Sumro-Letaeric language family

[Mawatarra]

So for the past few years I have been working on a rather large family of related conlangs which I call "Sumro-Letaeric". I especially enjoy writing about etymologies and about the diachronic side of things so I figured this would be a good outlet to share my ramblings in a less formal context than in a full of document. Every now and then I'll reply here with etymologies are explanations of how certain features in daughter languages came to be.

For now I believe an introduction is in place. The language family finds its earliest ancestor in Proto-Sumro-Letaeric. For this wee introduction I will cannibalise a text I wrote in the introduction for a document I am working on:

The reconstruction of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric (PSL) originally began in 5014AN as an attempt to reconstruct Pre-Proto-Sumro-Naukl using internal reconstruction based off of various allomorphy and stem changes found in Proto-Sumro-Naukl (PSN). At this time linguists were able to reconstruct the lenition of *p *b {*t *d} *k *g *q *s *z to *ɸ *β/∅ *δ *c *ġ *x *ś *ź (a change termed Meocijao's Law after the linguist who proposed it) by observing alternation within certain noun and verb stems. However this reconstruction of Pre-Proto-Sumro-Naukl was a tiny step towards reconstructing PSN's own ancestor.

It wouldn't be until 5036AN that linguists became aware of the relationship between the Letaeric languages and the Sumro-Naukl languages. Previously the connection between these two had gone completely unknown due to how far apart the two families are with the Letaeric languages being spoken in the Makutevnag continent while the Sumro-Naukl languages dominate in Malomanan across the seas. At this time there had been no knowledge of the arrival of the Sumro-Naukl speaking Nebyeto to Malomanan from Makutevnag, so no one ever thought to link the two families together. Indeed the modern languages of each family are so diverse that they barely resemble each other. The connection between the two families was only made when Luabian linguists from Malomanan had been studying the Letaeric languages and reconstructing Proto-Letaeric (PL), eventually publishing their findings. Before publishing their work it was reviewed by Sûttörata, a Werish linguist who had done extensive work reconstructing Proto-Sumro-Naukl. As Sûttörata glazed over the work he was surprised to see some similarities between PSN and PL both in sound correspondences and in morphology. For example the word "ten" was identical in both languages, with both having *peqʷem. Sûttörata quickly went to work attempting to establish a relationship between the two families and he was successful. What was previously an attempt to make Pre-Proto-Sumro-Naukl had now become the reconstruction of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric, estimated to have been spoken around 1000SD (6,000 years before present) somewhere in the north of the Makutevnag continent.

This language family has been quite lucky in that several of it's branches are well attested in the form of early languages being written down, allowing reconstruction work to go back even further than if only the modern languages were the basis for reconstruction. The reconstruction of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric is mostly based off of the reconstructions of Proto-Letaeric and Proto-SUmro-Naukl, both of which had been worked on before the relationship of the two was established. For Proto-Letaeric the main languages used were Old Letaere and Middle Ethei, both languages being the first of their branches to be written (Old Ethei is attested, but not as well as Middle Ethei). When appropriate Wacal (another descendant of Old Ethei) is referred to when information is lacking in Middle Ethei. While there are few Letaeric languages (only two, Ethei and Wacal, are not extinct), their very early attestation and overall morphological conservativeness is invaluable for the reconstruction of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric.

Proto-Sumro-Naukl, by virtue of leaving much more descendants, has more languages used in its reconstruction. The earliest attested languages of the Naukl branch are Ethogiath and Old Naukl, though Ethogiath has a much vaster body of literature to work with despite having went extinct. For the Mangeodge branch the earliest attested language is Old Mangeodge which was used to write an endless amount of texts - Proto-Mangeodge was written but only very scarcely in some inscriptions, even fewer of which have survived. For the Synraspian languages the earliest attested languages are Hajec, Old Tuura and Old Sumrë - the latter of which has the most attestation out of the three by far but has been quite innovative, especially with its nominal morphology, which reduces its importance in reconstruction. Proto-Sumric was written but like Proto-Mangeodge, it was rarely written and very few examples survived especially since the few literate Proto-Sumric speakers wrote on perishable materials. The Sucumian languages have never been written by natives, who to this day don't care about writing, considering it to be silly nonsense. However the ancestors of the two sub-branches of Sucumian languages: Light Sucumian and Dark Sucumian are well recorded in ancient notes and dictionaries written by Old Sumrë speaking shamans. Snippets of Proto-Sucumian exist in the oldest notes, but only mere snippets.

It is also fortunate that these languages were recorded before they had underwent further change. Old Sumrë for example is probably the most innovative, gaining a wealth of new cases and totally reforming its noun gender. Old Sumrë's own daughters would go on to change even more, losing a great deal of the typical Sumro-Letaeric grammar. Meddio for instance lost a vast majority of Old Sumrë's inflection when it became analytic, only to innovate a great variety of new inflections from grammaticalised auxiliaries and pronouns. This is not to mention the drastic sound and grammatical changes that the Mocic languages experienced (cf the Mocic descendants of the Old Sumrë theonym Brumnos:

• West Morish Lainui

• Bawian Bonunots

• Werish Bolwûnuda

• South Luabian Pōwonáz

If all we knew about the family came from looking at the modern languages, the reconstruction of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric would never have been possible.

Now for a quick overview of the language family before finally presenting some juicy details.

Sumro-Letaeric languages
The entire language family, comprising of 90 modern day languages. Far too diverse to list many common features.

Common features:

• Having a paucal number where nouns are distinguished by whether they tend to occur alone or in groups.

• Having a supine verb derived with a velar prefix

Letaeric languages
So far these have not been fleshed out. They are the only branch of the language family to be spoken by descendants of the original Proto-Sumro-Letaeric speakers, the Sumro-Naukl speakers are a different ethnicity that adopted the Proto-Sumro-Letaeric language. Some irony may be found in that the Letaeric language only have two surviving members, while the Sumro-Naukl languages, spoken by people unrelated to the original speakers, have been incredibly successful and numerous. The division of the Letaeric branch and the Sumro-Naukl branch represent the earliest breaking up of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric. Spoken in the Makutevnag continent.

Common features:

• Dislike for word initial and word final vowels

Sumro-Naukl languages
Spoken in Malomanan, with the exception of the Naukl languages, this represents the largest subfamily by far, spoken by originally ethnic Nebyetic peoples.

Naukl languages
Spoken in the Naukl archipelago of the north coast of Makutevnag and consisting of only 2 members; Naukl and Jyztrees, both of which descend from Middle Naukl. There was once a third called Ethogiath, a separate branch of Naukl straight from Proto-Naukl but it was wiped out by Old Naukl.

