Proto-Quame
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.
Todo
How to get ejectives in Naquic and a 3-way distinction in Sjowaazhic?
- Cr > C'?
- Sjowaazhic has less distinction for coda consonants, like Navajo (just -d and -t')
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.
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labialized | plain | labialized | ||||||
| Nasal | *m | *n | |||||||
| Plosive | plain | *p | *t, *c | *k | *kʷ | *q | *qʷ | *ʔ | |
| voiced | *b | *d, *z | *g | *gʷ | *ɢ | *ɢʷ | |||
| Fricative | *f | *þ, *s | *x | *xʷ | *χ | *χʷ | *h | ||
| Resonant | *ł, *l, *r | *y /j/ | *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
| Singulative | Plurative | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Absolute | δoerom | ' |
| Construct | δoeroes | δoerot | |
| Genitive | Absolute | ' | δoerōni |
| Construct | '-' | '-' | |
| Accusative | Absolute | '-' | δoerobim |
| Construct | δoeroes | δoerot | |
Consonant stems
| Singulative | Plurative | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Absolute | māram | ' |
| Construct | mārīs | mārae | |
| Genitive | Absolute | ' | mārini |
| Construct | māria | '-' | |
| Accusative | Absolute | māribos | mārebim |
| Construct | mārīs | mārae | |
i-stems
u-stems
x̌-stems (honorific stems)
r/s-stems
Inanimate nouns
Heteroclitic stems
a-stems
| 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'
u-stems
r/s-stems
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.
Personal 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
- snVkʷ? = home, land