Proto-Rathmosian

Phonology and Orthography

Consonants

Consonant Inventory

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m		n
Plosive	p	b	t	d			k	g
Fricative	ɸ		s				x
Trill				r
Approximant		w				j
Lateral app.				l

Consonants are generally single. The only consonant combinations permitted within a morpheme (either a root or an affix) are consonant + liquid (/l/ or /r/) at the start of a syllable and semivowel (/j/ or /w/) + consonant at the end of a syllable. Other combinations and geminate consonants may occur across syllable boundaries as a result of affixation and compounding.

The following processes of assimilation occur when certain sounds come into contact across syllables:

• voiced plosives /b, d, g/ are devoiced before voiceless plosives or fricatives /p, t, k, ɸ, s, x/.
• voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ are voiced before voiced plosives and nasals /b, d, g, n, m/.
• /t/ and /d/ assimilate to any following plosive or /n/
• /n/ assimilate to a following liquid /l, r/.

Vowels

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i u e ə a
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

The primary vowels /a, e, i, u/ may be long or short, but /ə/ is always short. Long vowels within the roots of words are originally the result of derivation from an active to a passive root, e.g. ker- "rule" > keer- "(is) ruled", but subsequent development of the derivatives of long and short roots has led to vowel length being phonemicised.

The semi-vowels /j/ and /w/ may occur after any vowel, effectively creating diphthongs, though for the purposes of syllable structure these are analysed as combinations of vowel + consonant: /aj, ej, uj, ij, əj, aw, ew, uw, iw, əw/. The combinations /ij/ and /uw/ may be analysed as [iː] and [uː]. The primary vowels may still be lengthened in these combinations, e.g. aay /aːj/, eew /eːw/. /iːj/ and /uːw/ are therefore equivalent of [iːː], [uːː].

Orthography

Proto-Rathmosian is written with the Roman alphabet using the following graphs.

a b d e f g h i k l m n p r s t u w y ə

The following table shows the sound to spelling correspondences:

graph	a	aa	b	d	e	ee	f	g	h	i	ii	k	l	m	n	p	r	s	t	u	uu	w	y	ə
IPA	a	aː	b	d	e	eː	ɸ	g	x	i	iː	k	l	m	n	p	r	s	t	u	uː	w	j	ə

Syllables and Roots

Words are constructed from a root plus various derivational or morphological affixes. Roots are almost always monosyllabic and must begin and end with a consonant. They may take one of the following forms:

• CVC, e.g. ret- 'go, move', ker- "rule"
• CLVC, in which L represents a liquid (l or r), e.g. glis- 'live, stay', mlak- "be dead"
• CVGC , in which G represents a glide (w or y), e.g. tiyk- 'touch, feel', reyk- "love"
• CLVGC, e.g. trayh- "strangle, choke", sluyn- "seep, ooze".

Affixes may be V, VC, C, CV, CVC.

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns belong to one of three classes and are declined into eight cases and three numbers.

Noun Classes

Nouns are divided into two main classes: animate and inanimate. The fundamental distinction between these two classes is that animate nouns may be the agent of a verb, i.e. they may actively carry out the action of a verb, whilst inanimate nouns may not. Animate nouns therefore include all humans, deities and spirits, animals and certain celestial bodies such as belan "the sun". Inanimate nouns include all other common objects, plants and abstracts.

The class of animate nouns is further divided into masculine and common nouns. The distinction is based on natural gender, so that all male humans, deities and spirits are masculine, as are male animals where the sex is known. All other animate nouns are common. Masculine nouns are generally marked forms, with a base form usually ending in l or k. Thus, ker means "ruler; queen" and is common, but keril means "lord, king" and is masculine.

Summary of Noun Classes

Animate	Common	Female humans, deities and spirits; female animals and those with unspecified gender
Masculine	Male humans, deities and spirits; specifically male animals
Inanimate	All plants and non-living objects; abstracts

Case

Nouns are declined according to eight cases:

• Absolutive denotes the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb.
• Ergative denotes the subject of a transitive verb.
• Dative denotes the indirect object of a verb and describes motion towards.
• Genitive denotes the possessor of an object.
• Ablative denotes motion away from.
• Instrumental denotes use of.
• Locative denotes location in, at or on.
• Comitative denotes location with or beside.

Number

There are three numbers: singular, plural and collective, the last of which may denote a discrete group of objects or a class as a whole.

Inflexion

Animate Common (negu "woman")

	Singular	Plural	Collective
Absolutive	-	negu	-ṷa	neguṷa	-r	negur
Ergative	-s	negus	-ns	neguns	-ru	neguru
Dative	-(i̯)ep	negui̯ep	-nep	negunep	-rep	negurep
Genitive	-i	negui̯	-ni	neguni	-ri	neguri
Ablative	-ta	neguta	-nta	negunta	-rta	negurta
Instrumental	-ra	negura	-rra	negurra	-rra	negurra
Locative	-(i̯)en	negui̯en	-nen	negunen	-ren	neguren
Comitative	-kun	negukun	-nkun	negunkun	-rkun	negurkun