Mangeodge languages
Spoken in the ancient nation of Meilvarestu. The languages of these heavily agricultural, isolated and militaristic people all descend from Old Mangeodge, which survives as a liturgical language. The West and South subbranches of Mangeodge are spoken in the most ancient heartland of the mangeodge people, with the Mid and North branches developing in their homelands after large migrations into empty nearby lands.

North Mangeodge: North Mainland Mangeodge, Inner & Outer Dawian
Common features

• Heavy Tuuric influence due to trading with Tuuric people. Most evident in the stress accent and system of consonant gradation

Mid Mangeodge: Surwian, Binerith, Beusian, Berogovian
Common features

• Presence of the dental fricative θ

• Breaking of /l: r:/ into /gl gr/

West Mangeodge: Romoruzian, Rovianzian
Common features

• Debuccalization of fricatives in the coda

• The clusters /sr sl/ becoming /str/

• The affricates /t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/ with /s z/

South Mangeodge: Inner & Outer Mewian
Common features (the first three are a result of an early West-South sprachbund)

• Debuccalization of fricatives in the coda

• The clusters /sr sl/ becoming /str/

• The affricates /t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/ with /s z/

Sucumian languages
Spoken by the Sucumi in the Sucumian Isles, a laid back and worriless people, who live off of fishing, whaling and hunting seabirds. This subbranch is split into two main groups: Light Sucumian and Dark Sucumian. These languages are notable for being named with colour terms. The Light Sucumian languages are mostly spoken by fishing communities while Dark Sucumian is spoken by seabird hunters.

Light Sucumian: Red Sucumian, White Sucumian, Silver Sucumian
Common features

• Loss of the dental fricative *δ

Dark Sucumian: Blue Sucumian, Green Sucumian, Gold Sucumian

Synraspian languages
The largest subgroup, spoken across the entire continent, where many of the different branches have underwent very innovative changes such so that resemblance can be hard to spot for the untrained eye - especially when comparing modern Sumric languages to modern Tuuric ones. This group is distinguished by having Proto-Sumric as the most recent ancestor. It is further broken down into Early Synraspian and Late Synraspian. Early Synraspian is an extinct branch which contained Hajec, spoken by ancient deer herders on the island Gwozhaltasyr before their language and culture was mostly replaced with a Late Synraspian one. Late Synraspian contains Old Tuura and its descendants, plus Old Sumrë and its descendants. Notable for having innovated a system of umlaut.

The descendants of Old Tuura are divided into three branches.

Tundra Tuura: Theukish, Trukian, Dhaulish
Steppe Tuura: Kirudish, Walvian, Tasian
Taiga Tuura: Okiestans, Swarât
Common features

• A system of consonant gradation based on the openness of a syllable

• No voiced plosives

The descendants of Old Sumrë are divided into six branches.

Alatir: Alatir - Spoken by the Alatir who, by a misguided journey, slept for millenia before waking up. As a result their language is much more archaic than the modern languages, having evaded millenia of sound changes.
Lammi: Lammi - Also archaic but only due to dying out and being revived millenia later for politcal purposes.
Naumes: Naumes, Svatolian
Nusibaric: North Nusibara, West Nusibara, East Nusibara - All dialects. Cognates can be tricky to spot in this language thanks to the extensive metathesis and cluster simplification of Old Nusibara.
Middle Sumric: (East Sumric) Chozh, Juakrish, (North-West Sumric) Branjish, West Branjish, (South-West Sumric) Risorese, Meddio
Mocic: A huge dialect continuum stretching from the west coasts to the distant east coast. Undeniably the most innovative branch of the entire language family both phonologically and grammatically. There are too many languages/dialects to list here but they fit into East Mocic, West Mocic, Mid Mocic and Kheldre Mocic.

Apologies for the long wordy post. Now I can begin to post funner etymology posts!

[Mawatarra]

For our first etymology we will follow the Proto-Sumro-Letaeric root *fiwÿr "passion, display of emotion".

In Proto-Letaere this became *viwÿr. This gave Old Letaere vijyr "passion, outburst" and Old Ethei vjūr "passion, sign of weakness". The Old Ethei form remained unchanged in its descendants.

In Proto-Sumro-Naukl it became *fiw "show of devotion".
In the Naukl languages the stem came to refer to "wedding, marriage": Proto-Naukl *ěö > Ethogiath jö and Old Naukl io. Further is Middle Naukl uõ which remains the same in Naukl and Jyztrees.

In Proto-Mangeodge it became *fēo- "oath of allegiance". The early Mangeodge, having a strict social hierarchy and more complex social/legal structure far beyond that of any other contemporary people in the Malomanan continent, placed heavy importance upon promises and oaths. The root became the Old Mangeodge fejovi (the extra -vi is an innovated inanimate noun marker, from the Proto-Mangeodge accusative suffix *-we. Old Mangeodge derives it nominative nouns from Proto-Mangeodge accusative nouns).
Further from Old Mangeodge fejovi is:

• West Middle Mangeodge: hivi which remained the same in Romoruzian and Rovianzian

• Mid Middle Mangeodge: fejóv > Middle Outer Mangeodge fejev (The Surwian reflex did not change), > Early & Modern Binerith fejəv "promise"

• South Middle Mangeodge: ejovi > South Outer Mangeodge ayf "contract" (Outer Mewian ayv), South Inner Mangeodge iōf "contract" (Inner Mewian waf). The South Middle mangeodge term was loaned into the Synraspian language Misiuri (as a shit tonne of other words were) as hejo "oath of allegiance", becoming Early Meddio hi which remained the same in Risorese, but in Modern Meddio became the suffix -i meaning "oath of X". The Misiuri term in Primitive Branjish became hejo "relationship between a domestic giant eagle and its rider" (the Branjish are famed for having domesticated the predatory giant eagles) further becoming Old Branjish he.

Old Mangeodge derived an animate noun from fejovi, that being fejoi "someone who one has sworn an oath to, someone to who an oath has been sworn"

• West Middle Mangeodge: hiio, surviving only in Romoruzian as hiio [hiː].

• Mid Middle Mangeodge: fejó "close friend" > Mid Outer Mangeodge feje "close friend, term of address used amongst young men" (Surwian fej "term of address used among young men, informal greeting used by men"), Early Binerith fejə "close friend" (Binerith fej)

• South Middle Mangeodge: ejoi > South Outer Mangeodge ajai (Outer Mewian aei), South Inner Mangeodge æjai (remained the same in Inner Mewian). The South Middle Mangeodge feminine form ejoja "woman who has sworn an oath" was loaned into Misiuri as ejoja with the new meaning "wife", further giving Early Meddio eo (which remained the same in Risorese and Meddio) and Primitive branjish ea.

