N̠īṛevic Family Megathread

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Shemtov
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N̠īṛevic Family Megathread

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The N̠īṛevic languages are a family spoken on the Australia-sized continent of N̠īṛev, far to the southeast of Fuhe. Though Fuhe does not have contact, they have myths of a land they know as Antiirimpe, which features in much of their liteture as either a Utopia or, more often, as a Hostile land of Savages, based on Kanic reports.

Proto-N̠īṛevic Phonology:
/p m ʋ/ <p m v>
/t̪ n̪ l̪ ɹ̪/ <t n l r>
/t͡s ⁿt tˡ s r/ <t̠ n̠ l̠ s r̠>
/ʈ ɳ ɭ ɽ/ <ṭ ṇ ḷ ṛ>
/c ɲ ʎ j/ <c ñ j y>
/k ŋ/ <k ň>
/ʔ h/ <ʔ h>
/i e u o a/ <i e u o a>
/ i: e: u: o: a:/ <ī ē ū ō ā>
Only nasals, liquids and glottals can be codas.

The morphology of the proto-lang
Nominal Morphology:
The protolang had three gender, Masculine, Feminine and Neuter, and five cases, Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive, and Vocative.

Declension of a regular Masculine noun: <Val̠ī> "Monkey"
Singular:
Nominative: Val̠ī
Accusative:Val̠īhar
Dative: Val̠īharā
Genitive: Val̠īharāy
Vocative: Val̠īharāv

Plural:
Nominative: Val̠īʔāḷ
Accusative:Val̠īhaḷ
Dative: Val̠īhaḷā
Genitive: Val̠īhaḷāy
Vocative: Val̠īʔāḷō

Feminine noun: <Pūr̠im> "Sugarcane"
Nominative: Pūr̠im
Accusative:Pūr̠imīr
Dative: Pūr̠imīrē
Genitive: Pūr̠imīrī
Vocative: Pūr̠imō

Plural:
Nominative: Pūr̠imicīḷ
Accusative:Pūr̠imīḷ
Dative: Pūr̠imīḷē
Genitive: Pūr̠imīḷī
Vocative: Pūʀimicīḷō

Neuter noun: Kāpali "Cloud"
Nominative: Kāpali
Accusative:Kāpalivor
Dative: Kāpalivorō
Genitive: Kāpalivoroy
Vocative: Kāpaliko

Plural:
Nominative: Kāpalikōḷ
Accusative:Kāpalivoḷ
Dative: Kāpalivoḷō
Genitive: Kāpalivoḷoy
Vocative: Kāpalikoḷō
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: N̠īṛevic Family Megathread

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UPDATE: Changed the Transcription system for the protolang. The original was damn ugly.
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: N̠īṛevic Family Megathread

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Aims and goals:
The Proto-Lang is meant to be a mixture of Latin and PrDravidian. Therefore, much of the diachronics will be inspired by Romance and Dravidian languages.

The family will be split into two main branches: Northwest and Southeast. The distinguishing features are the treatment of vowel length, the development of the alveolar series (except /r and s/, which will be stable in the early descendants), and the palatal sounds /c/ and /ʎ/.

PrNorthwest will have vowel length change to a qualitative difference, thus having the vowel inventory of /i ɪ ʊ u e ɛ o ɔ a ɐ/. /t͡s/ will merge with /s/, while /ⁿt/ will shift to /n̪̥/, possibly /ʰn̪/, while /tˡ/ will become /l̪̥/, possibly /ɬ̪/. /ʎ/ will shift to /j/, while /c/ is retained.

PrSoutheast will keep vowel length. /t͡s/ and /c/ will merge as /t͡ʃ/, while initial /ⁿt / will merge with /t̪/, while intervocally it merges with /n̪/ Initial /tˡ/ will also fuse with /t̪/, while intervocally it merges with /l̪/. /ʎ/ will fuse with /ɭ/. There will also be some kind palatalization of /k/, though the details are still being worked out.

Note the NW will split into Coastal NW and Interior NW, which will change the new vowel system in different ways, and while Coastal will be consonantally conservative, Interior will feature changes to the new phonemes /l̪̥/ and /n̪̥/. It may actually be better to divide the N̠īṛevic languages into three main Branches: Coastal, Inland and Southeast, but the first two came from a common dialect continuum, while Southeast developed in relative isolation, though with some SE dialects having contact with PrInland, thus leading Inland to develop in parallel the same features found in many branches of SE.
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Re: N̠īṛevic Family Megathread

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Note that the Southeast branches that are in contact with Inland (Desert and Highland), like South Inland (but using a different path), developed a voiced obstruent series, while the other main branches (Beach and Lowlands) developed an aspirated and ejective stop series in their common ancestor, PrBeach-Lowlands, which then developed differently in each subgroup ( eg. Lowlands voicing the ejectives under Desert influence)
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: N̠īṛevic Family Megathread

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

I'm really interested to see how this will evolve! I love expansive diacronics projects with multiple daughter families.
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Re: N̠īṛevic Family Megathread

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Adjectives in PrN̠īṛevic declined for gender, number, and case. However, the declension for accusative, dative and genitive fall together in the adjectives as an "oblique" case, since the dative and genitive of the nouns are based on the accusative form.
Example adjective: Vacām "large"
Masculine:
Nominative singular: Vacāma
Nominative plural: Vacāmaʔāḷ
Oblique singular: Vacāmar
Oblique plural: Vacāmaḷ
Vocative singular: Vacāmav
Vocative plural: Vacāmaʔō

