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]