In Proto-Mangeodge the word *fēo appeared in the phrase *fēo jar maruǰe "prayer, oath to god" which survived into Old Mangeodge as fejovi jar marucgei. The South Middle Mangeodge rendering of the phrase (ejovi jar maruzai) was loaned into Misiuri as a single word jovijamaru "prayer, oath to god"; becoming Early Meddio ofiama (Risorese ofiama, Meddio oheama).
Based on this phrase Old Mangeodge formed a new phrase but with the animate form of the stem fejoi: fejoi jar marucgei "someone who has sworn an oath to god, devotee". A mincing of this phrase became a popular forename among the pious Mangeodge: Fejomarucgei (with the feminine form Fejomarucgeja).

• West Middle Mangeodge: Himaruze, Himaruzia (remains unchanged in Romoruzian and Rovianzian)

• Mid Middle Mangeodge: Feomarucgje, Feomarucgeja > Mid Middle Mangeodge Feomaracgje, Feomaracge (Surwian Feomarəcg, Feomaracge)

• Old Etjarutr: Pijumarudei, Pijumarudija

• South Middle Mangeodge: Ejomaruzai, Ejomaruzeja which was loaned into South Middle Mangeodge (surprise) as Ejomarusai, Ejomaruseja; giving Early Meddio Eomaro, Eomaruse (Meddio Eomyro, Eomyrudde - the name was seen as too Meddio-y to be given to Risorese children...genocides tend to give such a distaste) and Primitive Branjish Ejomarusi (only the male form survived into Branjish; Old Branjish Iamarus)

In Proto-Sucumian *fiwÿr became *fuu "coming of age ritual"

• Light Sucumian: hu (Red Sucumian hu)

• Dark Sucumian: fuu

Proto-Sumro-Letaeric derived another term from the root by compounding it with *əqur "anger" to create *fiwÿr-əqur "rage, explosion of anger, bloodlust". The compound only survives in Sumro-Naukl and is not present in Letaeric. It became Proto-Sumro-Naukl *fiwrxu (notice how the loss of word final *r was prevented by the latter half of the compound). *fiwrxu itself only survives in mangeodge and Sumric.
In Proto-Mangeodge it became *fēoru- "skill in battle, warsong" giving Old Mangeodge fejorovi.

• West Middle Mangeodge: hirv (Romoruzian hirv [hiʁ], Rovianzian hiv)

• Mid Middle Mangeodge: fejoróv "warsong, warcry" > Mid Outer Mangeodge fejarev (remains the same in Surwian).

• Old Etjarutr: pijurubi "roar" (The Etjarutr are descendants of humans who had gained the ability to take the forms of monstrous animals)

South Middle Mangeodge: ejorovi "warsong" which was loaned into Misiuri as ejoro "crusade song" (Misiuri speakers were divided into two, those who had converted to the Mangeodge religion and those who kept the native mythology. The converts led violent crusades to get rid of those who refused to convert.) becoming Early Meddio eo - this now became homophonous with eo "wife" so it was compounded with na "song" for disambiguation to make eona (remains the same in Meddio and Risorese) and Primitive Branjish ejoro "screech of a giant eagle" (Old Branjish eor).
*fiwrxu survived into Proto-Sumric as the adjective *fyrxu "violent, angry, beserk, enraged" becoming Old Sumrë fürhu "violent".

[Mawatarra]

This post will follow the descendants of *bodʲo- "to frolic, to prance".

In Proto-Letaeric the root became *bodʲoʔ- with no change in meaning. This gave Old Letaere bodyenis "to joke around, to tease" and Old Ethei bodʲoʔ- "to skip, to jog, to tread lightfully" (Middle Ethei boǰiʔ-, Old Wacal bodʲoʔ-).

the bare root itself did not survive into Sumro-Naukl but the causative form *bodʲo-sʲ. The Proto-Sumro-Letaeric causative *-sʲ could also derive nouns which caused the resulting state. In this case *bodʲo-sʲ meant "flirtation, fun celebration, dancing". This gave Proto-Sumro-Naukl *bodos.
In Mangeodge the word shifted to mean "festival holiday": Proto-Mangeodge *bados- > Old Mangeodge badosvi:

• West Middle Mangeodge: badv (Romoruzian bâv, Rovianzian bedv)

• Mid Middle Mangeodge: badós > Mid Outer Mangeodge bades (Surwian bades)

• South Middle Mangeodge: badovi which was loaned into Misiuri as bado, giving Early Meddio bad (Meddio bad)

• Old Etjarutr: badosbi

In Proto-Sumric the word became *bodos "playfulness" survived in Hajec (bodos "playfulness, friendliness") and Old Tuura (buodduos "playfulness, fun") but not in Old Sumrë. Rather Old Sumrë has a descendant via the Proto-Sumric compound *ġoś-bodos "fun, game" (*goś "passtime, something to do while bored") which results in Old Sumrë erbedes "interest, hobby" from which Old Sumrë derives the noun knerbedes "obsession, delusion" (the kn- prefix serves to derives nouns which resemble the head-noun but are in fact malicious).

[Mawatarra]

This post will follow the descendants of *bəlar- "to scream, to shout".

In Letaeric this only survives in Old Letaere buɬrenis "to scream in pain, to flinch in pain" (<Proto-Letaeric *bəɬər-)


In Proto-Sumro-Naukl it became *bla- "to yell, to make noise, to give away one's position" but it also was used as an existential pronoun ("there is"). The stem was also present in the name of the River Rei, reconstructed as *blaskəqwo "yelling water" (in reference to the loud rapids along stretches of the river). From this comes Proto-Sumric *blosko > Old Sumrë Bleekȯ which survives as Rei in both Risorese and Meddio (< Misiuri Preio). The Old Sumrë name was loaned into Old Etjarutr when the hybrid monster-humans settled there, escaping genocide in their homeland, they knew the river as Bleiko.

In Mangeodge the stem survives only as the existential pronoun, becoming a particle at the beginning of a sentence: Proto-Mangedge *ble > Old Mangeodge bli where it remains mostly unchanged throughout the family, although both dialects of Mewian coincidentally changes it back to ble following a vowel shift.

In Proto-Sucumian it became *βlat "to call out into fog, to summon" becoming Light Sucumian βwat "to summon, to guide" > Red Sucumian vat - from Red Sucumian derived Vakánás "that which guides", the name of a falcon in their mythology who lead their ancestors through a thick fog to their native islands. In turn a poetic name for a Sucumian is Vakánásje "that which is guided".

In Proto-Sumric the stem became *blə- "to gleam" - it is fairly common in these languages for words denoting one sense to change to refer to another sense, so what was once loud to the ears is now bright to the eyes. Only Old Tuura inherited the bare stem, having bloti "to gleam, to shine, to sparkle, to reflect". However Proto-Sumric had a few compounds with *blə- which had more success.

