Verse:Mwail/Ker

Proto-Trans-Sarnathian was spoken 3000-4000 years BP. The family is inspired by Sino-Tibetan and Athabaskan.

Fortunately for Angaian historical linguists, extremely conservative relatives of Thean within the Trans-Sarnathian branch are spoken in highly mountainous areas. They allow much of Proto-Trans-Sarnathian to be reconstructed.

(Proto-languages are reconstructed in-universe, but this article takes the Word of God point of view unless specified otherwise. In particular, only in-universe reconstructions are indicated with an asterisk.)

Tree

• Proto-Trans-Sarnathian
  • Old Thean (Proto-Theic)
    • Shei²¹A¹¹Mi³⁵ (Monosyllabic Navajo, kinda)
    • Middle Thean
      • Modern Thean (Loosely mono-Gwich'in)

Proto-Trans-Sarnathian phonology

Vowels

• Short vowels /i u e o a/
• Long vowels /i: u: e: o: a:/

Consonants

• /m n l r/
• /t ts̠ c k kʷ q qʷ ʔ/
• /dʰ dz̠ʰ ɟʰ gʰ gʷʰ ɢʰ ɢʷʰ/
• /tʼ ts̠ʼ cʼ kʼ kʷʼ qʼ qʷʼ/
• /s̠ ç x xʷ χ χʷ/
• /z̠ ɣ ɣʷ ʁ ʁʷ/
• /j w/

Stress

Word-final

Release

Certain (non-resonant) final consonants and clusters have audible release, whereas others are unreleased.

Released

All obst-obst clusters

All ejectives (but safe to assume single ejectives can become unreleased)

Unreleased

All single non-ejective final stops