Proto-Ash-Ish
Proto-Ash-Ish (henceforth referred to as PAI) is the reconstructed protolanguage linking the Ash and Ish languages through their own respective protolanguages, Proto-Ash and Proto-Ish.
Phonology
Ish appears to be much more conservative than Ash or even Proto-Ash when it comes to the inventory of phonemes as the reconstruction of PAI is quite similar.
Vowels
The following vowels (with conventional romanisation rather than IPA) are posited:
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Short | *e | *a |
PAI appears to have had neither the nasal vowels of Ish nor the long vowels of Proto-Ash, but otherwise the same two-way contrast as Ish.
Consonants
These are the basic consonants:
| Coronal | Dorsal | Laryngeal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oral | *t | *k | *q |
| Nasal | *n | ||
| Approximant | *r | *w | |
Here a big difference from modern Ish is the presence of a nasal consonant whereas Ish has transferred nasality as a feature onto its vowels, losing the consonant in the process.
- As in Proto-Ash, it is unclear exactly what *q was. It merged with *k in Ish so may have been a uvular plosive but in Ash it develops into a glottal.
- The nasal *n likely assimilated the point of articulation of any other consonant in a cluster.
- The approximant *w was probably */ɰ/ as in Ish.
- The approximant *r might have been */ɹ/. It became /l~ɾ/ in Ish and disappeared in Ash.
Additionally there were important clusters that developed into new consonants in the descendants and may have been single phonemes already in PAI:
| Coronal | Dorsal | Laryngeal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prenasalised | *nt~*ⁿt | *nk~*ⁿk | *nq~*ⁿq |
| Velarised | *tw~*tʷ~*tᶭ | *kw~*kʷ~*kᶭ | *qw~*qʷ~*qᶭ |
The fact that these may have been single phonemes is supported by the fact that no other clusters seem to have been permitted. The convention is still to write these combinations as clusters.
- The velarised consonants may have been labiovelarised already in PAI.
- Consonants could also be both prenasalised and (labio)velarised at the same time.
The main developments into Ash and Ish were as follows:
| PAI | Ash | Ish |
|---|---|---|
| *k | → /k/ | → /kˣ/ |
| *nk | → /ŋᵍ/ | → /k/ |
| *kw | → /p/ | → /kˣɰ/ |
| *nkw | → /mᵇ/ | → /kɰ/ |
Ash developed poststopped nasals (which merged with the plain nasals, poststopping becoming an allophonic feature) and Ish developed a distinction between plain and aspirated or postfricated plosives.
Features
Syntactic roles
PAI appears to have had adpositions that became postpositions and eventually suffixes in Proto-Ash whereas they became prepositions in Ish.
| PAI | Proto-Ash | Ish |
|---|---|---|
| *awa ant, *ant awa |
→ *(a)wa-(a)n(t) → *wa-n | → *a(n)t-(a)ɰa → /at-ɰa/ |
This adposition in Proto-Ash became the relational or locative case ending while in Ish it became the indirect object marker. Both reflexes are combined with the distal determiner ("that one") above.
Deixis
The aforementioned distal determiner is another example of common inheritance from PAI shared between the daughter branches alongside its proximal counterpart.
| PAI | Proto-Ash | Ish |
|---|---|---|
| *ewe | → *i(j), *(i)ja- → *i, *ja- | → /(e)ɰe/ |
| *awa | → *u(w), *(u)wa- → *u, *wa- | → /(a)ɰa/ |
Vocabulary
Some core vocabulary is shared between Ish and Ash but does not always mean the same thing or have a similar sound anymore. This word stock includes elements of nature, common actions, and cultural aspects.
| PAI | Ash | Ish | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *kaw- | "whirl, whorl, cycle, wrap" | → goa | "be/move around, elapse" | → /kˣaɰe/ | "water, flow" |
| *ntaw- | "fire, burn, glow" | → *n(t)w-aj- → mee | "fire, heart, core, essence" | → /taɰ/ | "fire, light" |
| *qat- | "uncomfortable, harsh" | → ảdla; ảs | "cold"; "ice, frost, snow" | → /kˣatˢ/ | "bad" |
| *ntek- | "experience, feel" | → "suffer" → naa; nahga | "die"; "itch, irritate" | → /tẽkɰ/ | "be, live, make" |
| → nao | "(sentient/mortal) individual, soul" | → /tẽkɰ/ | "(sentient) being, individual" | ||