Proto-Kedric Language Family

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LinguoFranco
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Proto-Kedric Language Family

Post by LinguoFranco »

Proto-Kedric is a family of languages spoken on a volcanic archipelago known as Kedri. The indigenous people, known as the Pontu, are the native speakers of the Kedric languages. I present to you an overview of their proto-language.

Phonology:

Proto-Kedric is a mora-timed language with a CV(V)(C) syllable structure. CV and some some CVC syllables are considered light, while CVV and some CVC syllables are considered to be heavy. It has a small and simple consonant inventory of only twelve phonemes, though there is allophony for /t/ and /k/, where they become voiced when between vowels. Vowel initial words are technically not allowed, so I a glottal stop is added before the vowel, but it isn't really phonemic under that circumstance.

/m n/
/t k ʔ/
/s h/
/l j w ʍ/
/t͡s/

The only consonants that can occur in the coda position of a syllable are /n/ and /ʔ/. A syllable ending with /n/ is considered heavy, while one ending with /ʔ/ is a light syllable.

The vowel inventory is also pretty straightforward, with just three (or six, if you count contrasting length) vowels. They are /a aː i iː u uː/.

Now, for some words found in the language:

tiwa- 1st person pronoun
tiwadiwa- 1st person plural
ʍatu- 2nd person
kwali- 3rd person

All verbs have the suffix '-ʍi' in the infinitive form.

kanuʍi- to be
ukaʍi- to see
jiʍi- to eat
miʍi- to dance

Verbs conjugate for person, number, aspect, mood, polarity, evidentiality, and volition. When conjugating a verb, drop the -ʍi suffix and add the proper pronomial suffix. For example, "I see" is "kanudi" since the first suffix is "-ti", but since the /t/ is between to vowels, it becomes /d/. "You see" is "ukaʍa, and "He eats" is "jikwa."

Here are the suffixes for conjugating for person.

1st person singular: -ti/di
2nd person singular: -ʍa
3rd person singular: -kwa

1st person plural: -sa
2nd person plural: -hu
3rd person plural: -kuʔ

Verbs can also be conjugated for aspect. This could change and this part is not set in stone, but for now, there are two aspects: progressive and perfective. To express the progressive aspect on a verb, add the suffix -(n)uʔ. The /n/ is only added if the verb ends with a vowel. The perfective suffix is -(w)ani.

Proto-Kedric is an agglutinative, head-marking language, with a verb-inital word order. Both VSO and VOS are equally valid as the default order, and the placement of the Subject and Object do not matter as long as the Verb comes first.
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