Ogbami languages

Ogbami languages
Created by	Jukethatbox
Geographic distribution	western North America
Linguistic classification	One of the world's primary language families Ogbami languages
Proto-language	Proto-Ogbami
Subdivisions	North-Velar North-Uvular South-Velar South-Uvular

The Ogbami languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. Most speakers of an Ogbami language live, or are members of, the Sleeping Bull Confederacy: Indeed, the Sleeping Bull Nations of Chub, Gnu and Ma-Nojju all speak at least one Ogbami language(Chub, Gnu and Aoyého' respectively). Aoyého', as well as other Ogbami languages like Owhenda and Yañgo are also spoken in the Aoyetohu Nations, a federation in North-western Utah with ties to the first Sleeping Bull Confederacy.

Contrary to popular belief, the Tumachic languages, though influenced by many Ogbami languages, are not a member of the family itself.

The languages, though very varied, can usually be recognised by the signature nasal-plosive diphthongs, or *NC as it is often referred to for short. *NCs can be found in almost all Ogbami languages, and the sole exception, the Owhenda language, uses variations of *VNC(vowel-nasal-plosive) and *NVC(nasal-vowel-plosive).

Classification

The classification of the Ogbami languages have always been controversial. Critics have always noted the wide variety of phonology and morphology among the Ogbami languages, even though the grammar seems to be mostly be the same across the various branches of the family. Rather less logically, various Chub and Gnu nationalists have opposed the very concept of the two respective languages being part of the same family, as the Chub and the Gnu peoples have historically been bitter enemies, even under the united banner of the Sleeping Bull.

Internal classification

Even among Ogbamists, the internal classification of the Ogbami languages are a controversial topic. Though each hypothesis varies in its own way, there are two main consensuses: The North-South hypothesis, and the Velar-Uvular hypothesis.

North-South

The North-South hypothesis hypothesises that the Ogbami languages can be categorised into two main groups: the Northern Ogbami, which typically includes languages like Owhenda, Ichaéno and occasionally Yañgo, and the Southern Ogbami, which generally includes languages like Chub, Gnu and Tsansi. The Northern languages generally tend to be "labial-heavy", meaning they tend to have, as well as use, more labial sounds like /p/, /b/, /m/ and /w/ and sometimes /ʍ/. The Southern languages tend to feature more glottal sounds like /h/, /ɦ/ and /ʔ/, primarily to mark copulae. The main evidence for this theory can be found in Aoyého', a language ironically considered neither Northern nor Southern Ogbami. In Aoyého', dialects spoken in areas further north in the Aoyetohu Nations tend to feature labials more as a whole: /n/ becomes /m/ before /ɔ/, /k/ and /g/ labialise before /o~u/ and Proto-Ogbami *h- seems to have turned into /ʍ/ in words like wh’ąrkrsŋ(from Proto-Ogbami *h-əʋgʋsn).

Southern Aoyého', as fitting with general patterns among the Southern languages and the hypothesis, instead preserves the Proto-Ogbami *h-, as well as adding more /h/s to replace Proto-Ogbami *-v. There are also very few /u/s, with /o~u/ almost always taking an [o] realisation, and no consonants labialise before any vowel. Initial vowels also tend to be preceded with glottal stops(/ʔ/), though this doesn't seem to be phonemic among most dialects, though in the dialect of Stoa-Cyaoyachi, spoken in diaspora communities in Standing Coyote and the surrounding suburbs, the glottal stop seems to represent copulae, derived from Proto-Ogbami *ɥ-.

The general explanation for this pattern is that the languages experienced geographical sprachbund in the affected areas.

Velar-Uvular

The Velar-Uvular hypothesis, in opposition to the North-South hypothesis, tends to focus more on specific phonetic categories rather than geographical sprachbund. This hypothesis splits the Ogbami languages into two categories: Velar, which contains languages like Chub, Aoyého', Tsansi and Yañgo, and Uvular, which contains languages like Gnu, Ichaéno and Owhenda. As is implied in the name, Velar Ogbami languages tend to feature more prominently velar sounds like /k/, /g/, /x/ and occasionally /ɣ/ or /ɫ~ʟ/. These sounds generally correspond to Proto-Ogbami *k, *g, *x, *s̪ and *-l. Uvular Ogbami languages seem to not only preserve most of the aforementioned Proto-Ogbami sounds, but also copy and shift them to an uvular realisation, with Proto-Ogbami final *k and *x often shifting to /q/ and /χ/. A shift of Proto-Ogbami *g > /ɢ/ is rarer, but does appear in some dialects of Gnu, particularly in the east of the Gnu Nation. In Ichaéno, Proto-Ogbami *g and *x merged into /ɣ~ʁ/, as seen in Ichaéno yağwééŋ and chęğee, from Proto-Ogbami *jagoiŋm and *cųxe̥ respectively. In Gnu specifically, Proto-Ogbami *ŋ became /ɴ/.