Nentan languages

Nenta (IPA: [ˌnɛntaꜜ]) is a kanva language family whose languages are primarily spoken in northern Quillan.

Kanvas are a species of cat-like anthropomorphic beings unique to Spectradom, the world in which this language family is placed, and the languages in the family reflect that in some ways.

Included languages

• Classical Nenta
  • Old Rokadong
    • (Middle) Rokadong
      (split further into Modern Rokadong, Ahotelan, etc., but the similarities here are numerous enough these are usually considered dialects of one language)
    • Kailtelan (extinct sister language to Kairitelan)
    • Kairitelan
  • Karanesa / Middle Nenta (as it appears to be the least divergent descendant of Classical Nenta to this point)
    • Imperial Karanesa
      • Karane-Puram (creole between Old Karanesa and Old or Middle Rokadong)
        • (Modern) Karroka
      • Pre-Exchange Karanesa
        • New Karanesa (also called New Nenta)
• Old High Kanafan
  • Calienayan
  • Yudirayan
• Old Low Kanafan
  • Citalian
  • Kanaskulypian

Shared characteristics

Most Nentan languages share a series of plosives at the labial, alveolar, velar, and some guttural place of articulation. In Middle Rokadong, these are /p t k ʔ/ and the voiced equivalents /b d g/. However, as seen in the more popular Modern Rokadong dialects and post-Imperial Karanesa, the guttural plosive is not stable, at least for the Rokaselan and Karanesan subfamilies. New Karanesa in particular lost its reflex of /ʔ/, but regained the sound through later loans. They also exhibit agglutinative morphology and Austronesian alignment.

Proto-Nenta

From modern and historic data on the various languages of Quillan, the language Proto-Nenta can be reconstructed. It is thought to have been spoken along the coast of the modern day Wassecola Bay, despite the name of its family being derived from the Neneta Peninsula. Proto-Nenta is usually considered to be the western dialect of Proto-Nencali, with the eastern dialect descending into the Caligan languages, such as Sãdenyan.

Ideally, Proto-Nenta should be the ancestor of Classical Nenta and both families of Kanafan. However, given the Kanafan subfamilies only have contemporaneous attestation from late Classical Nentan/early Middle Nenta sources, the weight to place on Low and High Kanafan languages varies among different analyses.

Phonology

Main article: Proto-Nenta phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

	Labial		Alveolar		Velar		Post-velar
Nasal		m		n		ŋ
Stop	p	b	t	d	k	g	q
Fricative			s		x
Approximant				l
Rhotic				r₁				r₂

Notes

• Proto-Nenta is typically considered a CCV language, where any singular consonant, any plosive before /x/, and any plosive after /s/ is allowed. Null onset is also allowed, though in Classical Nenta these seem to have become coda approximants. As the consonant clusters near-universally simplified, however, sometimes these clusters are considered a single consonant.
• The uvular consonants reconstructed for Proto-Nencalan have been merged into the velar consonants. The so-called "uvular stop" shown above corresponds to the Proto-Nencali glottal stop /ʔ/, though its value is uncertain, as it has glottal reflexes in Old Rokadong, but uvular in ancient Kanafan, and freely-varying in Karanesa. The use of the uvular stop letter is also partially a matter of convenience, as it is more difficult to type ʔ than q.
• The two rhotic consonants here are present because while evidence from Old Rokadong, modern Kairitelan, New Karanesa, and even some Caligan languages show two rhotic phonemes - with Old Rokadong in particular having /r ʀ/ as its two rhotics - the exact values they correspond to further back in the timeline is uncertain. In the case of Proto-Nenta, one of the rhotics, typically notated r₁ or just r, is said to be derived from a Proto-Nencali r, typically characterized as an alveolar trill, as it corresponds to Old Rokadong /r/. The second rhotic, r₂, is the reconstruction given for Old Rokadong /ʀ/, but its value in Proto-Nenta is unclear. Proto-Nencali is usually reconstructed with two uvular fricatives, /χ ʁ/, the former of which is said to correspond to Proto-Nenta /x/. However, where /ʁ/ ended up is uncertain. It is a candidate for r₂, but then, it could also have become a voiced velar fricative, as seen in Karane-Puram. Or, seeing as no Nentan language is known to have both /ɣ/ and two rhotics except New Karanesa, it could be that /ɣ/ is instead descended from a uvular r₂. In acknowledgement of this issue, some Proto-Nentan reconstructions have, either instead of or in addition to r₁ and r₂, a second velar fricative, corresponding to a Proto-Nenta /ɣ/, is added. Usually the two velar fricatives are represented as <h x>.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front		Back
Close	i₁	i₂	u₁	u₂
Mid	e		o
Open	a₁	a₂	a₃	a₄

Notes

• There are two /i/ and /u/ phonemes, both of which are considered a carryover from Proto-Nencali. The 2-variants color the consonant before them, while the 1-variants do not. The exact value of each /i/ and /u/ is unknown, but a popular reconstruction from Quillan linguist Kuila Júnakoromiyo lists them as /i₁ i₂ u₁ u₂/ [ij je uw wo]. This reconstruction is popular because it also aligns with the common reconstructions for /a₂ a₄/. However, other common reconstructions are [iː ej uː ow], [ɪ i ʊ u], or any combination. What is more certain is that /i₂ u₂/ evolved into consonant-coloring /ʲi₁ ʷu₁/ in Classical Nenta or Old Rokadong.
• There are also four /a/ phonemes, so noted because all four have turned into /a/ in all members of the Rokaselan subfamily and Karane-Puram. Unlike /i/ and /u/, the four /a/ phonemes see relative agreement as to their values. /a₁ a₃/ are unambiguously front and back. /a₂ a₄/ are effectively equivalent to /ja₁ wa₃/; the same applies here as did to /i₂ u₂/.
• However, the exact values of the open vowels are a little unclear as well, namely in the height dimension. Proto-Nencali is typically reconstructed with two open and two open-mid vowels: /ɛ æ ɔ ɑ/. It is evident that these merged into two vowels, notated a₁ and a₃, but the exact relationship is unclear. As open consonants seem to be more common in 6-vowel languages than open-mid consonants, [æ ɑ] are the more popular pair, but the expected /a₄/ form [jɑ] is written with an /o/ diacritic in Classical Nenta, so either in Proto-Nenta itself or by the time of Classical Nenta, it is likely that a₄ and possibly even a₂ were instead forms of [ɔ]. Júnakoromiyo's reconstruction gives the four antecedents of Modern Rokadong /a/ the values [æ jɛ ɒ ɥɔ], but even he notes that "realistically, these could be the complete reverse, [ɛ jæ ɔ ɥɒ], and it is unlikely that a certain decision will be possible on the matter." In fact, that exact analysis was espoused by one of Júnakoromiyo's contemporaries, Dr. Bik Amaril.