Proto-Pulchric

Proto-Pulchric is one of the major proto-languages of Tricin and also one of the best reconstructed. Its main inspirations are Proto-Austronesian, Proto-Semitic and Lithuanian.

Phylogeny

Most Pulchric languages come from the Etalocian subbranch, which descends from Proto-Etalocian (oddly named because Etalocin is the Pulchric Urheimat). There are however, a few Pulchric languages spoken in Whāso Island to the north which are a separate subfamily, and that also includes Crockartoot, spoken in Cualand.

Phonology

Proto-Pulchric has six vowels: a e i o u ə, and the following consonants:

• stops: p t ṭ k q b d ḍ g
• fricatives: f v s z S h
• resonants: m n N ŋ l r L w y

The exact realizations of S L N are not fully known in universe; the linguist Cimaterol Pradaxa reconstructed them as retroflexes, which is consistent with the Proto-Pulchric reflexes but data from Crockartoot, discovered much later, hints that these could have been palatal instead. This theory is also borne by phonotactics -- s l n do not turn into S L N before retroflex consonants, as in malṭə (presumably /maɭʈə/) "bone", and the absence of an *R corresponding to *r, even though clusters of *r and retroflexes exist.

Vowel hiatus in Proto-Pulchric is generally rare, showing up in the directional trigger suffix -ao, but consonant clusters are extremely common, as in pelstrə (bear), temblipsas (mushroom), and mirnutə (rod).