Proto-Namb language

Proto-Namb (abbreviated PNmb), also known as Proto-Northern Gäj (PNGäj) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Nambāno and Arklobu languages, which together form the Northern branch of the "Gäj" languages.

*ɸ and *θ
The fricatives *ɸ and *θ developed from Proto-Gäj *pʰ and *tʰ before stops (nasals and plosives). Their phonemic status is not clear, since their distribution is complicated by inflectional morphology. They are generally the result of *pʰ and *tʰ respectively before stops (plosives and nasals), though some analogical changes may have yielded the fricatives in other positions. Despite their lack of phonemicity, they are reconstructible in Proto-Namb, since their reflexes in descendent languages are distinct from *pʰ and *tʰ, and as such are transcribed as separate consonants.

Semivowels
The semivowels *y and *w occurred only as medial consonants in onset clusters, having historically been fortified to *ɟ and *gʷ respectively in onset position and lost in medial and coda position, affecting the quality of the preceding vowel in the latter case. Semivowels were rare in Proto-Gäj, but became more frequent in Proto-Namb due the vowel shift *ī *ū > *ye *we.

Vowels
The vowel system of Proto-Namb features a typical five-vowel system, *a *e *i *o *u. The vowels *a *e *o *u had fronted forms, transcribed *ä *ë *ö *ü respectively, typically due to *i in the next syllable. The fronted allophones were not phonemic in Proto-Namb, but underwent separate shifts to their plain counterparts and became phonemic in many descendant languages. *e and *ë are reconstructed as separate sounds, suggesting that *e likely had a central or back quality [ə~ɤ]

It has also been suggested that *ä *ë *ö *ü were not fronted, but rather had an advanced tongue root, as is exhibited in Qʼachkav vowel harmony. This theory posits the following approximate vowel qualities:

The fronted vowels may not have been phonemic in Proto-Namb. These forms originated as allophones of *a *e *o *u before *i in the next syllable, an environment commonly associated with stem-mutation. Their phonemic status within the vowel system depends on the extent of analogical levelling of stems in PNmb. If *ä *ë *ö *ü were extended to forms without *i in the next syllable, this would remove them from the allophonic trigger environment and therefore yield a phonemic contrast with *a *e *o *u.
 * a e o u [ɑ ɛ ɔ ʊ]
 * ä ë ö ü [a e o u]

Stem mutation
Proto-Gäj featured a pattern of grammatical alternation where stem-final consonants in certain inflections would mutate according to the rule:


 * *-b *-d *-ɟ *-g *-r > *-p *-t *-c *-k *-s

In Namb, stem mutation developed further due to the loss of *s, palatal assimilation, and vowel-front, whereby the vowels *a *e *o *u were shifted to *ä *ë *ö *ü respectively in the presence of *i in the next syllable. These changes yielded the following stem mutation rules which generally apply in Proto-Namb:


 * *-b *-d *-ɟ *-g *-r > *-p *-t *-c *-c *-∅
 * -a- *-e- *-o- *-u- > *-ä- *-ë- *-ö- *-ü-

Stem mutation is the result of coincidental inflectional morphology causing multiple independent sound changes to frequently occur together, and the compound phonological variation which arose becoming recognised as a common pattern. This separated a stem into two distinct forms strengthened by semantic and morphological analogy. For example, the first and second person imperfective suffixes *-cʰir and *-cʰirkʰ triggered fronting of the previous vowel in the stem and blocked the voicing of a stem-final plain plosive which had become voiced in the perfective and irrealis conjugations, or triggered spirantisation of an aspirated plosive. In nominal inflection, the genitive suffixes *-mi and *-miŋ also triggered the same ablaut and consonant mutation, as did the ablative suffixes *-çil and *-tʰil.

Many paradigms of related forms which partially or inconsistently mutated the stem were analogically levelled into systems based around a singular mutated stem. The semantic relationships between forms may also have influenced this analogy, for example in the nominal cases. There may have been a semantic split into more active or dominant roles like the possessive, genitive and ablative which happened to use the mutated stem, and passive/recipient roles like the absolutive, accusative and lative cases using the basic stem. In such a system, the ergative case would likely be more associated with the active roles, and this may be part of what led to Proto-Namb using the mutated stem for the ergative case, unlike the other Gäj languages.

