Proto-Yeldhic: Difference between revisions

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Line 47: Line 47:
! rowspan=2 | Plosive
! rowspan=2 | Plosive
! pulmonic
! pulmonic
| *p *b || *ṱ *ḓ || *t *d || || *k *g || *c || *q *ḡ || || rowspan=6 | *ʕ, *ʕʷ
| *p *b || || *t *d || || *k *g || *c || *q *ḡ || || rowspan=6 | *ʕ, *ʕʷ
|-
|-
! aspirated
! aspirated
| *pʰ *bʰ || *ṱʰ *ḓʰ || *tʰ *dʰ || || *kʰ *gʰ ||  || *qʰ *ḡʰ ||
| *pʰ *bʰ || || *tʰ *dʰ || || *kʰ *gʰ ||  || *qʰ *ḡʰ ||
|-
|-
! colspan=2 | Nasal
! colspan=2 | Nasal
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! rowspan=2 | Fricative
! rowspan=2 | Fricative
! pulmonic
! pulmonic
| || *þ *ð || *s *z || *š *ž || *x *ɣ || || || *h
| || *θ *ð || *s *z || *š *ž || *x *ɣ || || || *h
|-
|-
! palatalised
! palatalised

Revision as of 11:16, 14 May 2024

Proto-Yeldhic
PY
Created byJukethatbox
Reconstruction ofYeldhic
Region"Bauba", Quartenary Radael[1]
Era10,000 UH-3,000 UH
Reconstructed
ancestor
Proto-Baubaic(?)
Lower-order reconstructions
  • Proto-Gadaïc
  • Proto-Ilda-Maranösic
  • Paleoyeldhic
  • Proto-Ossic
  • Proto-Ulmic

Proto-Yeldhic, often shortened to PY, is a reconstructed proto-language of the Yeldhic language family. It is the ultimate root of 86% of Talkochian languages, and is the equivalent of Proto-Indo-European in real life.

The proto-language originates in the work of Arnic linguist Môhwod ða-Téfir, who first formulated the Yeldha Language Theory, which proposed that many very different languages in Talkoch actually descended from one singular language family, which he called the Yeldhic language family after Ancient Yeldha, which he initially believed was the original source of the Yeldhic languages.

Although the theory was initially ridiculed, fellow Tiragii linguist and calligrapher Dól-Pŷçkevç began to find a lot of evidence supporting Téfir's theory. Eventually, Téfir was on his deathbed, and he doubled down on his theory by collaborating with Pŷçkevç as well as other prominent linguists to form the first version of Proto-Yeldhic. Shortly after Téfir's death, the Késkéanya Fûhraritat, the linguistic authority of his home country of Arnah, finally accepted the theory as "very probable".

The main evidence towards the Proto-Yeldhic hypothesis is mostly described in Téfir's initial work on the subject, wriṱen in Moshurian and published in Taráhus due to political instability in his home country, the Tezyém Yéleduhir. In short, Téfir observed that several morphological, phonemic and phonetic similarities could be found within his proposed Yeldhic family of languages.

Variations

The idea of a universal Yeldhic language was floated around for centuries, with the Ildan cosmopolitans, led by Iptor, first theorising a sort of "umbrella language"(vloskās danibāsku) in 1900 BH, so as to unite the many languages of Ilda and Maranösia.

As such, though Téfir's work is the most cited and the most detailed and probable, there are many variations of what one could consider an aṱempted "Proto-Yeldhic" language, both before and after Téfir.

Zeror's variation

While in the Ildasia secret society, Zeror came upon Iptor's work on the umbrella language, known as the Glossology(Ilda: vloskātia). Intrigued by the cosmopolitan's research, after further researching other languages, he wrote his own Glossology in 191 UH, further developing Iptor's original idea. However, Zeror, though talented, was also quite biased, and thus his Glossology was heavily inspired by Ilda, without really taking into account other languages, save for the reconstructed word here and there.

However, though his work was flawed, it did set the precedent for the development of Proto-languages in Radael. For example, conventions such as marking reconstructed words with an asterisk(*) originates in Zeror's Glossology, as well as even the entire concept of comparative reconstruction to find the original root of a word.

For example, the word *vudas, meaning "sheep", was reconstructed from Ilda usda and Vulgar Maranz vodvadas. The Téfir equivalent of the word is *ʕʷejṱu. Though seemingly a radically different word, some aspects that Zeror noticed were factored in, such as a fricative at the beginning and a plosive before the final vowel.

Udas li Tasanqās

Here is the first sentence of Schleicher's fable in Zeror's Proto-Yeldhic:

Vudas, *ediq astama ketwe, aboldois tasanqās, idi ta lo tisinois *ōbeqe badugat, idi ta lo *kuntasolois *doṉsa gotuik li idi ta lo *kuntasolois tumuei *kitil.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental Coronal Dorsal Glottal Pharyngeal
Alveolar Post-alveolar Velar Palatal Uvular
Plosive pulmonic *p *b *t *d *k *g *c *q *ḡ *ʕ, *ʕʷ
aspirated *pʰ *bʰ *tʰ *dʰ *kʰ *gʰ *qʰ *ḡʰ
Nasal *m (*ɱ) *n
Fricative pulmonic *θ *ð *s *z *š *ž *x *ɣ *h
palatalised *ś *ź
(Lateral)
Approximant
*w *l *y

Pharyngeals

Like in Proto-Indo-European, most Yeldhists believe that there were some sounds in Proto-Yeldhic that can not be directly attested from traditional comparative reconstruction. Currently, the only two sounds Yeldhists believe fall into this category are *ʕ, a voiced pharyngeal fricative, and *ʕʷ, its labialised counterpart. Some PY words use *ʕʷ, such as *ʕʷel, probably meaning "good" or "kind".

Evidence
  • In Etzeá, the closest documented living relative to PY, the sounds /h/ and /w/ seem to be substitutes for sounds that originate in PY, which Yeldhists mostly believe probably corresponded to *ʕ and *ʕʷ.
  • In the Ilda-Maranösic languages(Ilda and Maranz), PY words with *ʕ and *ʕʷ seem to have palatalised to form *j and *jw, such as in Proto-Ilda-Maranösic *jwel(modern descendants are Ilda yuelas and Maranz jūell), from PY *ʕʷel.

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close *i *u
Open *a

Prosody

Stress

Intonation

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Morphology

Syntax

Constituent order

Noun phrase

Verb phrase

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Example texts

Other resources

  1. ^ Hypothetical land before Radael.