Proto-Rathmosian

Phonology and Orthography

Consonants

Consonant Inventory

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m		n
Plosive	p	b	t	d			k	g
Fricative	ɸ		s				x
Affricate			ts
Trill				r
Approximant		w				j
Lateral app.				l

Vowels

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i u e ə a
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Orthography

Proto-Rathmosian is written with the Roman alphabet using the following graphs.

a b d e f g h i k l m n p r s t ts u w y ə

The following table shows the sound to spelling correspondences:

graph	a	aa	b	d	e	ee	f	g	h	i	ii	k	l	m	n	p	r	s	t	ts	u	uu	w	y	ə
IPA	a	aː	b	d	e	eː	ɸ	g	x	i	iː	k	l	m	n	p	r	s	t	ts	u	uː	w	j	ə

Phonotactics

The basic building block of most Proto-Rathmosian words is the primary root, a simple morpheme which cannot be broken down further. Most primary roots are verbal stems though some nominal elements such as body parts, landscape and family terms are primary.

Primary roots may be formed into other words by (a) the direct addition of derivational and morphological affixes; (b) internal changes within the root to create a secondary or derived root; (c) a combination of both.

A number of grammatical words or particles are not considered roots and do not follow the rules set out below.

Primary Roots

Primary roots are monosyllabic and must have the minimal form VC, in which V represents a single primary vowel (a, e, i or u) and C any consonant. Most roots will also have an initial consonant (vowel-initial roots are relatively rare and may have developed from the loss of an initial /h/ or glottal stop /ʔ/, e.g. */had, ʔad/ > ad-).

Consonant clusters within roots are limited to CL in onset position, in which L represents a liquid (l or r). The initial consonant in these clusters cannot be l, r, w or y. In coda position the only consonant cluster permitted is GC, in which G represents a glide (w or y).

The vowels of primary roots are always short. Diphthongs are not considered to occur and in the combination of vowel + w or y the second element is analysed as a consonant.

Primary roots may take one of the following forms:

• CVC, e.g. ret- "go, move", ker- "rule"
• CLVC, in which L represents a liquid (l or r), e.g. glis- "live, stay", mlak- "be dead"
• CVGC , in which G represents a glide (w or y), e.g. tiyk- "touch, feel", reyk- "love"
• CLVGC, e.g. trayh- "strangle, choke", sluyn- "seep, ooze".
• VC, e.g.
• VGC, e.g.

Secondary Roots

Secondary roots are derived from primary ones by one of three clearly defined and mostly predictable phonological processes:

• Vowel Lengthening doubles the vowel of the primary root, e.g. ret- > reet-, tiyk- > tiiyk.
• Vowel deletion removes the primary vowel enitrely, e.g. ker- > Vkr-, hed- > Vhd-. Where this creates an impossible consonant cluster, the reduced vowel ə /ə/ is inserted (its position depends on the order of the consonants), e.g. mlak- > Vməlk-, dreh- > Vdərh-. Where a glide w or y remains after the deletion of a vowel, it becomes vocalic u or i, e.g. reyk- > Vrik-, trayh- > Vtrih.
• Reduplication involves the addition of the first consonant plus the reduced vowel ə to the beginning of a word, e.g. ret- > rəret-, sluyn- > səsluyn-.

Affixes

Affixes may take any of the forms: V, VC, C, CV, CVC. They may also be combined into more complex structures. The addition of affixes sometimes requires the insertion of the reduced vowel ə between consonants, or of a linking glide w or y between vowels.

The following processes of assimilation occur when certain sounds come into contact across syllables:

• voiced plosives /b, d, g/ are devoiced before voiceless plosives or fricatives /p, t, k, ɸ, s, x/.
• voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ are voiced before voiced plosives and nasals /b, d, g, n, m/.
• /t/ and /d/ assimilate to any following plosive or /n/
• /n/ assimilates to a following liquid /l, r/.

