Proto-North-Rttirrian

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Proto-North-Rttirrian is the reconstructed common ancestor of the North branch of the Rttirrian family of languages, and a direct descendant of Proto-Rttirrian. It was likely spoken around 300–400 CE in present-day Myanmar. It is notable for the Semitic-like root-and-pattern verbal system it was beginning to develop out of the more normal inflectional system of Proto-Rttirrian.

History

See also: Proto-Rttirrian

Proto-North-Rttirrian descended from Proto-Rttirrian. A summary of the major changes from Proto-North-Rttirrian follows:

  • The old animacy system stopped being used to distinguish nouns or pronouns. However, the old third-person animacy affixes were reanalyzed as reflecting a different kind of verb, and innovated first-person and second-person verb inflections for this kind of verb as well. This new verb class, called Form II verbs by convention, represented a more mild meaning than Form I verbs. This represents a rudimentary form of what would grow into a complicated root-and-pattern inflectional system reminiscent of those of the Semitic languages.
  • The "fourth tense" from Proto-Rttirrian, whose original function is unknown, became a sort of infitinive or verbal noun mechanism.
  • The old consonant transcribed as *l1 mutated to /x/ and devoiced all adjacent consonants, while the old consonant *l2 simply disappeared.
  • Adjacent to both *l1 and *l2, vowels mutated:
  • */ä/ > /ɔ/
  • */i/ > /e/
  • */u/ > /o/
  • Similarly, when adjacent to the approximant /j/, */a/ raised to /e/ and */u/ lowered to /o/. */a/ also raised to /e/ when adjacent to a fricative, and */u/ lowered past /o/ to /ɔ/ when adjacent to */k/ and */g/.
  • The affricate /t͡ʃ/ shifted to /ʃ/. A voiced complement, /ʒ/, was formed by most instances of /z/ when adjacent to /i/, /e/, or /j/.
  • */w/ merged into the fricative /β/.

Phonology

Consonants

Proto-North-Rttirrian possessed the following consonants:

Labial Alveolar Palatal-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Retroflex
Nasal *m /m/ *n /n/ *rn /ɳ/
Plosive *p /p/
*b /b/
*t /t/
*d /d/
*k /k/
*g /g/
*rt /ʈ/
*rd /ɖ/
Fricative *f /ɸ/
*v /β/
*s /s/
*z /z/
*sh /ʃ/
*zh /ʒ/
kh /x/
Approximant *y /j/ *rl /ɭ/
*rr /ɻ/

Vowels

The following vowels had evolved from the much simpler system of Proto-Rttirrian:

Front Central Back
High *i /i/ *u /u/
Mid-high *e /e/ *o /o/
Low-mid *â /ɔ/
Low *a /ä/

Grammar

Proto-North-Rttirrian retained much of the inflectional complexity of Proto-Rttirrian, although its verbal affixes were starting to become more regularized and clearly separated between Form I and Form II.

Verbs

The following verb prefixes are reconstructed:

Verb Form I Verb Form II
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
Sing. Pl. Sing. Pl. Sing. Pl. Sing. Pl. Sing. Pl. Sing. Pl.
Past *mo- *mom- *ap- *am- *bo- *bom- *mopa- *mobam- *apa- *abam- *papa- *babam-
Present *na- *nam- *af- *sam- *kha- *khem- *narda- *nardam- *arda- *sardam- *rdarda- *rdardam-
Future *ne- *mi- *ke- *mi- *khe- *mi- *nerdi- *mirdi- *kerdi- *mirdi- *rdirdi- *mirdi-
Gerund/
Infinitive
*ân- *âm- *âk- *âm- *ekh- *âm- *ânârd- *âmâm- *âkârd- *âmâm- *ârdârd- *âmâm-

Form II verb prefixes enacted some degree of ablaut on verbs:

*Mo-i-viti gyo.
1SG.NOM.PST.Form_I-TRANS-drag 3SG.ACC
I dragged it.
*Mopa-ya-vata gyo.
1SG.NOM.PST.Form_II-TRANS-drag 3SG.ACC
I tugged on it.
*Ân-kaba
1SG.GER.Form_I-stop
that I stop abruptly
*Ânârd-kâbâ
1SG.GER.Form_II-stop
that I slow to a halt

Nouns

The following noun suffixes are reconstructed:

Singular Plural
Normal Diminutive Normal Diminutive
Nominative *-a *-ma *-maz
Accusative
(vestigial)
*-i/*-y *-ey/*-y *-mi *-mizh

The following pronouns are reconstructed:

1st 2nd 3rd
Sing. Pl. Sing. Pl. Sing. Pl.
Nominative
(emphatic)
*naku *napu *atu *saku *âtu *âku
Accusative *ni *mey *ki *ksey *gyo *goy
Possessive
noun prefix
*na- *mi- *ak- *sa- *â- *e-