Proto-Alhianic
Proto-Alhianic (PAh) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Alhianic language family. It is hypothesized to have been spoken from around 600 BCE to 400 CE. According to the dominant hypothesis for its geographical span, Proto-Alhianic was most likely originally spoken during 600 BCE from the eastern areas of the Khabarovsk and Primorsky krais, Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and Kuril Islands. Over time, Proto-Alhianic speakers are said to have been phased out of mainland Asia by Proto-Tungusic- and Proto-Nivkh-speaking cultures, as well as settling northwestern Alhia as early as 100 CE, associated with the Nudegi archeological culture that was prevalent in the region at the time. These archeological findings and linguistic reconstructions have provided insight into the seafaring, mountaineering, reindeer-herding culture of its speakers. The ultimate division of the Alhianic languages can be credited to insular isolation as well as the harsh terrain of Alhia itself, though this process was admittedly slow due to the relatively early influx of Sinospheric culture at the end of the Proto-Alhianic period.
Proto-Alhianic is characterized by heavy agglutination, simple syllable structures, and plentiful prefixing, suffixing, circumfixing, and infixing. Traditionally, Proto-Alhianic is believed to have followed an SOV syntax pattern, based on Japanese and Korean systems, though many texts from the subsequent Early Erhai period display a free syntax, with verbs occasionally appearing in the middle or beginning of sentences, and subjects and objects freely appearing as well. Regardless, SOV was still by far the most common sentence structure in the Early Erhai period, though it is unclear if this is indeed a continuation of Proto-Alhianic habits, or if it was picked up from Japanese and Korean influence.
Asterisks are used as a conventional mark of reconstructed words, such as *cʰälli, *kʰan, or *yüḍḍöṇ.
Phonology
The features most agreed upon in Proto-Alhianic reconstructions include:
- 3 series of stops reconstructed as ejective, aspirated, and voiced stops
- a fricative series whose consonants correspond equally to the stops
- a nasal series, including l, which is not nasal but corresponds to the alveolar nasal
- 3 approximants, including the rhotic r, which is of uncertain quality but was most likely an alveolar tap due to its nature in all Alhianic descendants
- an 8-vowel system that was split among front-back harmony (neutral vowels: i, e; front vowels: ü, ö, ä; back vowels: u, o, a)
- a CV(C) syllable structure
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stops | ejective | p' | t' | c' | ṭ' | ć' | k' | ʔ |
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | cʰ | ṭʰ | ćʰ | kʰ | ʔʰ | |
| voiced | b | d | z | ḍ | j | g | ʔ͉ | |
| Fricatives | f | θ | s | ṣ | ś | x | h | |
| Nasals | m | n | l | ṇ | ñ | ŋ | ||
| Approximants | w | r | y | |||||