Istion Wiki
Register
Advertisement

The Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk language is that language spoken by the ancestral peoples of the modern-day Viraayon Authority and X!aǹækikk U. It is the ancestral tongue to ’Aṣækikk, Qezayīg, and [Viraayon]. It is often referred to in shorthand as PVQ; this ‹Q› stems from the fact that ’Aṣækikk /ʔ/ comes from PVQ */qʼ/; in ’Aṣækikk, PVQ ejectives pharyngealized, with */kʼ qʼ/ → */kˤ qˤ/ → /q ʔ/, and usage of the ‹Q› is maintained for aesthetic reasons.

Phonology[]

Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk was heavily affected after ca. -1300 by Proto-Boreal, which introduced a substantial amount of new consonants. Notably absent from the original inventory were the click consonants that have become one of the major defining features of the Northern Sprachbund, themselves inherited from contact with Proto-Boreal.

Reconstructed consonantal phonology of Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk.
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ ɴ
Plosive p pʰ pʼ t tʰ tʼ c cʰ cʼ k kʰ kʼ q qʰ qʼ
Fricative s h
Affricate ts tsʰ tsʼ
Trill r
Approximant l w

Reconstructed vowel phonology of Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk.
Front Back
Close i u
Mid-Close e o
Mid-Open ɛ ɔ
Open æ ɑ

Additional consonantal phoneme acquisitions from Proto-Boreal during the Late PVQ period.
Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular
Plosive b d g ɢ
Fricative f x χ
Affricate tʃ dʒ
Click ʘ ʘ̬ ʘ̃ ǀ ǀ̬ ǀ̃ ǃ ǃ̬ ǃ̃ ǂ ǂ̬ ǂ̃

Word Order[]

Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk is reconstructed as being OVS in order and was a combination of fusional and isolating in its morphology, showing a few early signs of having a nonconcatenative triconsonantal-root-based system, although it did not itself show the degree of nonconcatenativity exhibited in its daughter languages.

Verbs[]

The majority of all words in Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk stem from verbal roots, which typically were of the form *C₁V₁C₂V₂C₃. The first vowel typically functioned as a mood or connotational marker, the second serving as a marker of tense.

Mood-marking by PVQ *V₁.
Vowel Mood
Indicative
Conative
*i Intensive/Emphatic
Stative, mode of becoming
*u Causative

Tense-marking by PVQ *V₂.
Vowel Tense
Past
Present
*o Future

There were a series of postpositive particles that served to mark voice and perfectivity.

Reconstructed PVQ voice markers.
Particle Voice
Active
*sɛ Mediopassive
*si Passive
*i Reflexive
Reciprocal

The particle */ɑ/ is believed to have marked perfectivity.

Negation of the verb was accomplished with a prepositive particle */is/.

The order of the verb phrase would have been thus (where parentheses mark an optional segment):

(NEG) CVCVC VOX (PRF)

Nouns and Adjectives[]

Nouns and adjectives in Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk were formed from the selfsame stems as the verbs were. Nounal and adjectival morphology are identical, so that one might analyze nouns as simply being substantive adjectives (or adjectives nouns in apposition). Most deverbals were infixes. Number was not marked on nouns; adjectives succeeded the nouns.

Reconstructed PVW deverbals.
Deverbal form Nominalization
*C₁V₁C₂sV₂C₃ Agentive/Mediopassive
*C₁V₁C₂V₂sisC₃ Patientive
*C₁V₁C₂ɴV₂C₃ Reflexive
*C₁V₁C₂swV₂C₃ Reciprocal
*C₁V₁C₂V₂C₃wi Place of
*C₁V₁C₂V₂C₃ɴɑ Time of

Roots to which the latter two deverbal suffixes had been affixed could optionally be followed by ordinary verbal voice suffixes.

Cases[]

There were two types of cases reconstructed for PVQ: Morphosyntactic markers and spatiotemporal markers. These markers always succeeded the noun they modified.

Reconstructed PVQ morphosyntactic markers.
Marker Function
*ɴu Comparative
*sɔɴ Dative
*ɴɑ Genitive
*si Instrumental
*ilɑ

Partitive


Reconstructed PVQ spatiotemporal markers.
Marker Function
*ŋæ Ablative
*sɛŋ Adessive
*cɛ Allative
*ri Comitative
*sɔ Orientative
*cʼæ Prosecutive
*uqʼi Revertative

The comitative was used in place of "and" and inclusive "or". Exclusive "or" was a postpositive conjunction *estɛ.

Comparison[]

Comparison was indicated with the following particle preposed to a noun or adjective in the comparative.

Reconstructed PVQ comparison markers.
Marker Comparison
he Most
tʰe More
Ø Equal/As…as
lis Less
i Least

Pronouns[]

The pronouns in PVQ were are reconstructed as follows. They could apparently have taken the same nounal/adjectival case-marker suffixes as described above as well.

Reconstructed pronoun forms in PVQ.
Reconstructed Pronoun Person
*kʰæ 1P
*soqʼ 2P
*tær

3P

Numbers[]

Numbers were formed from triconsonantal stems as well, but showed a morphology much more similar to the modern-day attested root-based morphologies. Numerical stems could also fit into other categories and make verbs, nouns, &c.

Reconstructed number forms in PVQ.
Form Function
*ɑC₁C₂ɛC₃ Cardinal
*iC₁ɔC₂C₃ɑ Ordinal
*ɔC₁oC₂ɑC₃i n times
*C₁ɛC₂C₃ɑ (for) the nth time

Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk counted in base six.

Adverbials[]

There were two types of adverbs, those modifying verbs and those modifying adjectives or other adverbs. Adverbs followed the modified word.

Reconstructed PVQ adverbials.
Form Modifies
ɑsC₁V₁C₂V₂C₃ Verbs
C₁V₁C₂suhV₂C₃ Adjectives and other adverbs


Determiners[]

There were four degrees of proximity in Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk determiners, and two numbers; determiners were the only grammatical category which marked number. The determiner occurred in the final position when in the noun phrase.

Proximity Singular form Plural form
Immediate *uh *tʰi
Proximal *ɑs *tʰe
Medial *ɑm *sɑ
Distal *ɑl *su

Reconstructed Vocabulary and Roots[]

See Appendix:Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk roots and lexicon

Advertisement