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns belong to one of three classes and are declined into eight cases and three numbers.

Noun Classes

Nouns are divided into two main classes: animate and inanimate. The fundamental distinction between these two classes is that animate nouns may be the agent of a verb, i.e. they may actively carry out the action of a verb, whilst inanimate nouns may not. Animate nouns therefore include all humans, deities and spirits, animals and certain celestial bodies such as belan "the sun". Inanimate nouns include all other common objects, plants and abstracts.

The class of animate nouns is further divided into masculine and common nouns. The distinction is based on natural gender, so that all male humans, deities and spirits are masculine, as are male animals where the sex is known. All other animate nouns are common. Masculine nouns are generally marked forms, with a base form usually ending in l or k. Thus, ker means "ruler; queen" and is common, but keril means "lord, king" and is masculine.

Summary of Noun Classes

Animate	Common	Female humans, deities and spirits; female animals and those with unspecified gender
Masculine	Male humans, deities and spirits; specifically male animals
Inanimate	All plants and non-living objects; abstracts

Case

Nouns are declined according to eight cases:

• Absolutive denotes the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb.
• Ergative denotes the subject of a transitive verb.
• Dative denotes the indirect object of a verb and describes motion towards.
• Genitive denotes the possessor of an object.
• Ablative denotes motion away from.
• Instrumental denotes use of.
• Locative denotes location in, at or on.
• Comitative denotes location with or beside.

Number

There are three numbers: singular, plural and collective, the last of which may denote a discrete group of objects or a class as a whole.

Inflexion

Animate Common: vocalic stem (negu "woman")

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	-	negu	-wa	neguwa
Ergative	-s	negus	-ns	neguns
Dative	-yep	neguyep	-nep	negunep
Genitive	-y	neguy	-ni	neguni
Ablative	-ta	neguta	-nta	negunta
Instrumental	-ra	negura	-rra	negurra
Locative	-yen	neguyen	-nen	negunen
Comitative	-kun	negukun	-nkun	negunkun

Animate Common: consonantal stem (ker "ruler")

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	-	ker	-wa	kerwa
Ergative	-s	kers	-ns	kerəns
Dative	-ep	kerep	-nep	kernep
Genitive	-i	keri	-ni	kerni
Ablative	-ta	kerta	-nta	kerənta
Instrumental	-ra	kerra	-rra	kerərra
Locative	-en	keren	-nen	kernen
Comitative	-kun	kerkun	-nkun	kerənkun

Animate Masculine (keril "lord, king")

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	-	keril	-wa	kerilwa
Ergative	-s	kerils	-ns	keriləns
Dative	-ep	kerilep	-nep	kerilnep
Genitive	-i	kerili	-ni	kerilni
Ablative	-ta	kerilta	-nta	kerilənta
Instrumental	-ra	kerilra	-rra	kerilərra
Locative	-en	kerilen	-nen	kerilnen
Comitative	-kun	kerilkun	-nkun	kerilənkun

Inanimate: vocalic stem (keril "lord, king")

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	-	keril	-wa	kerilwa
Ergative	-s	kerils	-ns	keriləns
Dative	-ep	kerilep	-nep	kerilnep
Genitive	-i	kerili	-ni	kerilni
Ablative	-ta	kerilta	-nta	kerilənta
Instrumental	-ra	kerilra	-rra	kerilərra
Locative	-en	kerilen	-nen	kerilnen
Comitative	-kun	kerilkun	-nkun	kerilənkun

Verbs

Verbal conjugation is agglutinative and verbs may be marked for aspect (imperfective, perfective), valency (transitive, intransitive, medial, causative, reflexive, ...), and argument (absolutive, ergative).

