User:Waahlis/Proto-Jivan: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 07:20, 11 September 2013

Based on the works and the field studies of the linguists John G. Crossing and James Mitchell, there have been many attempts to reconstruct the hypothesised Proto-Jivan language, the supposed ancestor of the Ris and Kiwi languages.

Phonology

Vowels

The Proto-Jivan phonology has turned out to be fairly straight-forward, and its vowels were the first to be deciphered.

Jivan vowel accordance
Proto-Jivan Ris Kiwi Niki
*a a a
*a: ā ā
*ay
*e a, ∅ a, e
*e: ā i
*ey
a, ∅ a, o
*ə: e e
*əy
*i i i
*i: ī, i ī
*iy
*u u u
*u: ū ū
*uy

Consonants

The Proto-Jivan consonants are much more of an ordeal to reconstruct. Both Ris and Kiwi turned out to massacre the consonants, whilst the Niki language seems to have retained more of the consonants than the vowels.

Jivan consonant accordance
Proto-Jivan Ris Kiwi Niki
*m
*n
*b
*bʰ
*tʰ
*t
*tʷ
*tʰ
*d
*dʷ
*dʰ
*k
*kʷ
*kʰ
*g
*gʷ
*gʰ
*r

Ris

Sound changes

The following sound changes are hypothesised to have occured in the Ris language.

  • C[+plos +asp -lab] > C[+plos +asp -lab] /_
  • C[+plos -asp -lab] > C[+plos -asp -lab] /#_
  • V > V: /_V(V[+lost])
  • a(:) > a(:) /_
  • h > ḥ /_
  • ə > a /_
  • əy > ə /C[+lab]_C
  • C[-plos]əC[+plos] > C[+plos]əC[-plos] /_C
  • ə > ∅ /C_C[+trill]
  • kʷ > v /#_
(kʷ > kv > hv > v)
  • kʷ > w /V_V
  • wV > w /V_C
  • tʷ > ṛ /V_V
  • i: > i /_
  • C[+plos -asp -lab] > t /V_i
  • e: > a: /C[+lab]_