Proto-Quame

Proto-Quihum/Lexicon

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

Phonology

Consonants

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

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
					plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Nasal		*m	*n
Plosive	plain	*p	*t		*k	*kʷ	*q	*qʷ	*ʔ
	aspirated	*pʰ	*tʰ		*kʰ	*kʷʰ	*qʰ	*qʷʰ
	voiced	*b	*d		*g	*gʷ	*ɢ	*ɢʷ
	breathy voiced	*bʰ	*dʰ		*gʰ	*gʷʰ	*ɢʰ	*ɢʷʰ
Fricative			*s		*x	*xʷ	*x̌ /χ/	*x̌ʷ /χʷ/	*h
Resonant			*r, *l	*y /j/		*w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	*i ī		*u ū
Mid	*ē	*ə
Open		*a *ā

Suprasegmentals

Stress was phonemic.

Phonotactics

Rules:

• When initial reduplication occurs, glottalized initials deglottalize.

Grammar

Typology

The basic word order was V2, modifier-modified.

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
• i-grade: preterite tense
• ə-grade: verbal noun
• u-grade
• ∅-grade: verbal noun; many derived stems
  • e.g. Wiebian mit 'if, given that' < meiten 'give'
• lengthened grades: various verb aspects/voices

Determiners

The characteristic inflection of determiners could be a relic of an older word order where prepositions were inserted between an adjective and the following noun (cf. magnā cum laude).

Nominals

Collectives were formed by reduplication (like the plural in Salish languages).

Nouns were divided into three genders: m/f/n.

• -am, -as (or -ac?), -ax > Thn.-om, -os, -ā

Verbs

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

• Subject agreement: For each pronoun, and 3rd person gender and honorific
• Aspects: present, preterite, stative
• Moods: indicative, subjunctive, jussive, imperative