Naeng/Classical
Phonology
Old Windermere had breathy voiced vowels ah eh ih oh uh üh /aʱ eʱ iʱ oʱ uʱ yʱ/ which became ä ea ie oa ua üe in Classical Winderemre.
Old Windermere had more vowel contrasts in preinitial syllables: most notably, it had ă /ə/ and ĭ /ɪ~ɨ/ as reduced vowels which merged to ă in Classical Windermere. This contrast is retained in Pradiul as palatalization.
Morphology
Sandhi
Old Windermere had a complex sandhi system (somewhere between Biblical Hebrew and Sanskrit) which was no longer productive in Classical Windermere; most often it affected plurals and verb forms.
- th + fric -> fric + t
- ths -> st, as in sehf (go) -> *thsehf -> stehf (to drive) (Modern binsteaf (energy), sămteaf (to energize))
- thf -> ft, e.g. tăfi (laugh) -> *tithfi -> tifti (mock) (Classical and Modern Wdm. tăfi, tifti)
- rC, lC > Cr, Cl
- ps pt pn png > sp pr fn fng
- tp tsp kp > tw tsw cw; Proto-Windermere breathy vowel + tp tsp kp > thw tsw chw
- tsc cts tsp pts sts ts > sc sc sp sp st st
Grassmann's law was productive in Old Windermere. When there were two spirant consonants before a stressed vowel in a word, the first was despirantized. e.g. *chăfol > căfol
Nouns
Old Windermere had many irregular plurals due to sandhi.
Verbs
Voice infixes, which became derivational in Classical Windermere, had a grammatical function.
Pronouns
Pronouns were identical to later Windermere, but with feminine plural pronouns. These pronouns only referred to animates.
- 1sg: rih
- 2sg: łen (m), łes (f)
- 3sg: in (m), is (f)
- 1pl exclusive: tsa
- 1pl inclusive: ăbang
- 2pl: łĭnam (m), łĭsam (f)
- 3pl: ĭnam (m), ĭsam (f)
Derivation
Old Windermere had the following prefixes:
- *th- (causative; denominal verbs)
- pi- (agentive; triggers voicing of following voiceless stops p t c to b d g)
- da (know) -> pĭda 'sage' (Classical păda, Modern pda)
- tüth (to grasp) -> pĭdüth 'meaning, intention'
- ha- (passive)
Old Windermere also used breathy voice ablaut to denote tools: snar (capture) -> snahr (trap, snare) which survives in Modern Windermere as snär.