Feminine:
Nominative singular: Vacāmi
Nominative plural: Vacāmicīḷ
Oblique singular: Vacāmīr
Oblique plural: Vacāmīḷ
Vocative singular: Vacāmīv
Vocative plural: Vacāmicō

Neuter:
Nominative singular: Vacāmo
Nominative plural: Vacāmokōḷ
Oblique singular: Vacāmōr
Oblique plural: Vacāmōḷ
Vocative singular: Vacāmō
Vocative plural: Vacāmokō
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: N̠īṛevic Family Megathread

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Evolution of the South Inland (aka Rainforestic) branch:
To Inland:
i:>i
i>e
e:>e
e>ɛ
u:>u
u>o
o:>o
o>ɔ
a>ɐ
a:>a
t͡s>s
ⁿt>ʰn̪
tˡ>ɬ̪
ʎ>j
Word-final /ʔ h/>∅
ʔ>h
/p m ʋ/ <p m v>
/t̪ n̪ ʰn̪ ɬ̪ l̪ ɹ̪/
/ s r/
/ʈ ɳ ɭ ɽ/
/c ɲ j/
/k ŋ/
/h/
/i e ɛ u o ɔ ɐ a/

To PrRainforestic:
/c/>/t͡ʃ/
/h/>/x/
Obstruents voiced intervocally
non-intervocally /ɬ̪/> t̪͡ɬ
intervocally /ɬ̪/>/l̪/
ʰn̪>n
unstressed /ɐ/>∅
stressed /ɐ/>/a/
/ɽ/>/ɭ/
sd>t͡s
zt>d͜z
tz>t͡s
ds>d͜͜z
xd>t͡ʃ
ɣt>d͡ʒ
tɣ>t͡ʃ
dx>d͡ʒ
zk>d͡ʒ
sg>>t͡ʃ
gs>d͡ʒ
ks>>t͡ʃ
xg>x
ɣk>ɣ
kɣ>x
gx>ɣ


/p m ʋ/ <p m v>
/t̪ d̪ n̪ t̪͡ɬ l̪ ɹ̪/
/t͡s d͜͜z s z r/
/ʈ ɖ ɳ ɭ/
/t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/
/ ɲ j/
/k g x ɣ ŋ/

/i e ɛ u o ɔ a/
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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Re: N̠īṛevic Family Megathread

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The Verb in Proto-N̠īṛevic consisted of a root, a middle- that marks the TAM, and a terminal, that marks the person and number (and in the 3P singular, gender). This post will focus on the present progressive indicative and Past Progressive Indicative TAMs.
The Present Progressive Indicative marker is -ʔ- for vowel final roots and ∅ for consonant final-roots. There is also a class of "weak a" verbs that take -aʔ- in this TAM, because other TAMs that begin with vowels suppress this a.

The past Progressive Indicative marker is (ā)ṛ. Note that if a root ends in r or r̠, the tense is marked by changing the consonant to ṛ. Similiarly, if the root ends in l or l̠, it changes to ḷ. If a root ends in ṛ or ḷ, the consonant is simply doubled.

Person-Number markers:
1P sing: -am
1P plr: -ān̠i
2P sing: -er̠
2P plr: -et̠ē
3P sing masc: -ā
3P sing fem: -ī
3P sing neut: āv
3P plr: ō

Three example verbs:

Sicā "To eat"
Present Progressive Indicative:
1P sing: Sicāʔam
1P plr: Sicāʔān̠i
2P sing: Sicāʔer̠
2P plr: Sicāʔet̠ē
3P sing masc: Sicāʔā
3P sing fem: Sicāʔī
3P sing neut: Sicāʔāv
3P plr: Sicāʔō

Past Progressive Indicative:
1P sing: Sicāṛam
1P plr: Sicāṛān̠i
2P sing: Sicāṛer̠
2P plr: Sicāṛet̠ē
3P sing masc: Sicāṛā
3P sing fem: Sicāṛī
3P sing neut: Sicāṛāv
3P plr: Sicāṛō

Maṛal̠ "To drink"
Present Progressive Indicative:
1P sing: Maṛal̠am
1P plr: Maṛal̠ān̠i
2P sing: Maṛal̠er̠
2P plr: Maṛal̠et̠ē
3P sing masc: Maṛal̠ā
3P sing fem: Maṛal̠ī
3P sing neut: Maṛal̠āv
3P plr: Maṛal̠ō

Past Progressive Indicative:
1P sing: Maṛaḷam
1P plr: Maṛaḷān̠i
2P sing: Maṛaḷer̠
2P plr: Maṛaḷet̠ē
3P sing masc: Maṛaḷā
3P sing fem: Maṛaḷī
3P sing neut: Maṛaḷāv
3P plr: Maṛaḷō


Ākōkot(a) "To speak"
Present Progressive Indicative:
1P sing: Ākōkotaʔam
1P plr: Ākōkotaʔān̠i
2P sing: Ākōkotaʔer̠
2P plr: Ākōkotaʔet̠ē
3P sing masc: Ākōkotaʔā
3P sing fem: Ākōkotaʔī
3P sing neut: Ākōkotaʔāv
3P plr: Ākōkotaʔō

Past Progressive Indicative:
1P sing: Ākōkotāṛam
1P plr: Ākōkotāṛān̠i
2P sing: Ākōkotāṛer̠
2P plr: Ākōkotāṛet̠ē
3P sing masc: Ākōkotāṛā
3P sing fem: Ākōkotāṛī
3P sing neut: Ākōkotāṛāv
3P plr: Ākōkotāṛō
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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