A new IE lang, once again

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Omzinesý
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A new IE lang, once again

Post by Omzinesý »

I have been thinking about a new IE lang lately.

Its ideal place has been moving around Eurasia (Spain, Latvia ...) but ATM I think it could be positioned on an island next to Sri Lanka.
Some of its sound changes could be explained by Dravidian influence.

Some features:
Phonology
- Merger of all three IE consonant series (t, dh, d), at least word-initially.
- Satemization (ḱ end up being θ, like Spanish <c>)

Morphology
- The class of adjectives dies and is replaced by genitive constructions "a man of honor". (This is not very areal, but I'm fond of it.)
- The system of verbs is reshaped very dramatically. Verbs agree person, number and gender of subjects and object.
- More cases are preserved than in most IE langs, leading to Slavic-style declensions with vocalic suffixes.
- The gender system is reshaped, by (re)introducing an animacy distinction. The gender/number categories are thus (animate) masculine, (animate) feminine, animate plural, inanimate 1, inanimate 2, inanimate plural.

Syntax
- Ergativity
- Light-verb constructions
- SOV
- But I think finite subordinate clauses are more frequent than in India generally.
Last edited by Omzinesý on 17 Jun 2022 10:47, edited 1 time in total.
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Re: A new IE lang, once again

Post by Omzinesý »

Phonology and sound changes

Phonology

The phonology is more or less borrowed from Chirdau, my older project.

p t t͡ɕ* k <p t c c/ch>
f θ s ɕ* x*** <f s x x/xh>
m n <m n>
l <l> r <r>
j w** <j u>

* Palatals /ɕ t͡ɕ/ can only appear before front vowels i, ɪ, e.
** The status of /w/ is questionable. It is easier to analyse diphthongs as sequences of V+j or V+w, but /w/ does not appear in other positions.
*** I think the exact nature of x is closed to [h] or [ħ] nowadays.

All syllables:
u <u>
ɪ <i>
e o <e o>
a <a>

(C1)C2V(C3)

C1 Any consonant (Some clusters are also allowed.They will be specified later.)
C2 r or l and only if they are preceded by an obstruent
C3 any resonant

Stops are voiced intervocallically. Stops can also appear as (voiceless) geminates. I still analyse that a quantity distinction rather than a qualitative distinction.

Only open syllables:
i <ij>
ei eu oi ou <ej eu oj ou>
ai au <aj au>
(They can be seen as V+glide too.)


Sound Changes

The sound changes are not listed diachronically, but thematically.

(1) All three IE series of stops merger, leading to /p t ḱ k kʷ/
(2) Satemization:
a) ḱ becomes a fricative, which finally ends up to θ.
b) kʷ mergers with k.
(3) Much later, k is palatalized leading to t͡ɕ before front vowels i, ɪ, e, which becomes phonemic after some vowels change returning k that precedes those vowels.

So the modern stop phonemes are /p t t͡ɕ k/.

(4) *s is palatalized according to some RUKI laws. (I have not thought which, yet.)
(5) As in Slavic, ʃ becomes x.
(6) Much later, x becomes ɕ before the same front vowels i, ɪ, e, which becomes phonemic after some vowels change returning x that precedes those vowels.

(7) Before a vowel, *u becomes w, w becomes v, and v is devoiced word-initially leading to f.

So the fricative phonemes are: f θ s ɕ x.

(8) As in Indo-Iranian, *a, *e, *o merger. That sound is e in modern language.
(9) As in Indo-Iranian, *ā, *ē, *ō merger. That sound is a in the modern language.
(10) *i and becomes ɪ.
(11) *u becomes o.
(12) All diphthongs ending in *i become i.
(13) All diphthongs ending in *u become u.

New dipthongs/vowel+glide are created when coda consonants lenite, but I have nothing exact of those changes yet.

Voicing is not phonemic, but obstruents (stops and fricatives) are voiced between vowels, and voiceless word-initially and when geminated.
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Re: A new IE lang, once again

Post by Omzinesý »

Declension and cases

There are six cases: Absolutive, Locative, Dative, Partitive, Ergative, and Ablative.
Absolutive is the old nominative.
Locative is the old locative.
Dative is the old dative. It though codes goal beside recipient, which is not the natural direction of grammaticalization from concrete to abstract.
Partitive is the old ablative.
Ergative and Ablative are derived from the old ablative by adding extrasuffixes, so synchronically, they are based on Partitive.


Declensions aren't based on genders. All declensions have words from all declensions.


"Consonant declension
Abs -∅ (Many of these actually end in a vowel of diphthong because lenition of final consonants.)
Loc -i
Dat -i
Part -e
Erg -er
Abl -el

"Old o-declension, Modern e-declension"
Abs -e
Loc -i
Dat -ij <= -ei <= -ai <= o-i
Part -a <= -ā <= -āt <= ōt <= o-t
Erg -ar
Abl -al

"a-declension"
Abs -a <= -ā
Loc -ej
Dat -aj
Part -?
Erg -?
Abl -?

Plural is very similar to a-declension because IE masculines and feminines have plural with -ēs and IE neuters have plural with -ā and both of them yield -a.
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Re: A new IE lang, once again

Post by Omzinesý »

Uses of the cases

Absolutive
Is the normal case of intransitive (= no direct object) subjects and copula complements.
Case of affected transitive objects.
Citation and vocative case.

Partitive
The case of less affected objects. (I have to think how that interacts with aspect.)
The case of some intransitive plural subjects
Often used of mass nouns
Case of "adjectival" genitives ("man of honor")
Case of "made of"
Case of bigger unit ("the roof of a house" )

Ergative
Case of animate transitive (= has a direct object) subjects

Locative
Case of location
Case of instrument
Case of inanimate transitive subjects (which a grammatically intransitive clauses)

Dative
Case of recipient
Case of goal
Case of the logical object of many light verbs.
The genitive case of possessor.

Ablative
Case of some logical objects of many light verbs.
Case of source
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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