User:Ceige/NotherPIE
$LANG
Underlying Phonology
$LANG's phonology is chronologically divided into two loose categories: Early and Late $LANG. These are not well defined.
Consonants
$LANG has the following consonant phonemes:
- P (p, b̥, b), m, w: labial
- T (t, d̥, d), n, l (l, r): dento-alveolar
- S (s, z̊, z), ɲ, ʎ, y: palatal
- K (k, g̊, g), ŋ: velar
- Kʷ (kʷ, g̊ʷ, gʷ), ŋʷ: labiovelar
- ʔ, ħ, ħʷ (ˀ, ʀ, ʀʷ; ɦ, ˤ, ˤʷ): laryngeal/guttural
One may imagine the above system evolved from something resembling the system below, after many mergers and splits, but this is just one possibility of an older system:
- P, m, w: labial
- T, s, n, l: dento-alveolar
- Ć, ś, ń, ĺ: palato-alveolar
- Č, š, ň, j: palato-velar
- K, x, ŋ, ʀ: velar
Vowels
$LANG's underlying vowels and their possible realisations (default, +ATR +salient, -ATR +salient) are:
- i, ey, ay
- u, eu, au
- (⟨Ø⟩ ə, ⟨ə⟩ ɐ), ⟨e⟩ æ, ⟨a⟩ ɑ
There is a bit of crossover between vowel and consonant here - see the consonant section for y and w!
Accent
$LANG has a four-dimensional accent system partially capable of derivation, using:
- pitch
- salience
- ATR (cf Mongolian)
- and consonant gradation
... to aid in word segmentation when listening to the language and to differentiate different words.
All these are features of Late $LANG.
Grammar
Morphology
Syntax
$LANG is primarily a mostly head-final left-branching phrase-oriented agglutinating language. Within verb phrases, morphemes tend to follow an OVS order (e.g., 3p.help.1sg = I help them), where objects (which needn't be patients) modify verbs, and verbs modify the subjects (which needn't be agents). Phrases generally follow the order of general information with regards to a relationship between arguments first, and specific information with regards to the relationship last. For example, "I kicked the ball" might be "I the ball kicked" (with "I" (de)nominalised in some fashion). This is due to an overwhelming habit of speakers to think of individuals and objects close to them (metaphorically or physically) first and the specific details pertaining to them later.
However, while word order can be changed to give the impression that something is particularly important, grammaticality is strongly judged based on adherence to a modifiers-first rule, e.g. "the yellow ball", not "the ball yellow" (the latter could still be technically semantically and grammatically correct if "ball" modifies "yellow" and "yellow" is understood to be a "yellow thing", but this would just be confusing).