Aspect

Verbal aspect is marked by altering the form of the root itself or by adding suffixes to the primary root:

• The primary root is considered to be generic or gnomic in aspect, describing states or actions without regard to their state of completeness, e.g. ker- "rule", mlak- "be dead"
• The lengthened root is imperfective, describing ongoing actions, e.g. keer- "rules, ruling".
• The reduplicated root is perfective, describing completed actions, e.g. keker- "ruled"
• The addition of -n- to the root creates the inchoative aspect, describing the beginning of actions or 'becoming' a state, e.g. kern- "begin to rule", mlagn- "die"
• The addition of -tsat- to the root creates the frequentative aspect, describing repetitive events or habitual states, e.g. kertsat- "rules (often)", kuktsat- "eats often, grazes", plustsat- "often be sick".
• The addition of -t- to the root creates the intensitive aspect, describing more severe forms of the action or state, the latter equivalent to "very ...", e.g. kert- "tyrannise, subjugate", plust- "be very sick".

Voice

Voice is marked exclusively by suffixes, which follow the root or aspectual suffixes.

• -a- is used to mark verbs where the subject is not the semantic agent, i.e. is not considered to have control over the action of the verb. This includes intransitive verbs of actions and states, or verbs with a passive meaning, e.g. plusa- "is sick", kekera- "was ruled"
• -i- is used with transitive verbs, where both the subject and object are stated, e.g. keri-
• -u is used with intransitive verbs where the subject is considered to have control over the action, or with transitive verbs where the object of the verb is not stated, e.g. yuru- "run", kuku- "eats"
• -e- is used to give the verb a reciprocal or reflexive meaning, e.g. sape- "wash oneself".
• -im- is a causative suffix, meaning "cause to do", e.g. kukim- "feed s.o.", mlagnim- "kill".
• -am- is an anticausative suffix, describing an action forced upon someone or something, e.g. kukam- "force feed"
• -em is an autocausative suffix, describing an action in which the subject of the sentence causes an action that effects themselves, e.g. mlagnem- "kill oneself"

The primary division in verbal morphology is made between dynamic (Class I) verbs and stative (Class II) verbs. Dynamic verbs denote actions and verbs of motion while stative verbs refer to states of being and include the large class of adjectival verbs, such as dreh- "to be red", mlak- "to be dead". A verbal stem belongs primarily to one or other class, depending on its semantics but the boundaries are not inflexible.

Class I verbs are marked for aspect. The imperfective, denoting incompleted or continuous action and often understood as non-past, is marked with the infix -n- following the root. The perfective, denoting completed action and usually referring to the past, takes -t-. For example yur- "run" → yurn- "runs, running", yurt- "ran". Class II verbs are not marked for tense. As stative verbs they are understood to be imperfective and general in time. Because of the way aspect marking occurs, verbs are able to pass between classes. Class I verbs may be treated as Class II (i.e. unmarked) in order to give a gnomic sense, though this is generally restricted to poetic and proverbial usage hedər hedus "birds fly". Far more common is the use of Class II roots with Class I aspect markers to give an inchoative sense, e.g. mlak- "be dead" → mlagn- "become dead die", mlakt- "became dead, died".

The aspect markers, or the stem directly in Class II verbs, are followed by valency markers: -a- for intransitive verbs, -i- for passive verbs and -u- for transitive verbs. Class II verbs are always intransitive.

Elements of the Verb

Prefixes

Root

Derivation

Aspect Marker

Valency Marker

Absolutive

Ergative

The absolutive markers agree with the subject of a intransitive verb or the direct object of an transitive verb. The 3rd person may be animate or inanimate. The 1st and 2nd person forms differ depending on whether they are followed by an ergative marker.

Absolutive Markers

	Singular	Plural
1	-f-, -p	-mf-, -mp
2	-h-, -k	-nh-, -nk
3an	-s-	-ns-
3in	-b-	-w-

The ergative markers agree with the subject of a transitive verb. Since inanimate nouns cannot be the agent of a verb, by definintion, there are no inanimate ergative markers.

Ergative Markers

	Singular	Plural
1	-em	-ib
2	-en	-ig
3an	-er	-id