Naengic languages
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The Naengic languages form a subbranch of the Lakovic languages, including forms of Naeng and the vernacular Tergetian languages. It is characterized by some shared innovations:
- The Naengic Vowel Shift: A chain vowel shift ä > a > o > u > ü. Exception: -aʔ became -a, not -o.
- Shift to strong final stress.
- An associative plural *φam which could be used after a noun.
- A 4-tense system of past, present, future and imperative/subjunctive.
- A full set of personal pronouns, with an associative plural suffix in the 2nd and 3rd person plural and a grammaticalization of *tʔej sa 'this side' for 1st person plural exclusive.
- Retains preposed possessive pronouns. (Classical Windermere had those.)
PLak φetn Xtar > *hìnθar > inθar by Grassmann
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.