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Nēpoki: Difference between revisions
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===Internal history=== | ===Internal history=== | ||
The exact temporal origin of Nepokian is somewhat obscure, whether Nepokian is a daughter language of Proto-Indo-European or a sister. Some characteristics, as the gender and case systems, the preservation of laryngeals, presumably genuine inherited vocabulary not found in PIE itself but in Uralic and Nostratic roots point to a very early split from Proto-Indo-European. Some linguists proposed Nepokian is a daughter of Proto-Indo-Uralic, placing it on the same level with Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Uralic. | |||
====Proto-Nepokian==== | |||
Proto-Nepokian was probably spoken in the 3rd millenium B.C, when the people had started to migrate south-eastwards. Some think they may have migrated together with the Anatolians to Eastern Turkey, where Nepokians and Anatolians split into two branches. Linguists haven’t found any evidences in Sumerian or other ancient oriental texts concerning Nepokians migrating into deepest South-East Asia that’s why the exact way and time remains unclear. Mainstream research states that Nepokians were a homogene Indo-European people of some hundreds or a few thousands, who came in contact with Polynesian or, Malayo-Polynesian, peoples in Indonesia about 1800 B.C. | |||
For sure, it lacked Polynesian loan words and its phonology was still rather close to Proto-Indo-European. | |||
====Old Nepokian==== | |||
Old Nepokian presumably begins to be spoken in Eastern Indonesia, when Nepokians mingle with (Proto-)Polynesian tribes and adopt words from their new neighbors. However, there are hardly any words from Nepokian in Polynesian tongues. But as Schmidt notes, more research has to be done here. | |||
As far as grammar and phonology are concerned, Old Nepokian remains close to Proto-Nepokian. They are grouped together as Earlier Nepokian. | |||
====Middle Nepokian==== | |||
Around 800 B.C., Nepokians and Polynesians arrived at Samoa. This proximity was underlined by the big changes, primarily phonological, which happened in the transition from Old to Middle Nepokian. They were that deep, that Nepokian sound less and less Indo-European. When the first Europeans came across Nepokians, they must have spoken Middle Nepokian. The first written Nepokian sentences in Latin letters are late Middle Nepokian. | |||
====New Nepokian==== | |||
In the 20th century, some people still pronounced the Nepokian l in certain circumstances as r. Though this was classified as arbitrary by Europeans, it was rather a late Middle Nepokian pronunciation. Therefore, the stage of New Nepokian must have begun quite recently. Contemporary dialects who use r instead of l do not differentiate between historical r and l, so they change all r and l either to r or l. | |||
==Phonology== | ==Phonology== | ||