Proto-Almaic

Proto-Almean is the common ancestor of all the Almean languages, a family of languages widespreas in the Yolder and Ausmiran continents.

Proto-Almean is estimated to have been spoken from around 5000 to 3500 a.E., and it's original homeland may have been the Almeran plains from which the language derives its name. Its descendant languages include Angaran and Yohari.

Phonemic inventory

Consonants

	Labial		Alveolar		Palat.	Velar		Uvular		Glot.
	unv.	vce.	unv.	vce.	vce.	unv.	vce.	unv.	vce.	unv.
Nasal		m		n	ɲ
Ejectives	p’		t’			k’
Stops	p	b	t	d		k	g	q		ʔ
Fricatives	f	v	s	z		x				h
Liquids				l					ʀ

Vowels

	Front	Center	Back
	rnd	unr.	unr.
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

Syllable structure

((h)C) V (N)

• C: a consonant, which may be pre-aspirated word-medially.
• V: a vowel
• N: is a nasal consonant with unspecified place of articulation.

Prosody

Stress usually falls on the second to last syllable, unless the word ends in a nasal vowel or preaspirates suffixes, in which case it falls on the last syllable.

Syntax

WALS Ch.	Structure	Examples
WALS 81 - 84	SOVX, SXOV	— [S: the dog] [O: the cat] [V: chases] [X: to the tree] — [S: the dog] [X: to the tree] [O: the cat] [V: chases]
WALS 85	Prepositions	— [PP: to] [N: the tree]
WALS 86	Genitive Noun	— [G: the cat's] [N: toy]
WALS 87	Noun Adjective	— [N: dog] [Adj: big]
WALS 88	Noun Demonstrative	— [N: dog] [Dem: that]
WALS 89	Numeral Noun	— [Num: three] [N: balls]
WALS 90	Noun Relative?, Correlative?	?
WALS 94	Internal subordinator word	— [S: the dog] [Adv: if] [V: sees]
WALS 100	Active alignment	— [Act: the dog] [Pas: the cat] [V: chases] — [Act: the dog] [V: walks] — [Pas: the cat] [V: falls]

Grammar

Pronouns

• sa – I (1st p. singular)
• sana – we (1st p. plural inc.)
• sado – we (1st p. plural excl.)
• ika – you (2nd p. singular)
• ikana – you (2nd p. dual)
• ikado – you (2nd p. plural)
• go – he/she (3rd p. singular)
• gona – they (3rd p. dual)
• godo – they (3rd p. plural)
• a – it/that (3rd p. singular)
• ahdo – they/those (3rd p. dual)
• ahna – they/those (3rd p. plural)

Determiners

Only an indefinite article is used

Number

Marked by particles, three different forms: singular, dual, plural

Tenses

Present, unmarked; past and habitual, regularly marked by affixes; future

Samples

Tenju ohdattali sin
/ˈte.ɲu oh.daˈt’a.li sĩ/

tenju	oh-dattali	sin
mister	indf-animal	see

“The mister sees an animal”

???
/???/

?	oh-?	oh-?	?	?	?	?	?	oh-?	to	?	sin
On	indf-hill,	indf-sheep	rel	wool	neg	pst	have	indf-horse	pl	pst	see,

“On a hill, a sheep that had no wool saw horses, …”

On a hill, a sheep that had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses: "My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses." The horses said: "Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool." Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.