Mutated ergative
The fronted vowel became the most important characteristic feature of the mutated stem in Namb, evidenced by other morphological changes revolving around the ablaut. For example, consider the Proto-Gäj inanimate ergative suffix *-ir, which triggered voicing of the stem-final obstruent, yielding forms like *ā́g-ir and *pwób-ir from PKn *ā́q-ir "hill-ᴇʀɢ" and *pwə́p-ir "moss-ᴇʀɢ" respectively. In Proto-Namb, these additionally underwent vowel fronting, so should have yielded the expected forms *öɟ-ir and *kʷöb-ir respectively, but instead the forms *öc-ir and *kʷöp-ir are reconstructed. This indicates that these forms were changed by analogy with other mutated stem forms which usually front the vowel and mutate the final consonant together, i.e. *öc- and *kʷöp-. Barring a few irregular exceptions, this analogical step firmly placed the ergative singular into the mutated stem category in the Namb languages, distinguishing them from other Gäj languages which use the basic stem for the ergative case.

The ergative plural suffix *-and exhibits neither of the features which trigger the two mutations, but there is some evidence suggesting that the analogy was extended so far as to attach this to the mutated stem too. Namb ergative suffixation is generally less closely attached to the noun than the other cases, in some languages exhibiting clitic-like behaviour or disappearing entirely, so it is quite likely that they could have attached to the mutated stem. This could be proof of phonemic *ä *ë *ö *ü, since they would be present in environments in which they would not have arisen allophonically, thus would contrast with *a *e *o *u respectively. Compare *xur-e "bird-ᴀʙꜱ.ᴘʟ" with *xü-and "bird-ᴇʀɢ.ᴘʟ", which was likely formed by analogy with *xü-mi "bird-ɢᴇɴ.ᴘʟ" and *xü-çil "bird-ᴀʙʟ". Similarly, the fully mutated stem with the fronted vowel was likely used with the genitive singular *-(m)ax and much rarer possessives *-(n)u and *-(n)urax.

Nouns
Gäj languages commonly feature two alternating forms of many nominal inflectional suffixes, depending on whether the stem ends in a consonant or a vowel. Namb in particular exhibits the irregular loss of nasals in genitive and possessive suffixes attaching to stop-final stems, not observed in any other morphemes. Note that the suffix-initial nasal is still present on final fricatives resulting from a sound change which spirantised aspirated plosives before stops, thus forms like *pʰäɸ-max, *pʰäɸ-mi are reconstructed rather than **pʰäɸ-ax, **pʰäɸ-i.

Unlike a typical Koyanic system of countable animate nouns and uncountable inanimate nouns, nouns could inflect in multiple different paradigms, often with semantic variation between paradigms. For example, the root *kʰel- "person" refers to specific instances of people in the countable inflection, while the uncountable *kʰelur and associated inflectional forms represent "humanity" in general or some particular populace, rather than individuals.

Countable inflection
Ergative marking appeared only on non-human agents, with the absolutive case having a nominative usage for human referents.

The accusative case generally only appears on human referents, though non-human animate objects may sometimes have taken the accusative case if a human nominative agent was present.

The possessive case was reserved for human possessors, though could appear on non-human animal referents as a form of personification. Unlike the genitives, the possessive suffixes retained their initial consonant *-n- in all circumstances.

Examples of countable inflection are shown in the table below.

Uncountable inflection
A different inflection paradigm was used for uncountable nouns, which includes mass nouns like substances, colours and weather, as well as uniquely named entities like places, celestial bodies and months. Nouns in the latter category were commonly derived from the Proto-Gäj locative *-tʰul and ablative *-tʰil, with *-tʰ reanalysed as part of the stem in Namb. These "unique" nouns use alternate forms of the absolutive and dative cases. Examples of uncountable inflection are shown in the table below.