• *aź-blə "for the sun to shine" (<*aź- is a prefix which derives verbs typically done during the day, ultimately from PSL *azu "dawn") > Hajec azbli, Old Tuura aźbloti, Old Sumrë amblen.

• *blə-śβ "arctic wintergreen" (< *-śβ is a diminutive suffix) > Old Sumrë blӑn, the Proto-Sumric word was then loaned into the unrelated Jaronic language family, entering Proto-Jaronic as *blés- (Nulbuóka bláza "shrub", Bēgridyárahe bláhe, Old Kiza plazan)

Proto-Sumro-Letaeric also derived a causative verb from the root making *bəlar-sʲ "to scare" which survives only among the Ethei language of the Letaeric family: Middle Ethei bošrs, Old Wacal bšrs "to scare" (<Old Ethei bəšrs < Proto-Letaeric *bəɬərs). In Sumro-Naukl it is found only in Ethogiath and among the Sucumian languages. Ethogiath gives us blarsta "to scare, to threaten, for the sea to make one feel uneasy when you look to its horizon". In Proto-Sucumian it became *βlarrt "to thrash water to scare away sharks" giving Light Sucumian βwarrt (Red Sucumian vart, White Sucumian arrt, Silver oβwərrd) and Dark Sucumian βlarrδ "to splash, to thrash about in the water".

[Zekoslav]

This feels like reading an introduction to Indo-European linguistics for the first time once again! Being immersed in a completely unknown world for the first time and confronted with snippets of unknown languages, I can't comment much but you seem to have done a good work with lots of detail. I see snippets of fantasy coming through (sleeping for millennia and riding giant eagles), and having the majority of a language family be spoken far from its homeland by language-shifted peoples is a nice twist! Keep up the good work and don't shy away from posting even if there's not much comment!

[Mawatarra]

This feels like reading an introduction to Indo-European linguistics for the first time once again! Being immersed in a completely unknown world for the first time and confronted with snippets of unknown languages, I can't comment much but you seem to have done a good work with lots of detail. I see snippets of fantasy coming through (sleeping for millennia and riding giant eagles), and having the majority of a language family be spoken far from its homeland by language-shifted peoples is a nice twist! Keep up the good work and don't shy away from posting even if there's not much comment!

Thank you! It is very nice to hear that. I will definitely continue with the posting!

[Mawatarra]

In this post I follow the descendants of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric *qat "gathering, crowd".

Just before the breakup of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric this word underwent grammaticalisation where it came to mean "together, alongside" as well as retaining its original meaning. This is evidenced by this dual meaning being preserved in Letaeric as "meeting, council, together, alongside":

Old Letaere: qá

• mutyhah qá "there was a meeting" (be.3SG.PST meeting)

• qyjé qá hwojihyrehāh "the men trimmed vegetation together" (man-NOM.PL together trim_vegetation-3PL.PST)

In Proto-Sumro-Naukl the original nominal meaning was lost and the adverbial meaning of "together, alongside" was further grammaticalised into a noun phrase conjunction clitic *-qa.
In Proto-Naukl the clitic became *-q, giving Ethogiath -k: hötalek lwek "smoke and ash" (lwe "ash"). However in Old Naukl it survives only the particle mäqq (<mäz-q < mäz "but, then") "and so on" used when listing nouns: aasebl, mäzidäaz mäqq... "joy, generosity and so on..".


In Mangeodge and Synraspian it retains its conjunctive meaning very well.
Notably in Old Mangeodge and its daughters, the clitic attaches to a form of noun which derives from the Proto-Mangeodge nominative form (Old Mangeodge lost these forms as they were replaced by the Proto-Mangeodge accusative forms). As such any gendered ending showing number and case (inherited via the old accusative) is not marked: pejorotvi "moon" + eoslevi "sun" = pejorotvi eosleki "the sun and moon".

Within the Synraspian languages the conjunctive clitic remained rather stable, albeit with some stem alternations independently occurring in Hajec and Old Tuura:

• Hajec: When the stem ends in nasal vowel, the nasal vowel becomes Vn before the clitic -ak: astezą "trinket" > astezanak "and trinket"

• Old Tuura: Old Tuura has a system of consonant gradiation where non-initial consonants on the onset of closed syllables are long, while those in the onset of open syllables are short. Affixation can cause open syllables to close and vice versa which affects consonant length and the clitic -ak /ak/ is no exception: juosodommok "hip" > juosodomoggak "and a hip". (In Steepe Tuura the clitic would also affect stress placement which then affected vowel loss: juosódómmk > juosódmóggak - in modern Kirudish the alternation of consonant quantity become one of quality: josúδúmmh > josúδmúkah)

In Old Sumrë it was the clitic itself which would alternate. When the stem ended in a consonant the clitic was -ak, as it was in Proto-Sumric. But after a vowel metathesis occured to prevent a hiatus, becoming -ka: bedal "needle" > bedalak "and a needle" vs barta "shell" > bartaka "and a shell".
In Alatir the conjunctive was shaped by sound changes to be marked in two ways:

• 1) the post-consonantal clitic -ak became -ka thanks to metathesis of Vk# > kV# and not only that but if metathesis already occured within the stem itself, it would be reversed with the attachment of the clitic: adüka "mushroom" > adüakka "and a mushroom", bedla "needle" > bedalka "and a needle" - it doesn't stop there.

• 2) the post-vocalic clitic -ka became the infix -k-, This was thanks to an early loss of word final vowels causing -ka to become -k (the clitic also shielded word final vowels of them stem from being lost in the conjunctive, causing them to reappear along with the clitic) and then the metathesis caused the k and the shielded vowel to swap places, any other word final changes would also be blocked by the clitic: bzim "birch" > bzipki "and birch" (<Old Sumrë bhipi > bhipika)

In Old Naumes, another daughter of Old Sumrë, sound changes also had their fun with the clitic. Old Naumes experienced a number of intervocalic shifts which were enabled in nouns ending in VC when the post-consonantal clitic was attached. The clitic itself became -aḥ /aʔ/, or -āḥ if after a voiced stop or fricative.: bāttan "jellyfish" > bāttadāḥ "and a jellyfish". When the stem ends in a glottal stop (from Old Sumrë word final short plosives), then the clitic will cause the plosive to restore, albeit with its shifted intervocalic quality: isruḥ "beautiful" > isruṛaḥ "and a beautiful X" (<OS isrut), klaḥ "ice" > klakhaḥ "and ice" (<OS klák), lilaḥ "bat" > lilabvāḥ "and a bat" (<OS lürab).
The post-vocalic clitic -ka became -kha thanks to intervocalic lenition: na "person" > nakha "and a person".
In Middle and modern Naumes this allomorph continued with little change (beyond the loss of short vowels in syllables preceding those with long vowels):
Middle > Modern

• boutn - boutdā́ > boutnu - boutdáu

• isrá - isrará > sirá - sirará

• klá - klahá > kölá - kölaiá

• lilá - lilhvā́> lilá - làilhváu

• na - naha> na - naia

Modern Naumes's sister language Svatolian lost this altogether under its increasing influence from South Luabian (a distantly related Synraspian language) where it borrowed the conjunction jes (<South Luabian jec /jɛɕ/, which is from Old Sumrë erh "also").

