Proto-Quame

Proto-Quihum/Lexicon

Proto-Quihum/Swadesh list

Proto-Quihum is the reconstructed common ancestor of all Quihum languages. It's inspired by Proto-Indo-European. It's thought to have been spoken 6000 years before present. The main source languages for the reconstruction of PQ are Thensarian, Naquian, and Sjowaazhéñ.

Overview

Urheimat: Txapoalli or Talma?

Phonology

Consonants

The following inventory of consonants is reconstructed for PQ and is now accepted by the majority of Trician scholars.

p b p' f t d t' þ ts dz ts' s ṭ ḍ ṭ' ṣ k g k' x kw gw kw' xw m n l r y w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	*i ī		*u ū
Mid	*e *ē	ə (?)
Open		*a *ā

Suprasegmentals

Stress was phonemic.

Phonotactics

Rules:

• Grassmann's Law operates in many descendants.

Grammar

Typology

The basic word order was V2, modifier-modified (like German).

Ablaut

Much like in 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 "binyanim"
• Deriving nouns and verbs

Ablaut grades

• a-grade: present tense
• e-grade: ?
• i-grade: preterite tense
• ə-grade: bare verbal noun
• u-grade: passive for verbs?
• ∅-grade: derivations
• lengthened grades: various verb aspects/voices

Nominals

Nouns had:

• two genders: animate, inanimate.
  • There were also honorific forms which worked like a gender somewhat. The honorific turns into a feminine in Talmic, meanwhile animate and inanimate become masculine and neuter.
• two states: absolute and construct.
• two cases: nominative and genitive.
• two numbers: singular and plural. There was also a third number, the collective, formed by reduplication of the first syllable.

Possible declensions:

• a-stems
• x̌-stems
• i-stems
• u-stems
• consonant stems
• heteroclitic stems: r/s

Animate nouns

a-stems

δoerom 'bird'

		Singulative	Plurative
Nominative	Absolute	δoerom	'
	Construct	δoeroes	δoerot
Genitive	Absolute	'	δoerōni
	Construct	'-'	'-'
Accusative	Absolute	'-'	δoerobim
	Construct	δoeroes	δoerot

Consonant stems

māram 'tree'

		Singulative	Plurative
Nominative	Absolute	māram	'
	Construct	mārīs	mārae
Genitive	Absolute	'	mārini
	Construct	māria	'-'
Accusative	Absolute	māribos	mārebim
	Construct	mārīs	mārae

Inanimate nouns

a-stems

δoerom 'bird'

		Singulative	Plurative
Nominative	Absolute	δoerom	δeδoerom
	Construct	δoeroes	δoerot
Genitive	Absolute	δeδoerot	δoerōni
	Construct	'-'	'-'
Accusative	Absolute	'-'	δoerobim
	Construct	δoeroes	δoerot

Consonant stems

jénəqws 'water'

i-stems

welís 'name'

Verbs

Verbs were conjugated for subject, object, aspect, and mood (but not for voice).

Should be Native American-ish

• Subject agreement: For each pronoun, and gender in 3rd person
• Aspects: present, preterite, stative
• Moods: indicative, subjunctive, jussive, imperative
• Voice in finite verb forms cannot be reconstructed; only voice in participles can.

Object affixes

Object affixes

	Singular	Plural
1	n-
1 + 2	-
2
3	bi-

Some etyma

• wel-í- = name
  • Possible ablauted stems: wel-ə́y-/wel-yə́-
• stup- = fire
• wjénəqʷ- = water
• -əx̌- = causative or intensive of a verb
  • Verbalizer -ā- in Talmic
• pVd/pd = speak