man
ġōwye
NEG
ǣwgjec -amho -k ġōwye
bird
-GEN -PL NEG
drun -n -ma
see -PRF -3SG.PST.IND
“The man didn’t see any birds.”
(5)
Old Athmir
Sōmu ġōvī ögyecamhok ḋmöxün ġōvī ðrunma ḋmöxün.
[ˈsoːmu ˈgʱoːviː ˈøgjetsəmɦɔk ˈdʱmøxyn ˈgʱoːviː ˈðrunmə ˈdʱmøxyn]
Sōmu ġōvī ögyec -amho -k
man
NEG bird -GEN -PL
ḋmöxün ġōvī ðrun -ma
ḋmöxün
EMPH
NEG see -3SG.PRF.PST.IND EMPH
“The man didn’t see any birds.”
(6)
Modern Athmir
Æl sou soðruna më ëm ĭjesavo më.
[əlˈsoʊ̯ səˈðrunəmə əmˈɪʤəsəvəmə]
Æl sou soðrun -a
më ëm
ĭjes -avo
më
DEF man see
-3SG.PRF.PST.IND NEG INDEF bird -PL.GEN NEG
“The man didn’t see any birds.”
Loss of Grammatical Cases & Word Order Shift
As touched on in the section about phonological changes above, many word-final sounds
were elided over the millennia. This rendered most of the grammatical cases null, as many
were marked with just a single consonant.
As such, the structure of Athmir sentences shifted. Instead of the common AX structure of
SOV, the verb moved between the subject and object. This shift coincided with an increased
rigidity in word order. The former accusative case is now indicated solely by verbs, and the
dative and oblique cases’ roles are fulfilled by verbs and prepositions.
(The above can be partly disregarded for pronouns. Pronouns come in three inflected
forms: nominative, oblique/objective, and genitive.)
Possession
The genitive is the only non-nominative case still in use in Modern Athmir, but its scope is
shrinking. It is currently used primarily in negation (as demonstrated above) and inalienable
possession. Alienable possession is marked with a transitive verb derived from the PAX verb
ārg ‘hold, grip.’ In contrast, all forms of possession in PAX used a mihi est-type construction.
Even in inalienable possession, if it isn’t phrased as the equivalent of “X has Y,” the common
genitive circumlocution is used.
Inalienable vs. alienable possession
Page 66
(7)
Gudæm þmo ëm ĭnov sës.
[ˈgudəm θmo əmˈɪnəv seɪ ̯s]
Gudæm þmo ëm
ĭno -v
së -s
Gudaem by
INDEF child -GEN be -3SG.IMP.PRS.IND
“Gudaem has a child.”
(8)
Gudæm kaugĭs ëm avauk.
[ˈgudəm ˈkaʊ̯gɪs əməˈvaʊ̯k]
Gudæm kaug -ĭs
ëm
avauk
Gudaem own -3SG.IMP.PRS.IND INDEF book
“Gudaem has a book.”
(9)
Æl ĭno þri Gudæm.
[əlˈɪnə θri ˈgudəm]
Æl ĭno
þri Gudæm
DEF child of Gudaem
“Gudaem’s child”
(10)
Æl avauk þri Gudæm
[ələˈvaʊ̯k θri ˈgudəm]
Æl avauk þri Gudæm
DEF book
of Gudaem
“Gudaem’s book”
Realignment of Grammatical Gender into Animate and Inanimate
In PAX, there were slight differences in the declension patterns for masculine/feminine
nouns, when compared to the two neuter genders. (Adjectival declension was much more
complex.) With the breakdown and atrophying of grammatical case, the gender system of
Old Athmir simplified, too. Masculine and feminine collapsed into an “animate” gender,
and the two neuters merged to become “inanimate.”
On a practical level, the differences are negligible. It applies to pronouns and adjectives,
more than the nouns themselves.
Grammatical gender in Athmir
Pronouns (NOM)
3SG.AN: Þrik
3SG.INAN: Ëlis
3.PL.AN/mixed: Þriś
3.PL.INAN: Ëliś
Adjectives (NOM)
SG.AN: -ine | -Ø
SG.INAN: -ina | -os
PL.AN/mixed: -imik | -oś
PL.INAN: -inuk | -oyuk
Demitian
Demitian is the sole surviving member of the Demitic branch of AX. It is spoken only on
the island nation of Demitu.
Notable Phonological Changes
Demitian has one of the more distinctive phonologies in the AX language family. It has
a rich inventory of palatalized consonants, its vowel inventory is large and unusual, and it
has permissive phonotactics.
Page 67
Athmo-Xlaccic
Stop
Fricative
Affricate
Nasal
Trill
Lateral
Approximant
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Plain
Plain
Plain
Plain
i ⟨i⟩
i: ⟨í⟩
y ⟨ü⟩
y: ⟨ű⟩
ɛ ⟨e⟩
e: ⟨é⟩
œ ⟨ö⟩
œ: ⟨ő⟩
Diphthongs
Syllabic consonants
Labial
p ⟨p⟩
b ⟨b⟩
v ⟨v⟩
m ⟨m⟩
(ʋ ⟨u⟩)
ɨ ⟨ĭ⟩
Alveolar
t ⟨t⟩
d ⟨d⟩
s ⟨s⟩
z ⟨z⟩
ts ⟨c⟩
dz ⟨x⟩
n ⟨n⟩
r ⟨r⟩
l ⟨l⟩
Palatal
c ⟨č⟩
ɟ ⟨j⟩
ɕ ⟨š⟩
ʑ ⟨ž⟩
Velar
k ⟨k⟩
g ⟨g⟩
x ⟨ħ⟩
Glottal
h ⟨h⟩
ɲ ⟨ň⟩
rʲ ⟨ř⟩
lʲ„ʎ ⟨ľ⟩
j ⟨y⟩
u ⟨u⟩
u: ⟨ú⟩
ɔ ⟨o⟩
o: ⟨ó⟩
ɐ„ə ⟨a⟩
ɑ: ⟨á⟩
aɪ ⟨ai, ae⟩, eɪ ⟨ei, ee⟩, ɔɪ ⟨oi, oe⟩, œy ⟨öü⟩
m̩ ⟨ṃ⟩, n̩ ⟨ṇ⟩, r̩ ⟨ṛ⟩, r̩: ⟨ŕ⟩, l ̩ ⟨ḷ⟩, l ̩: ⟨ĺ⟩
Round Front Vowels
Round front vowels arose early on in most AX dialects as PAX fractured into its daughter
languages. These mostly arose from the diphthongs ⟨æw⟩, ⟨ew⟩, and ⟨iw⟩, along with their
long counterparts. In the interceding millennia, most AX languages have since lost these
vowels, though some retain them. Xlacu has [y], and Aesch has [y] and [œ].
Demitian broke off exceptionally early from PAX, and Demitian is the only living AX language to have round front vowels and a vowel length distinction.
Palatalization
Palatal sounds are one of the core features of what makes Demitian sound “Demitian.”
Some of this extensive palatalization came from natural processes. As in many other languages, front vowels have palatalized the sounds before them. This happened on three separate occasions in Demitian phonological history: first on stops, affricates, and fricatives;
then on sonorants; then again on just stops.
Examples of Demitian Palatalization
PAX
cikminem ‘red’
[ˈtsikminem]
hǣlsib ‘bear’
[ˈhæːlsib]
skihir ‘old woman’
[ˈskihir]
gænicinem ‘mystical’
[gæˈnitsinem]
Demitian
čiħmin ‘red’
[ˈcixmin]
hĺšib ‘bear’
[ˈhl ̩ːʃib]
sšű ‘widow’
[sʃyː]
güňčin ‘wise’
[ˈɟyɲcin]
Page 68
A second source of palatal sounds in Demitian is from the massive influence of the (unrelated) Kereski language. The Empire of Kereske controlled the island of Demitu for about
three centuries, and they left a huge impact on the language. More will be discussed in the
grammatical changes section below, but phonologically, the Kereski imported many of their
words to Demitu. Almost every consonant in Kereski has a palatalized and plain version.
Though their language never gained a foothold outside of the administrative center during their reign, many Kereski terms found their way into Demitian, particularly regarding
politics, war, and trade.