In Mocic languages the clitic was replaced by descendants of Old Sumrë erh "also" while the Middle Sumric languages use descendants of Middle Sumri stöörha, which comes from a late Old Sumrë usage sė tööloka "and this thing", which as you can see features the clitic albeit in a fossilised form.


Enough with the Synraspian language as now we move onto *qat's most innovative use yet, found in the Light Sucumian languages. We'll use Red Sucumian as our example language. In Red Sucumian the conjunctive is remarkably irregular thanks to the sound changes of Proto-Sucumian > Light Sucumian > Red Sucumian wreaking havoc with analogy not caring to level anything out. Also the usage had changed, when two nouns are joined together both nouns now take on the conjunctive form: harq valq "the heron and the frog" (heron-CONJ frog-CONJ), but also the conjunctive is used to place extra emphasis on a noun: hoqo mequl! "even the goat can do it!" (CONJ/goat be_able.3SG.ANIM)

In Red Sucumian most nouns simply add the suffix -q with no changes: vuus "tide" > vuusq, mor "god" > morq, vaq "tail" > vaqq.
Other nouns do experience a stem change but only when the suffix is applied in the nominative singular, an inflected noun always adds -q after any case endings no matter what. Some nouns ending in a vowel may add v before the clitic: ha "small island" > havq.
Some nouns ending in a mid vowel after a consonant which follows a vowel lose said mid vowel: ope "falcon" > opq, huuve "whale eye"> huuvq. The noun vatvo "monster"is an exception as the final mid vowel follows a cluster: vatvq.

Some nouns which used to end in a now lost word final regain the vowel when the clitic is applied: rasǰ "village"> rasǰáq, uus "bird"> uusáq . In some cases fricates that were lost before a word final consonant are also restored: nervák "spring" > nerváhskájoq.

Some nouns ending in l turn that final l into r: væjl "sky" > væjr .

Some nouns ending in at/át drop the t: vat "day" > vaq , álvanvát "fifth day of the week" > álvanváq . This is due to the word final cluster in Proto-Sucumian *št becoming *štq with the clitic applied which was then simplified to *šq. Red Sucumian then lost fricatives before word final consonants.

Some nouns ending in a consonant cluster delete the final consonant of the stem before applying -q: hars "heron" > harq , vans "name"> vanq , valč "frog" > valq.

Other nouns have changes that are less predictable: ač "enemy" > čaq, hako "goat" > hoqo.

[Khemehekis]

All this semantic drift is well-done . . . and very imaginative. Too many conlangers doing diachronic languages will make every word in the daughter language mean the same thing it does in the mother language.

[Mawatarra]

In this post I will show an overview of the history of the languages and how they ended up in their current homelands. prepare for lots of roughly made maps! This post will cross heavily into worldbuilding territory but I'm sharing it here as it is merely to provide background on the languages that I will showcase here.


This very first picture shows a very vague map of northern Makutevnag 9,000 YBP (years before present). Very little is known about what languages were spoken here as later migrations and contact with southern peoples would keep changing the linguistic landscape, for northern Makutevnag is the final stop of the continuously northward movement. It is quite certain that the Nebyetic languages are one of the few modern languages that are truly indigenous to the area. These Nebyetic people are the genetic ancestors of the Sumro-Naukl speakers even though they speak languages from an unrelated family. The Nebyeto lived among the large swathes of temperate forests, hunting and gathering to sustain themselves.


Incomers arrive! At this time a group of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric speaking people known as the Akhopo travelled from an unknown location in the south, the knowledge of exactly where has been lost by the passing of time. There have been attempts to connect Proto-Sumro-Letaeric with languages to the south but data proves to be very lacking to give any reliable answer. These Akhopo people were horticulturalists. When they arrived in the forested north they quickly became busy with felling large swathes of land to make way for large settlements and fields. This attracted quite some interest among the native hunter-gatherers, especially the Nebyeto. The Nebyeto started to interact and trade heavily with the Akhopo, with the Nebyeto trading protein rich and fatty meat into return for carbohydrates. While the Akhopo lived in large towns of stone the Nebyeto lived in small villages scattered about in the forest and often times a whole village would up and move to a new area every few years when local resources were depleted. This heavy contact saw many cultural influences which mostly flowed from the Akhopo to the Nebyeto more than the other way around. The small pantheon of the Akhopo mythology had become assimilated into the larger Nebyetic pantheon giving rise to the classic South Nebyetic mythical model of having two sets of gods; one small set of high ranking gods that derive from the Akhopo gods and a larger class of lower ranking native nebyetic gods. By around 6,000 YBP some of the Nebyeto ditched their native language (Tagitwi), they began speaking Proto-Sumro-Letaeric, the language of the Akhopo, as their primary language.


After some time the Proto-Sumro-Letaeric spoken by the Nebyeto had diverged into its own daughter language called Proto-Sumro-Naukl. The Proto-Sumro-Naukl speakers no longer lived in tiny villages in the forest but rather they took to living in a great cave system when foreign raiders had driven them out of the forests. With Akhopo aid they built a city of stone in a giant cave which the Nebyeto held sacred. They believed that their primary god of the underground lived in this cave and that he would protect them. After a few generations of living in the cave city they became horticulturalists themselves with the occasional hunting and so their contact with the Akhopo decreased. This shift in lifestyle caused the first major divergence of the Nebyetic people; between the nomadic hunter-gatherer Nebyetic speakers (North Nebyeto) and the sedentary horticulturist Proto-Sumro-Naukl speakers (South Nebyeto). The descendants of the latter would go on to spread and diversify to even greater extents in time to come.

When the South Nebyeto lived in their cave city their society became more heavily based on that of the Akhopo. The older egalitarian ways of their small villages was replaced by a system of chieftain kings and a priestly class who served to interpret the will of the gods to the people.


The coastline of northern Makutevnag looked quite different than how it does today. At around 4,713 years before present there was a rise in sea levels which submerged much of the low lying lands in northern Makutevnag. At this time much of the Nebyetic land was lost to the sea as was a deal of the Akhopo land. Their ancient inland territory now exists as a stretch of coastline and some islands. The death toll of those unfortunate enough to be living in drowned areas must have been enormous, but enough survived in higher areas that the populations managed to survive.


