Quame languages
| Quame | |
|---|---|
| Naquo-Talmic | |
| Created by | – |
| Geographic distribution | Txapoalli, Bjeheond, Etalocin; today worldwide |
| Linguistic classification | One of Tricin's primary language families |
| Proto-language | Proto-Quame |
| Subdivisions | |
The Quame languages (Eevo: brits Cłem, from *kʷēm-, the reconstructed word for 1), also known as Naquo-Talmic, are a language family in Tricin. It is well-established that that Naquic and Talmic form a Naquo-Talmic family; the relationship of Sowaár to Naquo-Talmic is conjectured by some but not well-established.
Family tree
| Proto-Quame |
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Overview
Urheimat: Txapoalli
Phonology
Consonants
The following inventory of consonants is reconstructed for PQ and is now accepted by the majority of Trician scholars.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labialized | plain | labialized | |||||||
| Nasal | *m | *n | ||||||||
| Plosive | plain | *p | *c | *t | *k | *kʷ | *q | *qʷ | *ʔ | |
| ejective | *pʼ | *cʼ | *tʼ | *kʼ | *kʷʼ | *qʼ | *qʷʼ | |||
| voiced | *b | *z | *d | *g | *gʷ | *ɢ | *ɢʷ | |||
| Fricative | *s | *h | ||||||||
| Resonant | *l | *r | *y /j/ | *w | ||||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | *i *ī | *u *ū | |
| Mid | *e *ē | *o *ō | |
| Open | *a *ā |
Suprasegmentals
Stress was phonemic.
Phonotactics
Rules:
- Grassmann's Law operates in many descendants.
Grammar
Typology
Somewhat like German, Proto-Quame was a fusional language in which nouns, adjectives and articles inflected for four cases, three genders, and two numbers, and definiteness. The basic word order was V2, modifier-modified.
Proto-Quame roots were monosyllabic and obeyed the sonority hierarchy.
Pronouns
TODO: table
Nom/Acc
X = some laryngeal
V = some vowel
- nā = I (Tal./Nqu. nā)
- wey(-r) = thou (Thn. veir, Nqu. uī)
- kā(-mi) = we (exc) (Thn. cām, Nqu. txā)
- gwon(-mi-ti) = we (inc) (Thn. gonti, Nqu. quon)
- sen(-kwi) = blotp (Thn. senci, Nqu. sen)
Genitive
- χ, nχ = my (Thn. -na, -a; Nqu. a; Sjo. kha)
- something with r = thy; (Thn. -r; Nqu. ir)
- smo = our (exc) (Thn.-smo, Nqu. zmo)
- sgwiX = our (inc) (Thn. -swē, Nqu. zquī)
- dkoX = blotp's (Thn. -scō, Nqu. tłō)
Demonstratives
- m- = proximal, this, here
- kw- = distal, that, there
- ta- = what, who
- t(a)Xs = what (Thn. tās)
Ablaut
Much like PIE, PQ had an ablaut system where roots (usually of 2 or 3 consonants) were inflected in different ablaut grades.
Functions of ablaut
- Noun inflections
- Verb inflections
- Verb voices
- Deriving nouns and verbs
Ablaut grades
- o-grade: present tense
- a-grade: derived nouns
- e-grade: preterite tense
- ∅-grade: derivations
- lengthened grades: various verb aspects/voices
Declension
Nouns, articles and adjectives had:
- three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter
- four cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive
- Some speculate that Proto-Quame originally had an intransitive-transitive alignment. The nominative and accusative may have originally been intransitive and transitive cases respectively, since stative verbs in the 3rd person singular have nominative endings, while eventive verbs in the 3rd person singular have endings similar to accusative endings.
- two numbers: singular and plural.
- Some nouns had broken plurals formed by reduplicating of the first syllable or using a different ablaut grade. The broken plural used singular affixes.
- for adjectives: strong and weak declensions, as in Proto-Germanic.
Possible declensions:
- a-stems
- x̌-stems
- i-stems
- u-stems
- consonant stems
- heteroclitic stems: r/s
Definite article *pin
Adjectives
Verbs
Verbs were conjugated for subject, object, aspect, and mood (but not for voice).
- Subject agreement: For each pronoun, and gender in 3rd person
- Aspects: present, preterite, stative
- Moods: indicative, subjunctive, jussive, imperative
- Austronesian alignment, realized with various trigger verb prefixes.
Stative conjugation
-dei, -woi, -pim, -pi, -ps, -me(r), -nte(r), -kʷe(r), -be(r)
Active conjugation
-ni, -ri, -mi, -si, -ø, -mek, -nti, -kʷi, -ti
Participles
- -kom = active
- -nom = passive
Derivations
- -tl-, -tlom = agent, instrument, participle
- -ā- = verbalizer from nouns
- -ye-, -i- = verbalizer from adjectives and verbs
- -ma- = adjective