Stress
PAX had a convoluted but predictable and regular pattern to its stress. Depending on a
number of factors, it tended to be on the final or penultimate syllable. In Demitian, this has
been radically simplified. Over the course of most AX languages’ phonological histories, both
word-final and word-initial sounds have been lost and affixed; and Demitian is no exception.
But whereas this process has led to wholly unpredictable stress elsewhere, beginning in late
Middle Demitian, stress uniformly shifted to a word’s first syllable, excepting certain verbal
prefixes.
Syllabic Sonorants
Demitian is also notable for how frequently syllabic sonorants occur. Four sonorants (⟨m
n l r⟩) can act as syllabic cores, and each one can be long or short. Long syllabic sonorants
are relatively rare, but they exist.
These syllabic sonorants first arose from the consonant swallowing up a phonemic schwa
that Old Demitian had. Later changes saw these sonorants in certain contexts adjacent to
front vowels become syllabic. This second change is what gave Demitian syllabic sonorants
with a length distinction.
Long Syllabic Sonorants
PAX
ḃērsgeh ‘corpse’
[ˈbʱeːrzgeh]
wūryoh ‘black’
[ˈwuːrjoh]
hǣlsib ‘bear’
[ˈhæːlsib]
Old Demitian
žbēršeg ‘body’
[ˈʒbeːrʃɛg]
wǖryoh ‘black’
[ˈwʏːrjoh]
hǣlšib ‘bear’
[ˈhæːlʃib]
Modern Demitian
žbŕš ‘body’
[ʒbr̩ːʃ]
vŕyo ‘black’
[ˈvr̩ːjo]
hĺšib ‘bear’
[ˈhl ̩ːʃib]
Syllabic sonorants are usually unmarked, but there are a few instances where an under-dot
is used to reduce ambiguity on potential pronunciations. This usually happens when two
sonorants are adjacent. Examples include nṛyér ‘river’ and sṃligža ‘nest.’
Notable Grammatical Changes
Native Demitic Influences
Proto-Demitians arrived on the island of Demitu roughly 4,000 years before present. The
island they landed on already had a population, which spoke an unrelated language. These
early AX speakers landed on the island’s northeast corner before pushing outward. The
natives of the island gradually lost ground to these invaders, and they were either killed or
integrated. Their native language – called Demitic in English and Rázdedémitvűn (“early
Demitian”) in Modern Demitian – was extinct by roughly 2,000 years before present.
Page 69
Athmo-Xlaccic
Despite dying out so long ago, the native Demitic tongue has had a massive influence on
Modern Demitian. One of the most obvious ways Demitic has influenced Demitian is in its
many loanwords. Many Demitian words for animals and topographic features were taken
from Demitic.
Demitic Loanwords
English
Crag
Deer
Pond
Salt
PAX
gmūrdu
snādyok
yētænc
sæṫiro
Demitic
būrszğom
ingul
ōkyiša
yōbunmē
Demitian
bŕžo
ngu
óčüž
yőmbé
Demitic has also left its fingerprints on Demitian grammar. PAX had seven cases, but
Demitian has ten. The vocative case fell out of use in Middle Demitian, reducing the number
of native AX cases to six. In the early days of the conquest of the island, AX speakers began
incorporating Demitic elements into their speech. This was especially common in families
with mixed parentage.
Demitic had a complex set of locative cases, and four were borrowed over into Old Demitian. Even today, use of these four additional cases is variable by region. In the capital city
of Tmdyel and the second-largest city of Ispldyel, the functions of these locative cases are
frequently replaced with the oblique case and specific adpositions. In most of the rest of the
island, though, the use of these four cases is the norm.
These cases are almost entirely regular. The few irregularities that occur are almost all
specific, fossilized phrases which have been directly borrowed from Demitic. These cases
only attach to nouns; adjectives in these cases decline identically to the oblique.
The four additional Demitian grammatical cases
Case
Inessive
Adessive
Illative
Elative
Singular
-vik
-dazr
-nṛb
-ňöš
Plural
-(i)kvik
-(i)kdazr
-(i)knṛb
-(i)gňöš
Demitic also had an impact on Demitian’s verbs. The verbal impact of Demitic is relatively
limited, but it is a major element. Three prefixes–derived from independent Demitic articles
–can modify a verb’s aspect. An additional independent preverbal article deriving from
Demitic is used to note the future tense.
• rs(a)-: This prefix is used to mark the continuous aspect. When preceded by the
copula, this becomes a progressive aspect marker. For example, hó dru ‘I pull,’ hó
rsadru ‘I pull (continuously),’ and hó šö rsadru ‘I am pulling.’
• no-: This prefix is used to mark the causative aspect. This can be used to turn a noun or
adjective into a verb meaning “to make like X,” or it can be affixed to a verb meaning
“to make to do X.” For example, zašó ‘sharp’ vs. nozašó ‘sharpen’; and řeza ‘feel ill’ vs.
nořeza ‘poison, sabotage.’
• üb(i)-: This prefix is used to mark the conditional aspect. This is (almost) always used
in conjunction with the optative conjugation of a verb. (The optative conjugation covers a complex mess of various irrealis moods, depending on the context.) For example,
hó vúk ‘I give,’ hó vúkui ‘I hope to give’ vs. hó übvúkui ‘I might give.’
Page 70
• erbő: This article is used in conjunction with the present tense conjugation to indicate
the future tense. For example, čöm vħaľuš ‘we lead’ and čöm erbő vħaľuš ‘we will
lead.’
Kereski Influence
As mentioned above, Kereske conquered Demitu roughly 900 years before present and
governed it for 300. In that time, though the Kereski language never established itself as
a commonly-spoken tongue, the Kereski bureaucratic state imported many, many words.
Almost all Demitian words relating to politics, trade, and (to a lesser degree) war derive
from Kereski. The Kereski successfully exported their religion to Demitu, so most religious
terms are of Kereski origin, as well.
Kereski loanwords
Note: In Kereski below, the letters ⟨ṗ ṫ ḱ ṡ ċ⟩ represent the ejective consonants ⟨pˀ tˀ kˀ
tsˀ tɕˀ⟩. Vowels with a caron over them indicate palatalization of the preceding consonant.
The Demitian words are often slightly different in meaning from their origins in Kereski.
English
Legal system
King
God
Tax, debt
PAX
uṫūnġæɋ
ædēbro
sonda
molṫāɋā
Kereski
ṫækunu
dzam
stiglaǔ
pǎṡḱete
Demitian
jekku
xazm
tiglay
vajit
Between Kereski and Demitic loanwords, only about one-third of the Demitian lexicon descends directly from PAX. (A number of Kereski loanwords are ultimately themselves loaned
from early AX languages.) However, AX words are highly-represented in core vocabulary,
such as numbers, family members, body parts, and common verbs.
In Kereski, the verbal infinitive is marked with a suffix, -aľ, -oľ, or -uľ, depending on
the root. When Kereski verbs were borrowed into Demitian, they were usually borrowed
with the infinitive ending. This then got reanalyzed as a generic “verbifying” suffix. For
examples of this, see vemböyaľ ‘to sing,’ derived from vembö ‘song,’ itself a Kereski loan;
or ngulaľ ‘to hunt,’ derived from ngu(l) ‘deer,’ a word of Demitic origin. When these verbs
are conjugated, the -aľ suffix remains, unlike in Kereski.
Standard Kereski also explicitly marks reflexive verbs with the suffix -ux. However, many
administrators in Demitu came from the Kereski region of Aktimuy, where reflexive verbs
were (at the time) marked with the suffix -uxs. This got borrowed into Demitic as -uks
or -üks, depending on the context. The adoption of the reflexive suffix led to the eventual
abandonment of both the middle and passive conjugations in Demitian. (They were already
on their way out, but this new circumlocution only sped their demise.)
Page 71
Athmo-Xlaccic
Adoption of the Kereski reflexive suffix
This is using the PAX verbal root sġāl ‘hurt, injure, ache’ and its Demitian descendent žál,
with effectively identical meaning.
English
I hurt (someone/thing).
I hurt/ache/am sore.
My arm hurts.
I hurt myself.