The South Nebyeto lived in the great cave city for some time in peace but it was not to last forever. One day a superherd of wolves rampaged through the area and they happened upon the city. Hundreds of raving and mad wolves tore away at any pour soul they could catch. The wolves poured into the caves and brought chaos and destruction to the great cave city. Many died with sharp teeth around their necks but several thousand people had managed to escape with tunnels leading away from the butchery. The survivors came out of the tunnels several miles away with no home to return to and a great danger to flee from. The people fled north and east for they knew that they had no enemies up there. They made the great journey to what was then the northernmost coast, surviving by hunting and gathering along the way as they could. When they reached the coast the people split into two; those who thought that they had travelled far enough and those who wanted to try their luck at sea to reach some islands that sat on the horizon.



Not long after their arrival the sea levels rose again, in fact the land where the others had remained became cut off from the mainland forming two new islands, there the people became the Naukl whose language would become Proto-Naukl and its descendants. The lesser Proto-Sumro-Naukl speaking settlements back in the old homeland experienced a new surge in contact with Proto-Letaeric speakers, eventually dropping Proto-Sumro-Naukl for Proto-Letaeric.


The Letaeric speakers would go on to expand greatly along the coast, diverging into two main groups: Old Letaere speakers and Old Ethei speakers. Around this time the Old Letaere speakers developed an alphabet which would go on to be used across the entirety of northern Makutevnag.


By 2,400YBP we start to see a huge shift in the linguistic landscape. Two other language families start becoming very dominant, spreading along coastlines and swallowing up all the little language along the way, wiping them out before any record of them could ever be left. To the south, the Guningarang languages start spreading north along the east coast, eventually coming into contact with Letaere speakers. The nature of the contact can't be known for sure, but considering Letaere's prestige and stronghold in the area, it's eventual replacement must not have been a peaceful one. Meanwhile the Buktu language spread north to south, coming into contact with speakers of Old Wacal and Middle Ethei. The nature of this contact was probably a mix of trade/intermarriage with a slight possibility of war, but probably overall a peaceful one considering how these are the two Letaeric languages that survive yet, although with a significantly smaller presence.


By the time of the modern day, Letaere had long been wiped out by the Gunigarang languages, which continued to spread north, even becoming spoken in previously Wacal/Ethei speaking areas. Likewise the Buktu languages completely replaced Wacal and Ethei along the coasts, leaving Wacal being spoken in a small enclave far north completely cut off from Ethei (which has its own tiny enclave spoken to the south). Ethogiath has also been wiped out, having been slowly replaced by its sister language Old Naukl. Middle Naukl then split into Naukl and Jyztrees (spoken on the island which previously spoke Ethogiath). Although the interior of this area looks blank, it is indeed filled with other languages but those are irrelevant to the Sumro-Letaeric languages. But that is not all? Did I not mention a few pictures back that some Proto-Sumro-Naukl speakers took to the sea in search of another homeland? Whatever happened to them? I'll continue that in the next post.

[Mawatarra]

All this semantic drift is well-done . . . and very imaginative. Too many conlangers doing diachronic languages will make every word in the daughter language mean the same thing it does in the mother language.

Thank you! Semantic drift is indeed a very fun thing to play around with.

[Mawatarra]

I said I would continue with the history of the Sumro-Naukl languages, but as I sat down last night I realised how long I would spend toiling over maps and I figured to torture myself with another day. Today an overview of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric will do!

PSL obviously had no writing system but modern linguists write it using the NPA (nebyetic Phonetic Alphabet), used to transcribe Sumro-Letaeric languages that lack their own writing systems.

Phonology

Consonants
All consonants in NPA are identical to how they are written in IPA.

PSL is reconstructed as having a fairly large consonant inventory, with most of the bulk coming from the palatal vs plain distinction. The status of the palatals was a tricky one to propose given their complete absence in the classic Sumro-Naukl languages, along with the fact that Old Letaere developed a form of harmony where palatalised consonants may occur only before high vowels (making it useless to judge whether a palatalised consonant was actually palatalised in PSL without looking at other languages). It is only in Ethei and Wacal that the palatalised plosives survive. Given that the palatalised consonants are present only in the two Ethei languages, it could be assumed that they are an innovation from Old Ethei, rather than a preservation that all other branches lost. But the presence of palatalised consonants are hinted at within Sumro-Naukl languages in the form of unlenited intervocalic plosives and non-retroflex *s *z. As according to Meocijao's Law, Proto-Sumro-Naukl lenited intervocalic plosives and made *s *z retroflexes between vowels, yet some consonants seemed to defy this change (Old Mangeodge asati "lucky", Old Tuura borodi "winter settlement"). This made Meocijao's Law seem sporadic at first but when a relationship was established with the Letaeric languages, Middle Ethei proved to be extremely helpful, for any time a cognate between the two branches contained an intervocalic plosive or *s *z in a Sumro-Naukl language, the cognate in Middle Ethei always had a palatalised consonant (except for *s):

• Middle Ethei: berečir "hall" - Old Tuura borodi "winter settlement", Hajec baritaf "box", Old Mangeodge baratevi "meeting place"

• Middle Ethei matiǧioz "aid, help" - Ethogiath madhidaõs "favour, act of kindness", Old Mangeodge mazedavozvi "labour done on another's farm as payment", Hajec matidivosf "sacrifice", Old Tuura madidovvovzm "id", Old Sumrë matidvos "id"

Looking at such cognates, it seems that the consonants were palatalised plosives in Proto-Sumro-Letaeric which were not affected by Meocijao's Law in Proto-Sumro-Naukl, only later losing their palatalisation.\\

This still doesn't explain the existence of *sʲ which is absent even in Middle Ethei. So how can it be reconstructed for Proto-Sumro-Letaeric? The answer lies in the reflexes of PSL *s. Instances of /s/ in Sumro-Naukl languages corresponding to either *θ~*t~*h or *s in Letaeric languages:

• Old Ethei məθ "to be", Old Letaere mutenis - Ethogiath masta, Old Mangeidge masti, Light Sucumian mas

• Middle Ethei teunoʔ "to go", Old Letaere tiunuenis - Old Mangeodge sejonti "to travel, to walk, to go", Old Sumrë sumen "to travel"

The instances of *θ~*t~*h descend from a Proto-Letaeric *θ, which consistently corresponds with /s/ in Sumro-Naukl languages. Evidently Proto-Letaeric shifted every instance of *s to *θ, leaving a gap causing *sʲ to become *s. This is supported by the fact that intervocalic /s/ in Sumro-Naukl languages tend to correspond with /s/ in Letaeric languages (since said /s/ in Sumro-Naukl languages would otherwise be a retroflex or a reflex of such):

• Middle Ethei watësor "bath" - Ethogiath waaõthes "bay", Old Mangeodge veicesevi "puddle"

• Middle Ethei woskdæer "deer", Old Letaere wusekdēr - Hajec asokt "bull", Old Tuura asogdiji, Old Sumrë askadia

Now for the actual inventory:

• Nasals: /m n/

Plosives, which besides the glottal and uvular stop come in voiced pairs, have three series, plain, palatalised and labialised (only only the velar and uvular plosives can be labialised):

• Plain: /p b t d k g q ʔ/

• Palatalised: /pʲ bʲ tʲ dʲ kʲ gʲ qʲ/

• Labialised: /kʷ gʷ qʷ/

• Fricatives: /f v s z ħ h/

The only palatalised fricative reconstructed is /sʲ/

• Trill: /r/

• Approximants: /l lʲ j ʍ w/

Vowels
PSL is reconstructed as having a fairly hearty selection of vowels, boasting both front rounded, central and back unrounded vowels.

