Proto-Sinatolean
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| Proto-Sinatolean | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Jukethatbox |
| Reconstruction of | Sinatolean languages |
| Region | Eastern Sinatoleans, Western Nelahgan |
| Era | 300-400 CE |
| Lower-order reconstructions |
|
Proto-Sinatolean is the proto-language of the Sinatolean language family. It was spoken for around 100 years, between the years of around 300-400 CE, in a region that probably encompassed the eastern Sinatolean Archipelago and western half of the Nelahgan Islands. It diverged into what is now the Southern Sinatolean languages and Naéllang languages around 400-450 CE. Other major branches of the Sinatolean language family later split from the Southern languages between the years 600-800 CE.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | *p *b | *t *d | *c *j | *k *g | *ʔ | |
| Nasal | *m | *n | *ñ | *ŋ | ||
| Fricative | *f *v | *s *z | *h | |||
| Semivowel | *w | *y | ||||
| Lateral | *l |
Vowels
Short vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | *i | *é | *u |
| Close-mid | *e *ø | *o | |
| Open | *a |
Long vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | *iː | *éː | *uː |
| Close-mid | *eː *øː | *oː | |
| Open | *aː |
Proto-Sinatolean long vowels are often, primarily by convention, transcripted with a macron above the vowel, e.g. ⟨ā, ē, ḗ, ṓ, ī, ū, ō⟩(⟨ṓ⟩ is often used as a form of *øː).
Morphology
Affixes
Various affixes were probably used in various places in Proto-Sinatolean. Below shows a table of the most common affixes, reconstructed from various languages. (Note: There were probably no infixes in Proto-Sinatolean, so hyphens on both sides of a term usually denote terms that appear as both prefixes and suffixes.)
| Proto-Sinatolean | Use | Reconstructed from |
|---|---|---|
| *-ka | Denotes a location or place. | Sinatolean -ka Nillíno -cah Mitu Õa -ka Ináacha ća- |
| *-ja | Denotes speech, dialect or language. | Sinatolean -ya Nillíno -(a)llà Mowinda-Moyeng -ja’- |
| *doh- | "child of", akin to Johnson | Sinatolean tō’ "son" Nillíno doh- Narabõa ddõa "boy" |
| *-pu- | Early form of plurality; later replaced in most descendant languages by *-a and *-i |
Nillíno cóobu Agëehri pujinë, "people" |
Syntax
Word order
Proto-Sinatolean is a verb-final language(SOV), as all Sinatolean languages are verb-final. In some cases however, the language of Narabõa does sometimes transition to a somewhat SVO-like form.