PAX
Haw sġālnih.
Haw sġālsum.
Ckum hmwāḃ sġālson.
Haw sġālnīxt.
Demitian
Hó žáli.
Hó žál-uks.
Ču ħmo žál-uks.
Hó uže žáli.
Two Forms of "And"
With how early the Demitic branch of the AX languages broke off, some of its most notable
features are its archaic holdovers which have either become rare or extinct in other AX
branches. PAX had two forms of the word “and.” The one which has survived in almost
every other AX language descends from the PAX word gū. It was used when listing multiple
items and fell at the end of a list. The other “and” was ḋwār, which could be translated as
“and then.” It was used when discussing sequential verbs, and it fell after every verb in a
list except the first.
The Demitian descendent of gū is -yu, which functions as a suffix on each item in a list
except the first. The Demitian form of “and then” is not actually descended from ḋwār and
likely comes from a circumlocution. The word is üs and precedes each action in a sequence,
except the first.
Demitian’s two forms of “and”
(11)
Ľöčíg krőľstn, jelomṇyu, drħényu, yöilkṇyu řasi.
Ľöčíg
3SG.M
krőľst - n,
fish - ACC,
jelom - n = yu,
barley - ACC = and,
drħé - n = yu
spinach - ACC = and,
yöil - kn
= yu
egg - ACC.PL = and
řas(a)
-i
eat_dinner -3SG.PST
“For dinner, he ate fish, barley, spinach, and eggs.”
(12)
Čídbáy, hó sáz tvá ňamľé üs gróħé üs gaskľé üs ngulaľé.
Čídbáy,
Today,
hó
1SG
sáz -Ø
want -1SG.PRS
gaskľ -é
clean -2SG.SBJV
üs
and
tvá
2SG
ňamľ - é
read -2SG.SBJV
üs
and
gróħ -é
cook -2SG.SBJV
üs
and
ngulaľ -e
hunt -2SG.SBJV
“Today, I want you to read, cook, clean, and hunt.”
Retention of the Dual
Demitian, along with the above-discussed Alwakha and a few other small Xijilic languages,
is one of the few AX languages to retain the grammatical dual. Even in PAX, the dual had
something of a reduced role, compared to the singular and plural. When conjugating verbs
in the dual, the person of the subject was not taken into account. This continues in Demitian.
Page 72
One innovation that Demitian has is a set of dual pronouns. None of the Xijilic languages
with the dual have dual pronouns; the plural pronouns do that work, with the verb differentiating between dual and plural. Demitian, though, has distinct dual first- and second-person
pronouns. Demitian does not have dual third-person pronouns.
Demitian dual pronouns in the nominative
First person
Second person
Singular
Hó
Tvá
Dual
Hóž
Tváž
Plural
Čöm
Gvé
Icnab
Icnab is the largest of the Ixinic (sometimes also called Insular) languages. It is spoken
primarily on the island of Watjad, and more sporadically throughout the rest of the Ixinia
Archipelago. It features a significant substrate from an unrelated language.
Notable Phonological Changes
Stop
Fricative
Affricate
Nasal
Trill
Liquid
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Plain
Plain
Voiceless
Plain
Lateral
Labial
p ⟨p⟩
b ⟨b⟩
v ⟨v⟩
Dental
θ ⟨þ⟩
ð ⟨ð⟩
m ⟨m⟩
Alveolar
t ⟨t⟩
d ⟨d⟩
s ⟨s⟩
z ⟨z⟩
ts ⟨c⟩
n ⟨n⟩
r ⟨r⟩
r̥ ⟨hr⟩
ʋ ⟨w⟩
l ⟨l⟩
Close
Front
i ⟨i⟩
Mid
ɛ ⟨e⟩
Open
æ ⟨ä⟩
Central
ɪ„ɨ ⟨î⟩
a ⟨a⟩
Palatal
ʃ ⟨ş⟩
ʒ ⟨ź⟩
ʧ ⟨ç⟩
ʤ ⟨j⟩
ɲ ⟨ń⟩
Velar
k ⟨k⟩
g ⟨g⟩
Guttural
q ⟨q⟩
h ⟨h⟩
j ⟨y⟩
Back
u ⟨u⟩
o ⟨o⟩
ʌ ⟨â⟩
Consonant Clusters
Icnab and other Ixinic languages are stereotyped as having intimidating consonant clusters,
especially at the beginning of words. This resulted from several instances of unstressed
vowels dropping between obstruents which shared a voicing quality, as well as the loss of
word-initial unstressed vowels.
There was also a preexisting substrate of words from the native, pre-AX languages which
had permissive phonotactics.
The clusters are not as bad or as common as stereotypes would let on, as there have
also been eras where sound changes simplified clusters. Still, some intimidating and/or
uncommon strings of consonants can be found. These can be made worse by the consonantonly prepositions ç ‘of, specifically possession’ and n ‘for.’ Notable examples include çpos ‘god,
deity,’ kçktam ‘splint, brace,’ Zgdaji ‘common female name of native origin, roughly translatable
Page 73
Athmo-Xlaccic
as “Mercy” or “Merciful”,’ and qńat ‘a breed of sheep notable for its exceptionally warm and
water-repellent wool.’
Geminated Consonants
In certain contexts, consonant clusters have mutated to geminated consonants. For adjacent sops which share a voicing quality, the cluster mutated to a gemination of the second
cluster. For example, Proto-Ixinic yadbat became Icnab yabba ‘moss,’ and Proto-Ixinic zoktimiş became Icnab zâttiç ‘a type of bread.’
A subsequent change also caused clusters of nasals to geminate. Like the stop mutation,
the second sound in the sequence became the geminated one. For example, Proto-Ixinic
syanm became Icnab syamm ‘wife,’ and Proto-Ixinic vomner became Icnab vonni ‘puma.’
(Marginal) Existence of [ɬ]
Early in the history of the Ixinic languages, the cluster of a voiceless fricative followed by
⟨l⟩ became [ɬ]. This sound has vanished in most dialects of Icnab, with it lingering on in a
few northerly villages. [ɬ] eventually broke down into five different sounds, depending on
the context: ʧ, ts, l, s, and θ.
In those few northerly Icnab-speaking villages and the related Ichflezhean language, [ɬ]
can be found. Examples of words with this sound include łapos ‘god,’ cf. standard Icnab
çpos, Ichflezhean łapo, and źoł ‘warm garment,’ cf. standard Icnab źoþ, Ichflezhean jayał.
Notable Grammatical Changes
Negation
Icnab’s primary means of negation is comparable to that of Athmir. Negation is done
with the particle igab. Igab is derived from the Proto-Ixinic phrase (go) ig habu, meaning
‘(not) one iota.’ That Proto-Ixinic go descends from PAX ġōwye. The verbal prefix ga- also
descends from ġōwye and is used to emphasize that an action did not occur.
Interrogative Pronouns
In most AX languages, the form of a pronoun remains the same, regardless of whether the
statement it is used in is declarative or interrogative. Icnab has evolved a distinctive set of
pronoun forms used solely in questions. These are ultimately derived from the now-defunct
vocative case.
Personal pronouns do not have interrogative form. The pronouns are what are often described as “question words” in English: who, what, which, etc. If a sentence has more than
one pronoun in it, only the pronoun that is the focus of the question can be in its interrogative form. Interrogatives will usually fall first in a sentence.
Interrogative pronouns
(13)
a.
Fë sës ældouk?
Athmir
Fë
së -s
ældouk
who be -3SG.PRS.IPFV there?
“*Who* is there?”
Page 74
b.
Çedvoy fei ito?
Icnab
Çedvoy fei
it -o
who.Q
there be -3SG.PRS.IND
“*Who* is there?”
(14)
a.
Fë sës ældouk (ya)?
Athmir
Fë
së -s
ældouk (ya)
who be -3SG.PRS.IPFV there
(EMPH)
“Who is *there*?”
b.
Fadvoy çe ito?
Icnab
Fadvoy çe
it -o
there.Q who be -3SG.PRS.IND
“Who is *there*?”
(15)
a.
(Æl sou) fë sës ældouk
(Æl sou)
(DEF person)
Athmir
fë
së -s
ældouk
who be -3SG.PRS.IPFV there
“(The person) who is there”
b.
