Eta-Talmic
The Talmic languages are a relatively isolated subbranch of the Quame language family. They are descended from Proto-Talmic (PTal).
Phylogeny
| Noble Thensarian |
| ||||||||||||
- WEST TALMIC
- occitan = benocian (if i just use different sound changes)?
- pseudo-finnic ( = gallo-italic?)
- pseudo-germanic
- i want to make some of these tonal a la swedish - so a mini-wiebosphere?
- pseudo-french (oil languages)
- gelorian
- BENOCIC
- Benocian ( = Portuguese)
- Spanish == ???
- EAST TALMIC
- Nurian
Proto-Talmic phonology
- qʷ ɢʷ qʷ' > q ɢ q'
- p' t' c' ƛ' k' kʷ' q' qʷ' > f þ s ł x xʷ χ χ
- s > h
- c > s
- ƛ > t
- z > r / V_
Consonant inventory
| Proto-Talmic reconstructed consonants (Guānitzhūtł) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Alveolar | Lateral | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
| Nasal | *m | *n | |||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | *p | *t | *k | *kʷ | *q | *ʔ | ||
| voiced | *b | *d | *g | *gʷ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | *ɸ | *s, *θ | *ł | *x | *xʷ | *χ | *h | |
| voiced | *z, *ð | *ʁ | |||||||
| Approximant | *l | *j | *w | ||||||
| Trill | *r | ||||||||
Vocalic inventory
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | *i *ī | *u *ū | |
| Mid | *e *ē | *o *ō | |
| Open | *a *ā |
Diphthongs:
- ai ei oi ui au eu iu ou
- āi ēi ōi ūi āu ēu īu ōu
Proto-Talmic morphology
Nominal morphology
Nouns and adjectives had retained from Proto-Zachydic 6 cases (nominative, accusative, genitive/prepositional, allative, ablative, locative/instrumental), 3 numbers, 2 genders (masculine, feminine), and additionally possessive inflection for nouns. Like its daughter languages as well as Proto-Zachydic, Common Talmic is thought to have been a differential object marking language; only definite or specific direct objects were marked with the accusative case.
The essive case (*-ēri) was marginal, and was only used adverbially (cf. Th. -ēr adverbial suffix).
Some nouns took the "thematic" suffix/clitic *-ʔ with an uncertain meaning, a holdover from the classifier system in Proto-Zachydic.
Pronominal morphology
Proto-Talmic free pronouns can be reconstructed with less confidence because all case marking except as clitics and suffixes was eliminated.
Full personal pronouns
Possessive suffixes
Verbal morphology
Tense
The Proto-Talmic verbal system has converted the pre-existing aspect-based perfective/imperfective dichotomy into a time-based one (past/non-past). The irregularity of the past system is probably a result of conflation of many different parent aspect systems.
Aspect
The following aspect suffixes can be reconstructed:
- prospective *-eh-
- inceptive *-lʁa-
- cessative *-mbe-
Mood
Proto-Talmic has kept many moods intact (imperative, desiderative, hortative, optative). The negative imperative used the prohibitive particle along with the hortative form, as in Proto-Zachydic. The moods are frequently collapsed by its progeny (e.g. jussive in Themsaran).
Thematic suffixes
Proto-Talmic saw the development of thematic vowels from derivational suffixes. Thematic vowels are found in many Talmic languages, but modern languages often generalize the a-paradigm to the expense of the others.
- *-īn: basic verbs
- *-a-īn: denominative or transitive verbs
- *-e-īn: dynamic or reflexive verbs
TAM/subject affix paradigm
Todo: rederive past tense... they don't look like they could (all) be perfective suffixes.
| Subject affixes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Present/Non-past | |||
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| 1.ex | -īn | -dir | -mī |
| 1.in | - | -ʁ-sē | -n-sē |
| 2 | -r | -r-sē | -l-sē |
| 3.m | -m | -iri- | -ʁih |
| 3.f | -isi | -tih | |
| Simple past | |||
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| 1.ex | -nʔe | -sid | -mā |
| 1.in | - | -ʁʔā, -tar | -nʔā, -taq |
| 2 | -rʔe | -rʔā | -lʔā |
| 3.m | -ā(-m) | -ā-iri | -ā-ʁih |
| 3.f | -ā-isi | -ā-tih | |
| Prospective | |||
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| 1.ex | -eh-īn | -eh-dir | -eh-mī |
| 1.in | - | -eh-ʁsē | -eh-nsē |
| 2 | -eh-r | -eh-rsē | -eh-lsē |
| 3.m | -eh-m | -eh-iri- | -eh-ʁēj |
| 3.f | -eh-isi | -eh-tēj | |
| Imperative | |||
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| 1.in | - | -ʁsi | -nsi |
| 2 | -h | -rsi | -lsi |
| Hortative | |||
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| 1.ex | -īn-ti | -dis-ti | -mī-ti |
| 1.in | - | -ʁs-ti | -ns-ti |
| 2 | -ti | -rs-ti | -ls-ti |
| 3.m | -m-ti | -iri-ti | -ʁih-ti |
| 3.f | -isi-ti | -tih-ti | |
| Desiderative | |||
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| 1.ex | -īn-ʔi | -dir-ʔi | -mī-ʔi |
| 1.in | - | -ʁsē-ʔi | -nsē-ʔi |
| 2 | -r-ʔi | -rsē-ʔi | -lsē-ʔi |
| 3.m | -m-ʔi | -iri-ʔ | -ʁih-ʔi |
| 3.f | -isi-ʔi | -tih-ʔi | |
| Optative | |||
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| 1.ex | -īn-aʔ | -dir-aʔ | -mī-aʔ |
| 1.in | - | -ʁs-aʔ | -ns-aʔ |
| 2 | -r-aʔ | -rs-aʔ | -ls-aʔ |
| 3.m | -m-aʔ | -ir-aʔ | -ʁ-aʔ |
| 3.f | -is-aʔ | -t-aʔ | |
Other verbal affixes
Other reconstructible affixes include:
- *-pe- potential (e.g. Thm. tacvéi 'know (a fact)' < tak-pe-īn 'be able to say')
- *-re- passive
- *-ina- causative, i.e. supply sb with sth to [verb]/a patient of [verb]
- *-ska- causative
- *az-, "towards" directional prefix.
- the memory evidential prefix *ʔṇʔ-.
Proto-Talmic syntax
Basic word order was most likely SVO, as evinced by the order verb-object suffix in all daughter languages.
Sound changes to Proto-Talmic
Sound changes from Proto-Talmic
Vocabulary
- *az- telic
- Thm. ar-/as-
- Núr. ar- superlative, intensive; s- telic
- Thm. ar-/as-