• High:/i y ɨ ʉ u/ <i y ÿ ü u>

• Near-High: /ɪ ʊ/ <ǐ ǔ>

• Mid: /e ø ə ɤ o/ <e ö ə ë o>

• Mid-Low: /ɛ ɘ ɔ/ <ě ɘ ǒ>

• Low: /ɑ a/ <ǎ a>

Syllable Structure
The syllable structure was (C(r,l))V(V,W)(C)(C). Heterosyllabic clusters occur frequently and with no issue. There is a very high tendancy for stems to end in /r/. It is debatable as to whether this was once some kind of suffix that was widely applied but in PSL it seems to serve no purpose nor is it productive, if it ever was an affix.

Stress always fell on the leftmost syllable beginning in a consonantal onset. Compare *tulak- /'tu.lak/ with *iwəst /i'wəst./

Beyond that there is not much else to note about PSL's phonology, not much in the way of allophonic rules have thus far been reconstructed.

Nominal Morphology
PSL is reconstructed as having four noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative), three numbers (singular, paucal and plural) and two genders (animate and inanimate) much like its two immediate daughters. Its noun case paradigm as it was before the language split into PSN and PL is reconstructed in the table below.



The resulting paradigm in PL and PSN is very similar, excluding the sound changes both languages went through. In PL the animate endings split into final and medial forms due to the merger of word final *t to a glottal stop and loss of word final *ü not occuring when other suffixes were applied after the case endings.





Proto-Sumro-Letaeric's nominal paradigm was not static throughout its lifetime. Indeed earlier forms of the language (Pre-PSL) are reconstructed as having an individial vs non-individual gender distinction rather than animate vs inanimate where objects that could be singled out as distinct where "{individual" and objects whose distinction as separate entities were less important. Over time living creatures came to make up more and more of individual nouns while non-living things made up more of non-individual nouns that the system became animate-inanimate. It seems that originally only individual nouns were distinguished by number using the suffix *-ħeʔ but only in the nominative. Later on the language would gain the plural suffix *-ü for the rest of the cases (seemingly derived from *qü "human, man").



Unlike the individual class, nominative singular non-individual nouns took on the suffix *-awa which possibly originated as some kind of derivational suffix. The accusative was *-n, the genitive *-ǎw and the dative *-ut (*-ut is possibly related to the individual dative suffix *-awt but the relationship lies beyond what can be reconstructed). The original lack of a number distinction is probably due to how unimportant non-individual nouns were as separate objects. Eventually however a singular-plural distinction formed possibly by analogy of the distinction in the individual gender. The plural first appeared in the form of the suffix *-Vr giving the plural forms *-awa-r, *-n-ur, *-ǎw-ar, *-ut-ër. It's origins are not known nor is its vowel due to the rather sporadic and different qualities it has in the resulting suffixes. The next change was quite an odd one. The nominative plural suffix *-awa-r was then suffixed onto each singular case ending, possibly to reinforce the non-individual nature of the noun class, with phonological reductions then occurring;

• Accusative: *-n-awa-r > *-nwar > *-war

• Genitive: *-ǎw-awa-r > *-ǎwr

• Dative: *-ut-awa-r > *-utǎr

In yet another plot twist the nominative singular suffix dropped altogether to become zero marked just like the nominative singular of the individual gender.

Some remnants of the older individual vs non-individual distinction can still be seen in the paucal number which had two forms based on if the noun typically occurs alone or in groups (a distinction which is present in a fair number of even later Sumro-Naukl languages such as Old Sumrë). The paucal suffix to mark nouns which occur in groups (termed "Paucal 1") was *-hësir and the suffix to mark nouns which occur alone (termed "Paucal 2") was *-hir. In PSL the paucal did not take on any case marking however PSN later began attaching case endings onto the suffixes. One hypothesis states that the non-individual suffix *-hir is the older one, with *-hësir deriving from *-hir plus an infix *-ës-.
Another states that both descend from an older *-h where *-ir was a separate morpheme (Some linguists have proposed that it may be the very *-Vr suffix which arose in the non-individual plurals) with the individual also attaching a third morpheme *-ës between the two. However the information needed to give a precise answer is lacking.

Possessive Suffixes
Proto-Sumro-Letaeric marked possessiveness via suffixes on the noun. All case and number suffixes attached after the possessive suffix. The suffixes agree to the gender of the noun and not of the possessor.



The animate singular forms are the oldest, having the rest derived from it. The plural forms were derived simply by attaching the animate nominative plural suffix *-jeʔ. The inanimate forms were innovated by attaching the suffix *-ǒr, which served to derive inanimate nouns, followed by some shortening of *-batǒr, *-tatǒr, *-maratǒr to *-bǒr, *-tǒr, *-marǒr. No inanimate plural forms existed (Proto-Sumro-Naukl innovated the inanimate plural forms *-bǒś, *-tǒś, *-marǒś, having grammaticalised the PSL stem *so "all" as a suffix), again owing to the unimportance placed on inanimate's number due to PSL's individual/non-individual past.

As the animate nominative plural suffix attached after the possessive suffix, it caused ambiguity about whether *-bat-jeʔ meant that the noun was plural or that the person was plural, or both; e.g *vǒr-bat-jeʔ meant "my knives" and "our knife" and "our knives". This ambiguity would persist as a classical feature of Sumro-Letaeric languages.

Verbal Morphology
PSL is reconstructed as having a rather agglutinative verbal morphology, with 8 tenses (present, last-night, yesterday, near past, far past, immediate future, near future and far future), 4 aspects (imperfect, perfect, habitual and deliminative) and 2 moods (indicative and interrogative).