(Som) çe fei ito
Icnab
(Som)
çe
fei
it -o
(Person) who there be -3SG.PRS.IND
“(The person) who is there”
Post-Verbal Clitic Pronouns
Icnab’s usual word order is SOV. However, if a direct and/or indirect object in a verbal
phrase is a pronoun, they become cliticized and attached to the verb in question. This
evolved out of a unique tendency of Ixinic languages to prefer sentences ending with pronouns, as opposed to the usual AX aversion to such a practice. This may be an influence of
Sargo-Dornic languages native to the Ixinia Archipelago, which usually have a VSO or VOS
word order.
Post-verbal clitics
Person
1SG
2SG
3SG.M
3SG.F
3SG.N
1PL
2PL
3PL
REFL
NOM
Ei
Dei
Vei
Mas
Ye
Kei
Qei
Ci
Yu
Independent ACC
Kmu
Hral
Vân
Maşn
Yekn
Cekn
Jeç
Îmci
Îzn
DO Clitic
-ku
-hro
-ma
-maş
-i
-ci
-ji
-i
-u
Independent DAT
Kmei
Vei
Vaj
Vaç
Yez
Kaj
Jed
Îmkei
Îr
Both a direct and indirect object clitic can be stacked onto one verb.
Page 75
IO Clitic
-ka
-va
-may
-maç
-i
-ka
-ji
-ima
-îr
Athmo-Xlaccic
(16)
Vei kso-maş-ka.
Vei
ks(a) -o
=maş
=ka
3SG.M give -3SG.PST.IND =3SG.F.ACC =1SG.DAT
“He gave it (a feminine noun) to me.”
Itatian
Itatian is a member of the Sekteric branch of AX. The name derives from the Sekter River,
which roughly bounds where this branch is spoken to the north and east.
Notable Phonological Changes
Stop
Fricative
Affricate
Nasal
Trill
Liquid
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Plain
Plain
Plain
Lateral
Close
Mid
Open
Labial
p ⟨p⟩
b ⟨b⟩
f ⟨f⟩
v ⟨v⟩
m ⟨m⟩
Alveolar
t ⟨t⟩
d ⟨d⟩
s ⟨s⟩
z ⟨z⟩
ts ⟨c⟩
dz ⟨ẑ⟩
n ⟨n⟩
r ⟨r⟩
l ⟨l⟩
Front
i ⟨i⟩
i: ⟨ī⟩
e ⟨e⟩
e: ⟨ē⟩
Central
a ⟨a⟩
a: ⟨ā⟩
Palatal
Velar
k ⟨k⟩
g ⟨g⟩
x„h ⟨h⟩
j ⟨j⟩
w ⟨w⟩
Back
u ⟨u⟩
u: ⟨ū⟩
o ⟨o⟩
o: ⟨ō⟩
Restrictive Phonology and Phonotactics
The Sekteric languages tend to have the most restrictive phonologies and phonotactics in
the AX language family. Itatian is typical of inland Sekteric languages, featuring a five-vowel
system, which retains the length distinction, and a near-total lack of palatal/post-alveolar
consonants. (Coastal Sekteric languages have gone completely the opposite direction, being
typified by many palatal consonants (and relatively few alveolar ones) and a rich inventory
of uncommon vowels with no length distinction.)
Itatian’s phonotactics are maximally CVC, with a few exceptions of words which can start
with a consonant before ⟨j l r⟩. There are no diphthongs in Itatian. Consecutive vowels
are read as two syllables. An example of this can be seen in the Itatian word for “Itatian” –
Ēutat [eː.ut.at].
Aspirated stops were lost at earlier stages of the language. Loss of the palatal sounds have
been more recent. The affricates [tɕ] and [dʑ] moved forward to become [ts] and [dz], and
pre-existing [ts] and [dz] mostly merged with [s] and [z]. The mutation of [ɲ] was less
predictable, but it mostly became [j], [n], or [z], depending on the context.
Page 76
Consonant clusters, both word-initially and word-finally, have extensively mutated or been
broken up by epenthetic vowels.
When Proto-Sekteric’s round vowels unrounded in Old Itatian, they did so fairly cleanly.
⟨y/ȳ⟩ universally became ⟨eu/ēu⟩, and ⟨ø/ø̄⟩ became either ⟨eo/ēo⟩ or ⟨e/ē⟩.
Singular Dative Suffix
Due to a quirk in how the ⟨d⟩ sound evolved, the singular dative ending has two realizations. In most contexts, it is realized as ⟨(a)l⟩. However, if it immediately follows a stressed
vowel, the more conservative ⟨d⟩ is retained.
Itatian singular dative
NOM krūtoj [ˈkruːtoj] ‘thought’ Ñ DAT krūtojal [ˈkruːtojal]
NOM prē [preː] ‘ewe’ Ñ DAT prēd [preːd]
Notable Grammatical Changes
Suffixed Articles
Definite and indefinite articles are fairly common in the Sekteric, Athmic, and Iwidic
branches of AX. Something unique to the Inland branch of the Sekteric languages is that
its articles tend to be suffixes.
In Proto-Sekteric, articles pluralized and agreed in case with the nouns they were modifying. Case agreement was universally dropped by all Sekteric languages by around 800
years before present, and all but a few obscure Coastal Sekteric languages have lost article
pluralization, too.
Itatian’s articles are -ma (DEF) and -ẑe (INDEF). -ma ultimately derives from PAX mēyeq
‘that,’ and -ẑe comes from PAX īġwi ‘one.’
Verbs
Most AX languages radically simplified their verbal schemes, but Itatian’s reduction is
especially sweeping. Completely gone are the active/middle/passive distinctions. Active is
the implied default now. Verbs are simply conjugated for past, present, or future tense; and
for the number and grammatical person of the subject.
With the loss of these distinct conjugations, early Itatian speakers began utilizing auxiliary
verbs and particles. Passive constructions were preserved with a circumlocution that utilizes
the copula along with the uninflected verb.
Itatian passive construction
(17)
a.
Sōmuh ḋīwmn gestena.
Sōmuh
man
ḋīwm -n
geste -n -a
stone -ACC find -PRF -3SG.PST.ACT.IND
“The man found the stone.”
Page 77
PAX
Athmo-Xlaccic
b.
Sōve-ma isaa zēuno-ma
Sōve =ma isa -a
man =DEF find -3SG.PST
“The man found the stone.”
(18)
a.
zēun -o =ma
stone -ACC =DEF
Itatian
Ḋīwm sōmuhlā gæw gestenæm
Ḋīwm
stone
sōmuh -lā
gæw
man -OBL from
geste -n -æm
find -PRF -3SG.PST.PSV.IND
PAX
“The stone was found by the man.”
b.
Sēa zēun-ma isa ẑe sōvel-ma
Sē -a
be -3SG.PST
zēun =ma isa
stone =DEF find
ẑe
via
“The stone was found by the man.”
sōve -l
=ma
man -DAT =DEF
Itatian
Itatian has developed a number of auxiliary verbs and particles to express the functions
that former conjugation schemes filled. There are over a dozen total, but three in particular
are very common:
• Ẑēul: This is the conditional particle. It derives from the Proto-Sekteric ǵyr ‘to hope
for.’ Use of this particle is simple. It precedes a verb, most often in the future tense.
For example, eẑeū means ‘I will jump.’ In comparison, ẑēul eẑeū would be translated
as ‘I might jump.’
• Vā(n): This auxiliary verb explicitly marks a verb as perfective. It ultimately derives
from the PAX amṗāni ‘I have set it down.’ This auxiliary follows the focal verb and conjugates in the past, present, or future tense. The (n) is not included if the conjugation
in question has a null ending. The verb, meanwhile, takes the participle ending. Using
the eẑe example, eẑeuk means ‘we jump,’ and eẑeej vānuk means ‘we have jumped.’
• Ju(m): This is the progressive auxiliary verb. It ultimately derives from PAX nuw ‘go,
walk.’ It behaves identically to vā(n), including the epenthetic nasal. Continuing with
eẑeuk, eẑeej jumuk would mean ‘we are jumping.’
