Language

The Languages of Seforma c. 9500 years After the development of Agriculture (in Originalia)


Northern Lavender - Proto-Efeip Labial, velar, and uvular pulmonic consonants, but the only dental consonant is the click |, vowels e o i u and schwa; syllabic structure (C)V(V)(C), words must end in a consonant other than |, diphthongs between e and i are fine and diphthongs between o and u are fine, but no diphthongs between vowels of the same height (ie e & o and i & u); basic word order agent-patient-object-verb, primarily head-initial, grammatical gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) marked with prefixes, four levels of proximity in third-person pronoun (proximal, immediate, distal, invisible), verbs conjugate with subject suffixes, objects are marked with an infix -k(V)- placed just before the final consonant where V is the first vowel of the word, there is no numeral system; long - [iɴim], other - [|oup], ear - [əm], plantain - [ɣifibχeŋ], some - [moub]

Northern Pink - Proto-Khenmussu Aspirated consonants, no voice contrasting, significant affricates, ejective affricates and fricatives, glottal fricatives, a e i o u, nasal an on un; syllabic structure CV(N), stress never falls on a nasalised vowel; highly isolating, agent-verb-patient word order, head-final; warm - sem [ʃem], round - zzumzunn ['dʒumʒũn], year - sa [ʃa], raven- anmpiɲ [ãm'piɲ], kermes oak - khiŋun ['kʰiŋũ]

Northwestern Purple - Proto-Kiapni 19 consonants: two nasals, four stops, two affricates, three fricatives (see here), and eight clicks (dental, lateral, alveolar, and palatal, along with nasal versions of those), a e i o u, plus nasalised vowels; syllabic structure is stops undergo spirantisation between vowels; basic syllabic structure: C(C)V(V)(C), no consonant clusters of more than two consonants (affricates count as one), nasalised vowels cannot appear in diphthongs with non-nasalised vowels; agglutinating, complex tense system (many degrees of spatial and temporal displacement), inclusive/exclusive we distinction; brown - [pimtse] water - [|iesi], gift - [pkxim:eun], man - [pi], boat - [teᵑǁom]

Western Brown - Proto-Tifɯ Consonant inventory very similar to Proto-Kiapni except no nasalised clicks and no spirantisation, a e œ ə i y o ɯ u; syllabic structure CV, lexical words receive greater stress than grammatical words; moderately isolating, two sets of 3rd-person pronouns (to refer to two things at once/in relation to each other); leg - [myʔə], water - [keke], stone - [ǂy], man - [mu], cold - [mipəpe]

Western Grey-Blue Tri-vowel system i ɯ a, with vowel length distinction, word-final consonants can have modal voice, creaky voice, or breathy voice, diphthongs ɯi and ai, p b t d k g ɬ x m tɬ l j; syllabic structure (P)(F)(l/j)V(:/V)(C); polysynthetic, in speech not much distinction between present and past actions, animacy hierarchy, no distinction between singular and plural in first and second-person pronouns, rudimentary sign language developed alongside spoken language; river - [ja:li], man - [tɬa'gi:], a migration - ['pxi:npaimʱ], sandstone - ['bɬlɯpɯi]

Proto-Ziai
Quirks include lots of fricatives (ɸ, β, f, θ, s, z, sv (whistled sibilant), ç, x, ɣ), a complex vowel system (lots of polyphthongs), and set melodic patterns for various types of phrases (stops p b t k and g still exist, but they occur less frequently than the fricatives); syllables are hard to distinguish, but most words are composed of a string of vowels and non-sibilant continuants sometimes preceded by a fricative and ended with an un-released stop; the word order is quite free, since the melodic pattern of the phrase provides most of the meaning, in most cases, parts of speech are identified with their closing stop (p for nouns, t for adjectives and adverbs, k for verbs), in more “intimate” speech, vowels are rounded (leading to an elaborate T-V distinction); man (in the sense of male person) - θeɯnap, dream - çɤɪti, month - s͎ɪaileip, fire - seɛip, mother - βup

(Around Zaghāj) Proto-Sazāzasōj
Phonology: consonants (in their IPA characters) z s m b p l n d t x (written kh) ɣ (written gh) g k j, vowels a i o u ɔ (vowel length indicated with a macron ¯); syllabic structure (C)V(j), final -j only occurs at the end of words; animacy hierarchy distinguishing inanimate objects, animals, plants, concepts, and humans, quite inflecting, distinguishing several levels of proximity, realis, and evidence, as well as being a zero-copula language; fish - zīsubɔj, mountain - ōjuna, man (in the sense of person) - āzaj, warrior - imāzapu, hair (countless) - mosɔza

(Around the Œkhii Culture) Proto-Œkhen
Doubled vowels indicate length, b p d t g k w z s ʃ ʒ v f ç h m n ŋ l j r, and labialised stops kʷ, gʷ, tʷ, and dʷ (written with a regular w), i y e œ a u o (œkhii is pronounced /œkhi:/); (C)(C)V(C), stops, ç, and h cannot appear in a coda; quite a lot of nominal and adjectival inflection, but verbs are primarily modified with particles, multiple agentive affixes related to cases (eg çy-X nominative agentive (X who is), ma-X dative agentive (to whom X), kazi-X locative agentive (where X is)); nose - honœkhar, person - duujuj, stone - gwoof, elephant - gledus, language/tongue - œkhen, head - œkhee