Proto-Quame

Proto-Quihum/Lexicon

Proto-Quihum/Swadesh list

Proto-Quihum is the reconstructed common ancestor of all Quihum languages. It's inspired by Proto-Indo-European. It's thought to have been spoken 6000 years before present. The main source languages for the reconstruction of PQ are Thensarian, Wiobian, and Sjowaazheñ.

Phonology

Consonants

The following inventory of consonants is reconstructed for PQ and is now accepted by the majority of scholars.

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
					plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Nasal		*m	*n
Plosive	plain	*p	*t, *c		*k	*kʷ	*q	*qʷ	*ʔ
	voiced	*b	*d, *dz		*g	*gʷ	*ɢ	*ɢʷ
	breathy voiced	*bʰ	*dʰ, *dzʰ		*gʰ	*gʷʰ	*ɢʰ	*ɢʷʰ
Fricative			*s		*x	*xʷ	*x̌ /χ/	*x̌ʷ /χʷ/	*h
Resonant			*l, *r	*y /j/		*w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	*i ī		*u ū
Mid	*e *ē	*ə
Open		*a *ā

Suprasegmentals

Stress was phonemic.

Phonotactics

Rules:

• When initial reduplication occurs, glottalized initials deglottalize.

Grammar

Typology

The basic word order was V2, modifier-modified (like German).

Ablaut

Much like in PIE, PQ had an ablaut system where roots (usually of 2 or 3 consonants) were inflected in different ablaut grades.

Functions of ablaut

• Noun inflections
• Verb inflections
• Verb "binyanim"
• Deriving nouns and verbs

Ablaut grades

• a-grade: present tense
• i-grade: preterite tense
• ə-grade: verbal noun
• u-grade
• ∅-grade: verbal noun; many derived stems
• lengthened grades: various verb aspects/voices

Nominals

Nouns had:

• two states: absolute and construct.
• two cases: nominative and genitive.
• two numbers: singular and plural. There was also a third number, the collective, formed by reduplication of the first syllable.

There was a noun class system with 10 noun classes.

Possible declensions:

• a-stems
• x̌-stems
• i-stems
• u-stems
• consonant stems
• heteroclitic stems: r/s

Noun class 1

Animate masculine.

Noun class 2

Animate feminine.

Verbs

Verbs were conjugated for subject, object, aspect, and mood (but not for voice).

Should be Native American-ish

• Subject agreement: For each pronoun, and gender in 3rd person
• Aspects: present, preterite, stative
• Moods: indicative, subjunctive, jussive, imperative

Some etymologies

• wel-i- = name