Roshterian/Proto-Roshterian

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Old Roshterian is the reconstructed intermediate stage between Proto-Talmic and Roshterian. It was spoken approximately at the same time Thensarian was spoken.

  • stress shift to penultimate (endings have not dropped completely yet)
    • yields Modern Roshterian ultimate stress
  • Old Irishy allomorphy
  • ā >

Some words

  • φlat-nəm "seed" > Old Roshterian *ḽatnə > laaṉ "child (offspring)"
  • tekts "child" > Old Roshterian *tejṱ, tejs- > ṯeit, ṯeis- "child (young human)"
  • bonditejṱiə, bondejṱiə, bnejṱiə "child-bearer, child-rearer, babysitter" > breit, breiti- "woman"
  • soliθe > OR höḽiṱe "5" > helit, lite-
  • kabnənts > OR kabrəṋs "woman" > (lost)
  • snuwem "round" > OR nǖ "fat" > ṉii "big"
  • mārom "tree" > OR miəro "tree" > miar
  • dēdī > dēdii "tears" > ḏeeḏ
  • gwaθwā > baṱu "throat" > batu
  • nā > ṋiə "I" > nia
  • som, sam > hum "he"
  • sausmam > hauma "moon" > hoom
  • sk, st > ść, st > OR sṱ, st > st, s̱ṯ
  • Final -r has been deleted in endings

Phonology

Vowels

a e i o u ə ö ü ā ē ī ō ū ȫ ǖ iə uə aj ej öj uj iw

ȫ > aa in later Roshterian; aa also emerges from CL

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Medial Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal *m *ṋ *n
Plosive voiceless *p *ṱ *t *k *q
voiced *b *ḓ *d *g
Fricative voiceless *s *h
voiced
Resonant *w *ḽ *l, *r *y

Stress

The initial stress in Proto-Talmic had shifted to penultimate by Pre-Roshterian. (becomes ultimate stress in Roshterian after final vowels are deleted)

Morphology

Nouns

Case? Maybe just absolute/construct

ḽatnə 'seed'
Construct Singular Plural
ḽatnai ḽatnə hēḽatnə

Nouns also have an incorporated form, used when the noun is used in noun incorporation.

Verbs

Verbs have absolute and conjunct stems, much like in Old Irish. With a preverb or an incorporandum (incorporated noun stem), the conjunct form is used.

The process of attaching preverbs such as prepositions to verbs was productive in Proto-Talmic, which then was repurposed for applicatives and for noun incorporation in Old Roshterian [unlike in Thensarian which took a path more akin to IE languages].

The forms came from the following stress pattern:

Verb stress patterns in Pre-Roshterian [immediately after stress shift]
preverb first ... penult final
Absolute - secondary unstressed primary unstressed
Conjunct secondary unstressed unstressed primary unstressed

Handwave: This creates a succession of unstressed syllables in the conjunct form which gets smooshed together in Old Roshterian. Or maybe no syncope, but some sort of vowel harmonization

Examples:

Person ṋoṱiəṋi "I rest" (independent) mī-ṋṱiəṋi "I do not rest" (dependent)
1SG ṋoṱiəṋi mī-ṋṱiəṋi
2SG ṋoṱiəri mī-ṋṱiəri
3SG.M ṋoṱiəmi mī-ṋṱiəmi
3SG.F ṋoṱiəsi mī-ṋṱiəsi
3SG.N ṋoṱiə mī-ṋṱiə
1EX ṋoṱiəmē mī-ṋṱiəmē
1IN ṋoṱiəṋṱi mī-ṋṱiəṋṱi
2PL ṋoṱiəsṱe mī-ṋṱiəsṱe
3PL ṋoṱiəṱi mī-ṋṱiəṱi

For verbs that already have a preverb, this works a little differently:

Pronouns

Singular Plural
1 *ṋiə *iəm
1 + 2 ???
2 *wēr ???
3 (masculine) *hum ???
3 (feminine) *hī
3 (inanimate) *he
4 (obviative) *pī