Person Marking

• 1SG: *-s

• 2SG: *-iwəsʲ

• 3SG: *-ǎsə

• 1PL: * -iwəgə

• 2PL: *-itʲ

• 3PL: *-ehorv

PSL *siwənu- "to go" > *siwənus "I go" (Middle Ethei teunut "I go" , Old Mangeodge sejons "I walk/go")
PSL

Tenses
The tense suffixes, which were placed after the person endings were as follows:

Present: unmarked

• Last Night: *-b

• Last Night: *-n

• Yesterday: *-s

• Far Past: *-əkə

• Immediate Future: *-riwəkə

• Near Future: *-iwəst

• Far Future: *-jeʔ

Aspects

Perfect
The perfect aspect was marked with the suffix *-hat which attached before person marking suffixes:

PSL *siwənu- "to go" > *siwənuhat "to have went" > *siwənuhats "I have went" (Middle Ethei teunōt "id", Old Mangeodge sejones "id")
PSL *basd- "to scratch" > *basdhat "to have scratched" > *basdhatǎsə "it has scratched" (Old Letaere buthá "to have scratched", Middle Ethei botaʔ, Ethogiath baata "to have stabbed", Old Mangeodge badati "to have chopped", Old Tuura badoti "to have cut", Light Sucumian bawita "to have gutted a fish", Dark Sucumian baħδa)

Habitual
The habitual aspect was marked with the suffix -ÿtʲ, which in Proto-Sumro-Naukl became the derivation suffix *-ət deriving verbs with the meaning "prone to do X"

PSL *gǒnjar- "to assist" > *gǒnjarsÿtʲ "I often assist" (Old Letaere goŋjāut, Middle Ethei gòŋjtyči)
PSL *basd- "to scratch" > *basdǎsÿtʲ "it often scratches" (Old Letaere butyhyt, botëteči)

Deliminative
The deliminative was used to mark an action done for only a short amount of time. It was marked with the suffix *-ħeʔ. Like the perfect it also attached before the person and tense affixes.

PSL *dǒhida- "to talk" > *dǒhidaħeʔiwəsʲəkə "you spoke for a while" (Ethogiath dõõidhaajøthc "you convinced for a while")

Mood

Interrogative
The interrogative mood was marked with the suffix *-idit, which in Proto-Sumro-Naukl survived only in the interrogative forms of the copula: *maśiwsiδi "are you?" < *mas-iwəsʲ-idit.

PSL *basd- "to scratch" > *basdǎsidit "does it scratch?" ( Old Letaere butyhidí, Middle Ethei botëtideʔ)

The interrogative and habitual could be combined, with the interrogative suffix coming first:

PSL *basdǎsiditÿtʲ? "does it always scratch?"

In Proto-Sumro-Naukl the interrogative was innovated with the new prefix *m- (from *mas- "to be"): *m-bla-ǎś } "does it yell?"
This nasal prefix in Proto-Sumric would be lost but it left behind the effect of the first vowel of the stem being nasalised. As nasal vowels were otherwise non-existent in Proto-Sumric this nasal vowel then became Vn, becoming a nasal infix: *blə̃-əś? "does it gleam?" > *blənəś (cf Old Tuura: bloti "to gleam" > blonnoś "does it gleam?")

Non-finite Verbs
Transgressive

The transgressive creates an adverb roughly meaning "while X" or "having done X" (when combined with the perfect). The transgressive is formed with the suffix *-üÿm onto the third person singular form of the verb:

PSL *tulakǎs "it throws" > *tulakǎsüÿm "while throwing"
PSL *tulakhatǎs "it has thrown" > *tulakhatǎsüÿm "having thrown"

Verbal Nouns
Proto-Sumro-Letaeric had two verbal nouns affixes: *k- and -tat. *k- served to mark the supine, usually used to describe motion or to indicate purpose and intention, or as the predicate of another verb. In daughter languages, the supine would often be used to create abstract nouns from verbs.

PSL *tulak- "to throw" > *ktulak "throwing, to throw" (Light Sucumian ksuuk "shooting", Old Sumrë ksülak)

*-tat meanwhile had a much more broad function, serving to derive abstract nouns denoting the action itself (as mentioned, the supine would later take up this role in many daughters):

PSL *tulaktat "throwing, act of throwing"

The *-tat participle would go on to become the infinitive suffix in many of the Sumro-Naukl languages: Old Tuura bloti "to gleam", Old Mangeodge vasuluti "to beat, to hit", Ethogiath ekeehta "to barter", Light Sucumian atf "to remove".

Proto-Sumro-Letaeric very likely had no infinitive itself, a feature present in only three of the "classic" Sumro-Letaeric languages...Middle Ethei, Old Wacal and Hajec. Any other Sumro-Letaeric languages with no infinitive merely lost it from an ancestor that did.

Participles
The present participle was formed with the suffix *-unu:

PSL *basd- "to scratch" > *basdunu "scratching"
PSL *əgajaqav- "to lure" > *əgajaqavunu "luring"

The suffix *-unu is the origin of the Old Sumrë infinitive suffix *-en: PSL *əgajaqavunu > PSN *ġajaxavun > Proto-Sumric *ġajaxəβěn > Old Sumrë ajahwen "to involve, to summon, to include, to engross"

Past Participle
The past participle was formed with the suffix *-isk:

PSL *ainlǒk- "to accuse, to blame" > *ainlǒkisk "accused, blamed" (Red Sucumian álükek "verbally harassed", Old Tuura uorloggig "informed", Old Sumrë ėnlokik "explained")

Derivation
Proto-Sumro-Letaeric had a rich system of derivation which gifted the daughter languages which vocabulary which reaches far beyond the bare stems. As an example I will show the PSL derivatives of the stem *vaqʷir- "to secrete, to drool".

• Present Tense: *vaqʷirǎsə "it drools" (Old Letaere vukʷuruhá, Old Mangeodge vagac "it bleeds", Old Sumrë begiyr, Light Sucumian βaqʷś)

• Causative: *vaqʷirsʲ "to present tasty food, to look tasty, to wring" (Old Letaere vukʷāsenis "to cook for", Old Mangeodge vagjarsti "to wring a cloth, to wind rope")

• *-ab: *vaqʷirab "sloppy, sicky, covered in drool" (Ethogiath ekjab "messy, gross", Light Sucumian βaqʷraβ "slimy", Old Tuura vuogirrob "muddy, slippy")

• *-e (derives from the causative): *vaqʷirsʲe "tasty, delicious" (Middle Ethei voqʷušsæmeʔ "to be tasty")

• *-ustʲër: *vaqʷirustʲër "drool, saliva" (Old Mangeodge vagjaroti, Dark Sucumian βaħʷruθe "soup")

• *-ǒr: *vaqʷirǒr "anus" (Middle Ethei voqʷiror, Old Naukl vepiž, Light Sucumian βaqʷrə, Hajec vohir "deer's anus")