Itatian has developed reflexive verbs to express the former middle conjugation. It has
lately been used more and more to express passive constructions in informal speech. In its
uninflected or infinitive form, verbs are made reflexive with the suffixing clitic -te, which
derives from the Proto-Sekteric ty. When a verb is conjugated, this then becomes the independent pronoun teu and moves directly in front of the verb.
Upland Maroian
Maroian went extinct about 300 years before present, but it remains the language of government, religion, and education in certain areas.
Notable Phonological Changes
Prominence of Guttural Consonants
Velar consonants, especially ⟨h ƣ ŋ⟩, are a prominent feature of Upland Maroian phonology. Early on in Maroian’s history, PAX [qʰ] mutated to [ʁ], and later to [ɣ]. Other expected
mergers happened, such as [kʰ] (in some contexts) and [h] both becoming [x]. There were
some unusual ones, though. The PAX cluster ⟨hm⟩ (pronounced [ɦm]) became [ŋm] in
Page 78
Stop
Voiceless
Voiced
Aspirated
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Plain
Plain
Plain
Lateral
Fricative
Affricate
Nasal
Trill
Liquid
Close
Mid
Open
Diphthongs
Front
i ⟨i⟩
e ⟨e⟩
Labial
p ⟨p⟩
b ⟨b⟩
pʰ ⟨ṗ⟩
f ⟨f⟩
v ⟨v⟩
m ⟨m⟩
Alveolar
t ⟨t⟩
d ⟨d⟩
tʰ ⟨ṫ⟩
s ⟨s⟩
z ⟨z⟩
ts ⟨c⟩
dz ⟨ẑ⟩
n ⟨n⟩
r ⟨r⟩
Post-Alveolar
ʃ ⟨ś⟩
ʒ ⟨ź⟩
ʧ ⟨ć⟩
ʤ ⟨j⟩
l ⟨l⟩
Central
Palatal
c ⟨ķ⟩
ɟ ⟨ģ⟩
Velar
k ⟨k⟩
g ⟨g⟩
kʰ ⟨ḱ⟩
x„ç„h ⟨h⟩
ɣ„ʝ ⟨ƣ⟩
ɲ ⟨ń⟩
ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩
j ⟨y⟩
w ⟨w⟩
Back
u ⟨u⟩
o ⟨o⟩
a ⟨a⟩
aɪ ̯ ⟨ai⟩, eɪ ̯ ⟨ei⟩, ɔɪ ̯ ⟨oi, oy⟩, ɪ ̯u ⟨iu⟩, ɪ ̯e ⟨ie⟩, ʊɪ ̯ ⟨ui⟩, oʊ̯ ⟨ou⟩, ʊ̯o [uo]
Maroian, whereas most AX languages simply dropped the ⟨h⟩. This cluster is most commonly found in the non-nominative forms for the first-person singular pronoun. The native
name for Maroian–Ŋmayh–comes from a word roughly meaning ‘my way (of speaking).’
⟨hm⟩ to ⟨ŋm⟩ mutations on ‘I’
PAX
Maroian
NOM
Haw
Go
ACC
Hmūn
Ŋmuon
DAT
Hmād
Ŋmai
GEN
Hmwāḃ
Ŋman
ESS
Hmwē
Ŋmuye
OBL
Hmwāl
Ŋmuyel
VOC
Hmwoy
Ŋmei (archaic)
Another unusual mutation was that of PAX [bʱ] in a word-final position (most of the time).
Usually, this ended up as [ŋ], via the intermediary form [mɣ]. Word-initial [zg] and [zgʱ]
(very common in PAX) both became [ɣ]. [i] before velar consonants got backed to [o] or
[a ɑ] in a pair of similar shifts. Word-initial [n] before [o] or [u] became [ŋ]. Word-final
stops weakened to fricatives in a recent change, as well.
Diphthongs
Like most AX languages, Maroian lost the length distinction on vowels, with many long
vowels breaking into diphthongs. This occurred relatively soon after Maroian broke off from
middle PAX, and some of the more complex or unusual diphthongs have since merged.
In addition to these diphthongs, consecutive monophthongs are not-uncommon in Maroian.
The two are differentiated with a diacritic, rendered as a dieresis in the Latin alphabet. Compare huio [ˈhu.jo] ‘ear’ and huïo [ˈhu.i.o] ‘I listen.’ The diacritic is always placed over the
second vowel in the ambiguous cluster.
Palatalization
Though palatalization is not as strong or pervasive as in Demitian, Maroian was subject to
it. It has phonemic palatal stops [c ɟ], written ⟨ķ ģ⟩. The fact that there is no aspirated counterpart shows that these were later innovations. Post-alveolar fricatives and affricates are
common sounds, and almost every diphthong includes a yod. Velar fricatives are frequently
realized as palatal before front vowels.
Page 79
Athmo-Xlaccic
Ablaut and verbal aspect
As seen in other AX languages, some verbs are subject to vowel mutations when conjugating. This is especially common in the indicative past. Compare mutruko ‘I mock’ and
mitriki ‘I used to mock,’ or ƣuo [ɣʊ̯o] ‘I carry’ and ƣui [ɣwi] ‘I used to carry.’
Related to this, in PAX, aspect was viewed as one of the various suffixes applied to verbal
roots. Over time, the perfect and imperfect markers came to be thought of as integral parts
of the verbal root. For most verbs, the two forms of a verb are—if not 100% predictable—
intuitive enough that wouldn’t be hard to get one’s point across. Perfect verbs often end in
a nasal (usually ⟨m⟩ or ⟨n⟩), but imperfect verb endings are often arbitrary. Some verbs
have had more drastic mutations, or had one aspect replaced with a word from an entirely
different root.
Maroian verbal aspect
Verb
Listen, hear
Rule, reign
Ask, inquire
Run
See
Carry
Imperfect
Hieńć
Jeb
Źeyro
Kluo
Epe
Ƣuo
Perfect
Hieńćem
Jeben
Źeyros(e)n
Klon
Zunen
Rum
Irregular plurals
Many nouns have irregular plurals. This arises from a combination of vowel mutations,
like in verbs, and through sounds which have been elided in the singular and which remain
in the plural. Some of the most common ones include the words for ‘eye’ (vom vs. vemi),
‘arm’ (sķu vs. śimi), and ‘deer’ (ŋaijo vs. ŋaijogva).
Notable Grammatical Changes
Word Order
Maroian was one of only a few AX languages to have VSO word order. Even within the
Maroiic branch of the AX language family, only two of the four languages had verb-initial
sentences. This was part of a major series of grammatical shifts, which also saw adjectives
move before nouns and postpositions become prepositions. This may have been an areal
feature from neighboring Trans-Rathnaesian languages, such as Droh and Baxthoi, where
VSO is the standard word order.
Hypercorrection of Grammatical Gender
Roughly one-third of AX languages have retained a three-way (masculine-feminine-neuter)
split on grammatical gender. However, in almost all of those cases, the way a noun’s gender
is determined is by how associated adjectives end. Sound changes have rendered PAX’s
final-sound system moot in most daughter languages.
Early on in Maroian’s history, it was observed that masculine nouns were often associated with back vowels, feminine with front vowels, and neuter with mid vowels. Beginning
around 2,000 years before present, the educated classes began hypercorrecting nouns with
ambiguous endings, adding a ⟨u⟩ onto the end of masculine nouns, an ⟨i⟩ onto feminine
nouns, and an ⟨a⟩ onto neuter nouns. This was codified into official grammars of the lanPage 80
guage as an “optional” means of reducing ambiguity. Though most commoners did not
include this in their speech, the upper echelon of society used it to mark their speech as
“better” and “more informative.”
Politeness
As Maroian got pushed more and more out of everyday life and became more of a tongue
for the nobility, the rigid rules of this section of society began appearing more and more in
speech patterns. Most notable among these were various politeness markers, which would
be suffixed onto pronouns or imperative verbs. Four basic politeness markers became grammaticalized by the time the language effectively went extinct.
