Naengic languages

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The Ashanic languages form a subbranch of the Lakovic languages. It includes some of the most spoken Lakovic languages, such as Windermere. It is characterized by some shared innovations:

  1. The Ashanic Vowel Shift: A chain vowel shift ä > a > o > u > ü. Exception: -aʔ became -a, not -o.
  2. Shift to strong final stress.
  3. An associative plural *φam which could be used after a noun.
  4. A 4-tense system of past, present, future and imperative/subjunctive.
  5. A full set of personal pronouns, with an associative plural suffix in the 2nd and 3rd person plural and a grammaticalization of *θʔiisa 'this side' for 1st person exclusive.
  6. Retains preposed possessive pronouns. (Classical Windermere had those; Ciêng still does this for family members.)

Proto-Ashanic phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental Domed Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m /m/ n /n/ ŋ /ŋ/
Stop plain p /p/ t /t/ k /k/ ʔ /ʔ/
voiced b /b/ d /d/ g /g/
Fricative s /s̻/ ś /s̺/ š /ʃ/ h /h/
Affricate c /ts̻/ ć /ts̺/ (č /tʃ/)
Approximant w /w/ l /l/ r /r/ y /j/

Vowels

Proto-Ashanic had 6 vowels and register tone:

i ü u e o a = /i y u e o a/

ì ǜ ù è ò à = /i y u e o a/ + breathy voice

Phonotactics

Final consonant clusters were allowed, unlike in Windermere; they are the source of final voiced stops in Windermere.

Prefinal syllables only allowed the vowels /a i u/.

Stress

Stress was likely on the final syllable.

Grammar