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, among them the Ashanic Chain Vowel Shift:
- PLak *ä > a
- PLak *a > o
- PLak *o > u
- PLak *u > y.
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
Both the trigger system, gender, and TAM were still productive. Windermere and Ciêng both fossilized all of this morphology, but in a different order.
- Classical Windermere fossilized the trigger system first.
- Ciêng lost the aspect inflections first and the remaining morphology was quickly lost (and tonogenesis happened easily), as it was derivational.