Maroian politeness markers
Addressee
Peers
Subordinates
Superiors
Nobility
(19)
Marker
-anz
-(a)lzoa
-oie
-oṫa
Etymology
Anzoia ‘good friend’
Lezoa ‘dear child’
Oieme ‘patriarch, head of the household’
Foṫalsa ‘kneel,”as in, “to whom one kneels’
Rakno go ģaiena, epeuo go taänz!
Rakn(a) -o
go ģaie -na,
epe
-uo
go ta
feel.PRF -1SG.PRS.IND.ACT 1SG joy -ACC, see.IPFV -1SG.PRS.SBJV 1SG 2SG.ACC
-änz
-POL
“(To a friend) I am glad to see you!”
(20)
Ŋuspenomalzoa ŋmai sminońe.
Ŋuspen -om
-alzoa
bring.PRF -SG.IMP -POL
ŋmai
smin -ońe
1SG.DAT water -ACC
“(To a servant) Please bring me some water.”
Linguistic Purity/Conservatism
Maroian, especially in its literary register, is notable for its extreme linguistic conservatism.
As Upland Maroian became more and more of a language of a certain class, the intelligentsia
pushed for the outright elimination of loanwords from the language. This included replacing
many preexisting loanwords.
Calques to replace loanwords
• Saddle
– Formerly: kaṫus, from Baxthoi qāθtəs ‘saddle’
– Replacement: naihuaja, from (ra)nai ‘horse’ and huaja ‘seat’
• Heir, crown prince
– Formerly: viku, from Zuwian vík ‘prince’
– Replacement: ģiemeya, from ģieme ‘follow, ensue’
• Recurve bow
– Formerly: ƣavacai, from Baxthoi qəvə sauā ‘two bends’
– Replacement: ķoṫaihṫahosmi, from ķo ‘two,’ ṫaih ‘bend,’ and ṫahosmi ‘bow’
Page 81
Athmo-Xlaccic
Xlacu
Xlacu is the latest iteration of my first conlang. All that remains beyond the name are a
few common words, such as pronouns and prepositions. In-universe, it’s the largest member
of the Iwidic branch of AX, named after the historical Kingdom of Iwid.
Notable Phonological Changes
Stop
Fricative
Affricate
Nasal
Trill
Liquid
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Voiceless
Voiced
Plain
Plain
Voiceless
Plain
Lateral
Voiceless
Close
Mid
Open
Diphthongs
Labial
p ⟨p⟩
b ⟨b⟩
f ⟨f⟩
v ⟨v⟩
m ⟨m⟩
ʋ ⟨w⟩
Dental
θ ⟨þ⟩
ð ⟨ð⟩
Alveolar
t ⟨t⟩
d ⟨d⟩
s ⟨s⟩
z ⟨z⟩
ts ⟨ţ, c⟩
dz ⟨x⟩
n ⟨n⟩
r ⟨r⟩
r̥ ⟨hr⟩
l ⟨l⟩
l ̥ ⟨hl⟩
Palatal
ʃ ⟨ś⟩
ʒ ⟨ź⟩
ʧ ⟨ć⟩
ʤ ⟨ĵ⟩
Velar
k ⟨k, c⟩
g ⟨g⟩
x ⟨ħ⟩
Guttural
q ⟨q⟩
h ⟨h⟩
j ⟨y⟩
Front
Central
Back
i ⟨i⟩
u ⟨u⟩
y ⟨y⟩ ɨ ʉ ɯ ə ⟨î, ŷ⟩
e ⟨e⟩
o ⟨o⟩
ɛ ⟨ê⟩
ɔ ⟨ô⟩
æ ⟨â⟩
ɑ ɔ ⟨a⟩
aɪ ̯, eɪ ̯, ɔɪ, aʊ̯, oʊ̯, eʊ̯ - most diphthongs have a variety of spellings
Voiceless Sonorants
Xlacu has two phonemic voiceless sonorants—[l ̥] and [r̥]. These first entered the language
through loanwords from the unrelated Mesman language. (Mesman also features [m̥ ] and
[n̥], but these sounds were primarily borrowed as either their voiced counterparts or as
[sm/sn].) Since then, the sound has found its way into new words, primarily as a realization
of what was formerly ⟨ħr/ħl⟩.
Complex Vowels
Xlacu has one of the most complex vowel systems in the Athmo-Xlaccic family. The standard dialect, as described here, has ten phonemic monophthongs. The northernmost varieties of Xlacu can have over a dozen.
Like most other AX languages with complex vowel systems, this arose from the loss of
vowel length distinctions. Much like Maroian, as described above, Xlacu regularly has
strings of consecutive monophthongs. Diacritics are used to differentiate potentially ambiguous sequences. Xlacu has a diacritic for marking when a word’s stress is on a syllable
other than the penultimate, and this can double as the monophthong-differentiator in certain
contexts. Compare oisane [ɔɪ ̯ˈsɑne] ‘ugly,’ óisane ([ˈɔɪ ̯səne] ‘very ugly (colloquial),’ oïsane
([o.iˈsɑne] (not a real word), and oísane ([oˈisəne] (also not a real word).
Further weirdness has been added to Xlacu vowels from the influence of sonorants. There
have been two major vowel shifts affected by sonorants. The first was in the situation of
Page 82
⟨VlC⟩, where ⟨l⟩ was dropped and the preceding vowel mutated. A later change was brought
about by ⟨r⟩ following vowels. The ⟨r⟩ did not drop, but the preceding vowels mutated.
Word-initial Consonant Mutations
Xlacu underwent a rapid series of word-initial consonant mutations shortly after splitting
off from the other Iwidic languages. The consonants could mutate in several ways, depending on their specific contexts. A table of Proto-Iwidic correspondences to Xlacu forms is
below.
Word-initial consonant mutations
Proto-Iwidic
dr
h
hw
ḱ
m
ṗ
pl
ɋ
s
sw
ṫ
tr
tw
Xlacu
xl
Ø
f
c
ħ
b
w
f
f
q
ħ
h
ţ
ţ
þ
ţl
t
Context
Everywhere
Before unstressed vowels
Everywhere
Before stressed vowels
Realized as [ts] before ⟨â e ê i y⟩ and [k] elsewhere
In most other contexts
Before ⟨j l r w⟩
Before ⟨â e ê i y⟩
Before other vowels and most consonants
Everywhere
Before vowels
Before consonants
Before stressed ⟨o ô⟩
Everywhere
Before ⟨â e ê i y⟩
Before other vowels and most consonants
Everywhere
Everywhere
There were more mutations than just these, but most of them apply to uncommon consonant clusters.
Mutation of <k> to <p>
A feature of PAX which has persisted into a large number of its daughter languages is the
use of ⟨k⟩ as a plural marker. The usual pluralization marker in Xlacu is ⟨p⟩, but it derives
from PAX ⟨k⟩.
In an older stage of the language (well after splitting off from other AX languages but
before differentiating into the different Iwidic languages), the velar stops ⟨k g⟩ mutated to
the labial stops ⟨p b⟩ word-finally after a vowel. This meant many words now used ⟨p⟩
as a pluralization marker. For example, to Proto-Iwidic word for ‘man’ sommu would be
pluralized to sommup. Other words retained a ⟨k⟩ suffix if they ended in certain consonants.
Proto-Iwidic nec ‘horse pluralized as neck [netsk]. In modern Xlacu, these words pluralize
as hobip and nejp, respectively.
Over time, this distinction was erased via analogy. Now all but a few words are pluralized with ⟨p⟩. The few that are not are common words that are almost always plural, like
jaqymik ‘grapes’ – the singular jaqym is hardly ever used – or nûxéik ‘lips’ sg. nûxéi.
Page 83
Athmo-Xlaccic
Notable Grammatical Changes
Concatenating Verbal Suffixes
Xlacu retains separate conjugations for the active and middle voices, something which is
somewhat uncommon among the AX languages. Beyond that, its verbal paradigm is relatively simple, taking into account the person and number of the subject, as well as conjugating in the past, present, or future indicative.
What makes Xlacu’s verbs unique, though, are its verbal suffixes, which can concatenate.
No suffixes need to be used with a given verb, but suffixes can change a verb’s mood. Four
suffixes exist: conditional, participle, perfective, and progressive. Any combination of those
four can be used together, but they must be used in the above-listed order.
