Proto-Quame

Proto-Quihum/Lexicon

Overview

Proto-Quihum (PQ) is the ancestor of all Quihum languages. It is inspired by Salish languages.

Phonology

Consonants

The following inventory of consonants is reconstructed for PQ. Languages such as Adetsib have the most archaic consonant inventories.

		Labial	Coronal		Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			central	lateral		plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Nasal	plain	*m	*n
	glottalized	*mʼ /mˀ/	*nʼ /nˀ/
Plosive	plain	*p	*t			*k	*kʷ	*q	*qʷ	*ʔ
	ejective	*pʼ	*tʼ			*kʼ	*kʷʼ	*qʼ	*qʷʼ
Fricative			*s	*ł /ɬ/		*x	*xʷ	*x̌ /χ/	*x̌ʷ /χʷ/	*h
Affricate	plain		*c /ts/	*ƛ /tɬ/
	ejective		*cʼ /tsʼ/	*ƛʼ /tɬʼ/
Resonant	plain			*l	*y /j/		*w
	glottalized			*lʼ /lˀ/	*yʼ /jˀ/		*wʼ /wˀ/

Vowels

Unlike many of its descendants, Proto-Quihum had a 4-vowel system /i u ə a/ with no vowel length.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	*i		*u
Mid		*ə
Open		*a

Suprasegmentals

PQ had phonemic tone.

Phonotactics

Consonant clusters were allowed and could become complex, as in the Salishan languages.

Grammar

Typology

The basic word order was V2, modifier-modified.

The morphological form of a typical PQ word can be described as root<infix>-suffix-ending.

Ablaut

Much like in PIE, PQ had an ablaut system where roots were inflected in different ablaut grades. The ablaut system became more complex in Quame languages as laryngeal infixes yielded new vowels.

Nominals

PQ did not distinguish between nouns and adjectives. They both inflected for:

• 5 cases: nominative, (definite) accusative, genitive, dative, predicative
• 2 genders: masculine, feminine
• 3 numbers: singular, dual, plural

Plurals were formed by reduplication (as in Salish languages) or by suffixes.

Declension

Masculine sg: nom. -0

• -0, -a, -ə, -i, -u, uncommonly -ā, -ī, -ū

Feminine sg: nom. -x̌

• -ax̌, -əx̌ > -ā
• -ix̌, -āx̌ > -ē
• -ux̌ > -ō
• -īx̌ > -ī
• -ūx̌ > -ū
• -Cx̌ > -Ca

Dual: nom. -x̌ur

Plural: kawʼqs 'raven' > kakawʼqs?

Pronouns

bi-: transitivizer? 3rd person object affix?

Verbs

Verbs were conjugated for subject, aspect, mood, evidentiality, and voice.

• Subject agreement: For each pronoun, and 3rd person m/f/n, and perhaps collective
• Aspects: present, preterite, stative
• Evidentiality: direct, hearsay, unclear memory, quotative, inferential
• Moods: {Indicative, desiderative, jussive, optative}, {mirative, subjunctive}, imperative
• Voices: Active, mediopassive, causative

Ablaut grades

• present: a-grade
• preterite: i-grade
• stative: zero-grade?
• verbal noun: u-grade

TAM affixes

• ⟨n⟩: aorist infix. (Wiobian preterite ⟨n⟩)
• -ƛ-: dynamic affix (progressive -tł- in Naquian, future -t- in Themsarian)
• -eʔ: stative affix

Tense/Agreement suffixes

Subject markers:

• 1sg: -n
• 2sg: -y'
• 3sg.an: -m
• 3sg.inan: -0
• 1pl.ex: -maxv
• 2pl: -il
• 3pl: -ti

Object markers:

• 1sg: n-
• 2sg: y'-
• 3 (animate): b-
• 3 (neuter): k-
• 1pl.ex: xvm-
• 1pl.in: qw-
• 2pl: c'-

Some etymologies

• 1: *x̌əmʼ-; *kʷí-x̌əmʼ- 'only one'
• 2: *tił-x̌úlʼ
• 3: *nayʼkə́
• 4: *ƛawpə́
• 5: *cálił
• 6: *stá-x̌əmʼ- 'one more'; *qʷ’əl’
• 7: *lʼəxʷt
• 8: *lx̌ənʼtá
• 9: *pálʼwə
• 10: *q’əy-x̌úlʼ
• step/level: *nəycʼ ('20' in Talsmic)
• stone: *ƛʼecqʷ
• water: *yənqʷʼ
• day: *m’ul

Making r's

• Pfeunic: s (conditionally), z, n', l'
• Talmic: intervocalic z, ł, n', y'

Sample text

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.