Naengic languages

The Ashanic languages form a subbranch of the Lakovic languages. It includes some of the most spoken Lakovic languages, such as Windermere. It is characterized by some shared innovations:

1. The Ashanic Vowel Shift: A chain vowel shift ä > a > o > u > ü.
2. An associative plural *φam which could be used after a noun.
3. A full set of personal pronouns, with an associative plural suffix in the 2nd and 3rd person plural and a grammaticalization of *θ2iisa 'this side' for 1st person exclusive.
4. A 4-tense system of past, present, future and imperative/subjunctive.
5. Likely: Preposed possessive pronouns.

Proto-Ashanic phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Domed	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/			ŋ /ŋ/
Stop	plain	p /p/	t /t/			k /k/	ʔ /ʔ/
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/			g /g/
Fricative			s /s̻/	ś /s̺/	š /ʃ/		h /h/
Affricate			c /ts̻/	ć /ts̺/	(č /tʃ/)
Approximant		w /w/	l /l/	r /r/	y /j/

Vowels

Proto-Ashanic had 6 vowels and register tone:

i ü u e o a = /i y u e o a/

ì ǜ ù è ò à = /i y u e o a/ + breathy voice

Phonotactics

Final consonant clusters were allowed, unlike in Windermere; they are the source of final voiced stops in Windermere.

Prefinal syllables only allowed the vowels /a i u/.

Stress

Stress was likely on the final syllable.

Grammar

Both the trigger system, gender, and TAM were still productive. Windermere and Ciêng both fossilized all of this morphology, but in a different order.

• Classical Windermere fossilized the trigger system first.
• Ciêng lost the aspect inflections first and the remaining morphology was quickly lost (and tonogenesis happened easily), as it was derivational.