This system arose out of the extensive use of auxiliary verbs and particles which eventually
fused onto the verbal root.
Example of verbal concatenation
An example of a maximally-conjugated verb would be:
(21)
Henĵí-arm-ê-pa-vu.
Henĵ -í
=arm =ê =pa =vu
sleep -1SG.PST.MID =COND =PCP =PRF =PROG
“I would have been sleeping”
The participle suffix is usually realized as ⟨ê⟩. If it is word-final, though, it mutates to ⟨i⟩.
Loss of Gender & Case; Word Order Shift
As seen in other AX languages, sound changes rendered the AX case and gender systems
moot. The collapse of these systems has been more thorough and far-reaching than in almost
any other AX language. Athmir retains a borderline-vestigial genitive case, and Alwakha–
despite having no gender–retains a complex declension system. The only vestiges of the
AX case and gender systems can be found on its pronouns. Pronouns come in nominative,
oblique, and possessive forms, and third-person pronouns refer to a nouns gender/biological
sex.
As discussed in the Athmir section, this reduction in cases led to more instances of semantic
ambiguity under older, more flexible word orders. A shift toward SVO originated in the more
southerly regions of the Xlacosphere. This is now the standard word order, though SOV is
used when someone is trying to sound educated, poetic, or old-fashioned.
Mesman Influence
Xlacu draws a large portion of its vocabulary from Mesman, particularly surrounding law,
politics, war, sailing, trade, and industry. Its influence has been deep with these loanwords,
going so far as to give Xlacu its default polite greeting: aihre, from the Mesman haihrei ‘I
welcome (you).’
Little of Mesman grammar has made its way into Xlacu, though. Mesman has a VSO word
order, and most of its adjectives behave like a class of verbs. The only possible grammatical
influence it may have had on Xlacu was pushing adjectives after nouns. This was the default
Page 84
word order in PAX, but other Iwidic languages (except for Pentelean, which is an offshoot
of Middle Xlacu), as well as the relatively-closely-related Ixinic languages, have adjectives
that precede nouns.
Many educated, influential, and/or aspirationally-influential Xlacu speakers will often
sprinkle Mesman phrases into their speech in an effort to sound intelligent. Though this
is appreciated among a certain class of people, the general attitude among Xlacophones is
to view these people as insufferably pretentious.
Pluralizing Articles
Definite and indefinite articles are not terribly uncommon in AX languages. They are
especially common in the Iwidic, Sekteric, and Athmic branches of the family. Xlacu’s
articles are e (indefinite) and cŷ (definite). Xlacu’s uncommon variation on articles is that
these articles pluralize. E becomes ŷr, and cŷ becomes cŷp.
Page 85
Athmo-Xlaccic
Some Comparisons
PAX Feature Retention
PAX feature
Alwakha
Separate middle or
passive verbal
paradigm
Distinction between
perfect and
imperfect verbs
Voiceless aspirants
Voiced aspirants
3+ grammatical
genders
Dual
SOV
3+ grammatical
cases
Phonemic vowel
length
[q]
Syllabic sonorants
Systematic ablaut
when conjugating
Athmir
( )
marginal
Daughter language
Demitian Icnab Itatian
Maroian
Xlacu
Pronouns
Pronouns have mostly descended unbroken from their PAX forms. Here is a comparison
of the reconstructible AX pronouns.
PAX
Alwakha
Athmir
Demitian
Icnab
Itatian
Maroian
Xlacu
1S
Haw
[hɑʊ̯]
Ha
[hɑ]
Ha
[hɑ]
Hó
[hoː]
Ei
[ɛj]
Ō
[oː]
Go
[go]
A
[ɑ]
2S
Twā
[twɑː]
Vo
[vo]
Twa
[twɑ]
Tvá
[tvaː]
Dei
[dɛj]
Vā
[vaː]
Ta
[ta]
Tei
[teɪ ̯]
1PL
Ḱæwm
[kʰæʊ̯m]
Ḱi
[kˀi]
Ku
[ku]
Čöm
[cœm]
Kei
[kɛj]
Ce
[tse]
Śium
[ɕi ̯ʊm]
Ci
[tsi]
2PL
Qwēc
[qweːts]
Vis
[vis]
Qwës
[qweɪ ̯s]
Gvé
[gvɛː]
Qei
[qʌj]
Gwi
[gwi]
Ie
[i ̯e]
Teik
[teɪ ̯k]
“This”
Ṗāyx
[pʰɑːɪ ̯x]
Ṗav
[pˀɑv]
Fo
[fo]
Páy
[paːj]
Pek
[pɛk]
Pē
[peː]
Ṗaig
[pʰaɪ ̯g]
Faj
[faj]
“That”
Mēyeq
[ˈmeːjɛq]
Mieg
[miˈɛg]
Ëqæ
[ˈeɪ ̯qə]
Még
[mɛːg]
Me
[mɛ]
Mē
[meː]
Veig
[veɪ ̯g]
Mi
[mi]
Reflexive
Iwot
[ˈiwot]
Yt
[ɨt]
Ivot
[ˈivət]
Üöt
[yœ̯ t]
Yu
[ju]
Eut
[ˈe.ut]
Iva
[ˈiva]
Iv
[iv]
Page 86
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
PAX
īġwi
[ˈiːgʷwi]
sko
[sko]
xmā
[xmɑː]
sṫōbin
[ˈstʰobɪn]
cārḋa
[ˈtsɑːrdʱə]
yōkmis
[ˈjoːkmis]
gnæxōm
[gnæˈxoːm]
iṗons
[iˈpʰons]
aḱmu
[ˈɑkʰmu]
drēwġwi
[ˈdreːʊ̯gʱwi]
Alwakha
ğiwi
[ˈɣiwi]
sku
[sku]
mo
[mo]
sṫovi
[ˈstˀɔvi]
cavz
[tsavz]
źomis
[ˈʒomɪs]
nexwa
[nɛˈxwɑ]
ṗwons
[pˀwɔns]
aźmu
[ˈaʒmu]
dvogi
[ˈdvoɣi]
Athmir
ëź
[eɪ ̯ʒ]
sko
[sko]
śmo
[ʃmo]
soubi
[ˈsoʊ̯bi]
sauð
[ˈsaʊ̯ð]
youmis
[ˈjoʊ̯mɪs]
nækou
[nəˈkoʊ̯]
ivous
[iˈvoʊ̯s]
aþ
[ɑθ]
ji
[ʤi]
Demitian
ív
[iːv]
skom
[skom]
ħmá
[xmɑː]
čóvn
[ˈcoːvn̩]
cárx
[tsɑːrdz]
yóħmi
[joːxmi]
ħňizó
[ˈçɲizoː]
iuó
[ˈiʋoː]
asm
[ˈɑsm̩ ]
dřóv
[ɟʝrʲoːv]
Icnab
i
[i]
şwo
[ʃwɔ]
kmai
[kmaɪ ̯]
stavi
[ˈstavi]
cäð
[tsæð]
yomz
[jomz]
ńo
[ɲo]
poz
[poz]
asm
[ˈasm̩ ]
dro
[dro]
Itatian
zī
[ziː]
so
[so]
mā
[maː]
tōb
[toːb]
se
[se]
jōmi
[ˈjoːmi]
jehō
[jeˈxoː]
ipō
[ˈipoː]
am
[am]
drō
[droː]
Maroian
oƣ
[oɣ]
ķo
[co]
ŋma
[ŋma]
ćoi
[ʧɔɪ ̯]
soiz
[sɔɪ ̯z]
oimi
[ˈɔɪ ̯mi]
ńahwem
[ˈɲaxwm̩ ]
iṗoi
[ˈipʰɔɪ ̯]
asem
[ˈasem]
zaƣ
[zaɣ]
Xlacu
bi
[bi]
sku
[sku]
mu
[mu]
þobi
[ˈθobi]
će
[ʧe]
joţu
[ˈjotsu]
znâvu
[znæˈvu]
fonx
[fondz]
asu
[ˈɑsu]
xlu
[dzlu]
Numbers 1-10
Selected Vocabulary List
These words are meant to act as something of a limited Swadesh list. I have organized this
by PAX root, since there has often been significant semantic drift. It is rare for a given PAX
root to persist in all the languages discussed here, but these ones do.
• PAX amṗā, vb. [ɑmˈpʰɑː]–set down, place
– Alwakha: Əmṗo, vb. [əmˈpˀo]–give, donate
– Athmir: Bo, vb. [bo]–drop
– Demitian: Mvát, n. [ˈm̩ vɑːt]–a small table or stool
– Icnab: Împei, vb. [ɪmˈpɛɪ ̯]–organize
– Itatian: Vā(n), aux. [vaː(n)] - via the conjugation amṗāni, the perfective auxiliary
– Maroian: Iraṗa, vb. [irˈapʰa]–sabotage, undermine
– Xlacu: Ampéj, vb. [ɑmˈpej]–set down
• PAX dwinmin, n. [ˈdwinmin]–obligation, especially of a head of a household to protect
the family
– Alwakha: Dwimi, n. [ˈdwimi]–familial love
– Athmir: Ðimi, n. [ˈðimi]–blessing, boon, gift
– Demitian: Jimi, n. [ˈɟimi] –peasant; evolved via ‘obligation of protection’ Ñ ‘one
who is protected/one who needs protection’ Ñ ‘weak person’ Ñ ‘poor person’
– Icnab: Ðinmi, n. [ˈðinmi]–protection, aegis
– Itatian: Idinu, n. [iˈdinu]–oath, promise
– Maroian: Dumm, n. [dumː]–debt, obligation; especially in regard to extraordinary
actions
– Xlacu: Vinmi, n. [ˈvinmi]–deal, agreement
• PAX geprūḱ, n. –rash, skin condition
– Alwakha: Gevliu, n. [gɛvliˈu]–leprosy
Page 87
Athmo-Xlaccic
•
•
•
•
•
– Athmir: Epruakine, adj. [eˈpruəkinə] –strong, tough, hard; the origin of this
article’s title. The original word eventually evolved to mean something like ‘scab,’
and then ‘natural armor, like on an armadillo.’ This was then extrapolated into
metal armor worn by people, and the adjectival form of that has brought the
word to its current meaning.
– Demitian: Giprú, n. [ˈgipruː]–scar, mark
– Icnab: Jepr, n. [ˈʤɛpr̩] –rash
– Itatian: Anẑeprūat, vb. [andzeˈpru:.at]–to scratch an itch
– Maroian: Ģefuo, n. [ˈɟefu̯o]–pus, ooze
– Xlacu: Geprús, n. [geˈprus]–itch
PAX icwoh, adj. [ˈitswoh]–good
– Alwakha: Ćay, adj. [ʧaj]–salubrious, healthy
– Athmir: Isu-, prefix [isu]–emphatic prefix, primarily used on adjectives
– Demitian: Icva, n. [ˈitsvɑ]–charm, talisman, lucky object
– Icnab: Iþ, adj. [iθ]–skilled, good at something
– Itatian: Iswo, adj. [ˈiswo]–good
– Maroian: Isu, adj. [ˈisu]–polite, courteous
– Xlacu: Iţ, adj. [its]–good
PAX smun, n. [smun]–snake
– Alwakha: Sme, n. [smɛ]–viper
– Athmir: Þmun, n. [θmun]–adder
– Demitian: Smum, n. [smum]–non-venomous snake (general term), slang for penis
– Icnab: Smu, n. [smu]–snake
– Itatian: Osmu, n. [osˈmu]–snake
– Maroian: Mun, n. [mun]–snake
– Xlacu: Smu, n. [smu]–small snake
PAX sṗalē, n. [spʰɑˈleː]–lump, bump, mound
– Alwakha: Sṗlie, n. [spˀliˈɛ]–bump, specifically on one’s body when received from
an injury
– Athmir: Slë, n. [sleɪ ̯]–mole, boil, pimple
– Demitian: Vaľé, n. [ˈvɑlʲeː]–hill or hillock, especially manmade
– Icnab: Hwale, n. [hwaˈlɛ]–small hill, slang for breasts
– Itatian: Ispalē, n. [ispaˈleː]–pile, mound
– Maroian: Falie, n. [ˈfalɪ ̯e]–bump, mound
– Xlacu: Fale, n. [ˈfale]–pile, mound
PAX suġū, vb. [suˈgʱuː]–fall
– Alwakha: Kosuğiu, vb. [kəsuɣiˈu]–to fall ill, to get sick
– Athmir: Sujun, vb. [sʊˈʤun]–collapse
– Demitian: Ksuzúy, n. [ˈksuzuːj]–deciduous tree; via PAX æwksuġūysi ‘that which
repeatedly falls’
– Icnab: Oqsu, vb. [ɔqˈsu]–to put away, to store
– Itatian: Suvūat, vb. [suˈvuːat]–to fail
– Maroian: Suvuo, vb. [ˈsuvu̯o]–trip, stumble
– Xlacu: Suwu, vb. [ˈsuwu]–slip
PAX ṫīsīḱ, n. [ˈtʰiːsiːkʰ]–valley, gorge
– Alwakha: Ṫiċi, n. [ˈtˀitsˀi]–farm, estate
– Athmir: Tëzis, vb. [ˈteɪ ̯zɪs]–burrow, tunnel, hollow out
– Demitian: Sűžíř, n. [ˈsyːʒiːrʲ]–trench, ditch
– Icnab: Tisi, n. [ˈtisi]–inlet, fjord
– Itatian: Sīski, n. [ˈsiːski]–floodplain
– Maroian: Siśih, n. [ˈsiʃix]–valley
– Xlacu: Ţisiħ, n. [ˈtsisix]–village, small town
Page 88
• PAX ṫūmh, vb. [tʰuːmɦ]–die
– Alwakha: Ṫu, vb. [tˀu]–die
– Athmir: Þuan, vb. [ˈθuən]–die
– Demitian: Túm, vb. [tuːm]–die
– Icnab: Tum, vb. [tum]–die
– Itatian: Tūat, vb. [ˈtuːat]–to die
– Maroian: Ṫuof, vb. [tʰu̯of]–die
– Xlacu: Þu, vb. [θu] - die
• PAX wīweɋ, n. [ˈwiːweqʰ]–order, systematism
– Alwakha: Wiveẋul, vb. [ˈwivəχɔl]–put in order, organize
– Athmir: Wëwe, n. [ˈweɪ ̯wə]–organization, system
– Demitian: Vűe, n. [ˈvyːe]–treatise, formal description or argument
– Icnab: Wivi n. [ˈwivi]–agency, bureau, organization
– Itatian: Wīvga, n. [ˈwiːvga]–list
– Maroian: Iveƣ, n. [ˈiveɣ]–order, system, especially a legal system
– Xlacu: Wivej, n. [ˈwivej]–system
Page 89
Coming Attractions
Thank you for reading Segments! We hope you will join us again for Issue #12:
Supra II
The submission period will open in December 2023!
Keep your eyes out for announcements in different conlang communities with more details
on content guides, submission guidelines, deadlines, and more!
To keep with our winter tradition, we're opening the door for any conlang‐related article you
may be interested in writing! Our first Supra issue was a lot of fun, with a huge variety of
articles focused on all manner of topic, and we're hoping for another round of fun with Supra
II! Be thinking about a topic that may interest you!
See you next time!
Attribution
If you wish to cite the contents of this publication, please use the following format:
| Author, (YYYY). "Article Title," Segments (Issue##‐Article##), Month YYYY.
For instance, using Miacomet's article about Mwaneḷe in Issue #01:
| Miacomet, (2021). "Mwaneḷe Phonology," Segments (01‐02), April 2021.
All contents of this journal made available
under CC BY‐NC‐ND license
Authors retain any and all rights to their own work
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc‐nd/4.0/
Segments.
PROJECT MANAGER
LAYOUT ARTIST
EDITORS
Lysimachiakis
Slorany
Miacomet
Page Allen
Chrsevs
tryddle
Akam Chinjir
Intended as both an educational resource and a way to showcase the
best work the r/conlangs community had to offer, Segments. was
started in 2020 on an initiative by u/Lysimachiakis and u/Slorany,
with great amounts of help from the rest of the subreddit's modera‐
tion team.