Proto-Kát language

Proto-Kát (PKát) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Kátic branch of the Koyanic languages.

Name
The name Kát is taken from the stem *kát- "individual person, people", following a pattern adopted for naming Koyanic branches after their reflex of the Proto-Koyanic term *qə́x₂c "one" (see also: Proto-Qʼač, Proto-Qak and Proto-Gäj). The original root also continued to be used as a numeral in the Proto-Kát form *thrikáʔ, with the addition of a classifier prefix *thri- (← PKn *tr̥əx₁s "count") and debuccalisation of the coda *-t to *-ʔ.

The full inflection of *kát- can be seen in the table below: *kát- may also be the source of Proto-Hautaric *qʰát "person", thus also the name Ħautkar (← *qʰá⟨u⟩t-ek-er) and Ħautar delûr (← *qʰá⟨u⟩t-er délu⟨u⟩-er)

Consonants
The consonants highlighted in green were allowed in coda position.

Allophones with *h
The aspirated obstruents (pʰ tʰ sʰ cʰ kʰ) and voiceless sonorants (m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊ r̥ l̥ ẙ w̥) are mostly retained from Proto-Koyanic phonemic consonants, but in Proto-Kát are analysed as clusters with *h, (ph th sh ch kh) and (hm hn hɲ hŋ hr hl hy hw) respectively.

Some have suggested that the sibilant *s was characteristically voiced [z], with the devoiced allophone [s] before *h. Another theory is that these were affricates or truly just fricatives with an aspiration distinction [(t)s (t)sʰ].

Vowels
Proto-Kát features three vowel qualities and a symmetrical set of six tones, for a total of 18 phonemic vowels. The phonetic quality of the tones is not readily reconstructible, but the following symmetries are believed to represent the structure of the tone system:


 * Proto-Koyanic coda continuants tend to result in group A tones if unvoiced and group B tones if voiced.
 * The tones of group A follow inverse contours to group B, e.g. if A3 was a high falling tone, B3 would be a low rising tone.
 * Contour 1 was flat, Contour 2 was likely either a smooth rise or fall and Contour 3 may have been more complex and been pronounced longer.

Syllable structure
Proto-Kát contrasted two different syllable types. Strong syllables occur only in word stems and have the form (O)(h)(S)(G)VT(C):

Stressed syllables in a stem could take all six tones, while other syllables could take only {A1 A2 B1 B2}.
 * Obstruent = {p t s c k ʔ} (Note that ʔh neutralises to h)
 * Sonorant = {m n ɲ ŋ r l}
 * Glide = {y w}
 * Vowel = {i a u}
 * Tone = {A1 A2 (A3) B1 B2 (B3)}
 * Coda = {m n ŋ p t s k ʔ r l}

Weak syllables, occurring only in inflectional affixes, did not carry phonemic tone and had the slightly reduced structure: (O)(S/G)V(C). By convention these are transcribed as unmarked *i *a *u, identical in form to the A1 tones, but it is not known whether these were truly toneless, or whether Proto-Kát had a form of tone harmony in which they carried a tone which agreed with the tone group of the previous syllable.

Pre-Proto-Kát
Pre-Proto-Kát is an intermediate language stage between Proto-Koyanic and Proto-Kát, discernible by internal reconstruction and comparison with historical contact languages. It represents the direct ancestor to Proto-Kát spoken around the 4th millennium BGS, an early diverging Koyanic branch characterised by five key developments:


 * 1) Complete loss of contrastive vowel length
 * 2) Development of tone from Late Proto-Koyanic vowel phonation
 * 3) Harmonisation of phonation in consonant clusters
 * 4) Simplification of complex sonorant clusters
 * 5) Rhotacisation of *z

Loss of vowel length
Contrastive vowel length was completely lost, leaving only one phoneme of each vowel quality.

Tonogenesis
Tones in Kát were initially generated from Late Proto-Koyanic vowel phonation in a regular, systematic way: The resulting vowel inventory consisted of three qualities and four tones:

Consonant phonation harmony
Along with tonogenesis, the phonological system of Proto-Kát was shaped by the harmonisation of consonant phonation, where all consonants in a cluster were either fortis (aspirated, voiceless) or lenis (plain, voiced). This development occurred in Pre-Proto-Kát, where consonants within a cluster took on the phonation of the consonant closest to the nucleus. This change affected plosives in onset clusters, but not in coda clusters. A table of corresponding fortis and lenis consonants is shown below. Note that *h has no lenis counterpart and was simply lost in lenis clusters, while Proto-Koyanic *ʡ is reflected by *ʔ, which is neutral and unchanged in phonation harmony.

Sonorant cluster simplification
Complex onset and coda clusters consisting purely of sonorants were simplified in many cases:


 * N₁N₂- in onset clusters simplifies to a single nasal N₂-
 * Liquids L following nasals N were lost completely.

This change is believed to have taken place after phonation harmonisation, as evidenced by only a single root: PKn *ɲr̥ə̄m̥ → PKát *hɲam "rite".

Rhotacism of *z
Proto-Koyanic *z rhotacised to *r when next to vowels and glides and was lost elsewhere.

Dorsal stops chain shift
The dorsal plosives *c *cʰ *k *kʰ *q *qʰ each shifted forward to the next place of articulation, resulting in a merger of PKn palatal and alveolar plosives.


 * c cʰ > t tʰ
 * k kʰ > c cʰ
 * q qʰ > k kʰ

Tone split
Pre-Proto-Kát's four tones were split into Proto-Kát's six tones. The two new tones (A3 and B3) are the result of a shift triggered by the voicedness of continuant consonants in coda clusters:

All voiceless continuants then merged with their voiced counterparts in coda clusters, with *h being lost completely.
 * A1 A2 → B2 B1/B3 before a voiced coda continuant (m n ɲ ŋ r l y w):
 * A1 {i a u} → B2 {ì à ù}
 * A2 {í á ú} → B3 {î â û} when stressed, B1 {ĩ ã ũ} otherwise
 * B1 B2 → A2 A1/A3 before a voiceless coda continuant (s h m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊ r̥ l̥ ẙ w̥):
 * B1 {ĩ ã ũ} → A2 {í á ú}
 * B2 {ì à ù} → A3 {ǐ ǎ ǔ} when stressed, A1 {i a u} otherwise

Monophthongisation
Glides in coda clusters were lost, colouring the vowel and shifting the type 2 contours to type 3 when stressed:

Under the generally accepted assumption that contour 3 was pronounced with a longer vowel than contours 1 and 2, the tone shift here might represent an example of compensatory lengthening due to loss of the glide.
 * {i a u}y {i a u}w → i u
 * {í á ú}y {í á ú}w → ǐ ǔ when stressed, í ú otherwise
 * {ǐ ǎ ǔ}y {ǐ ǎ ǔ}w → ǐ ǔ
 * {ĩ ã ũ}y {ĩ ã ũ}w → ĩ ũ
 * {ì à ù}y {ì à ù}w → î û when stressed, ì ù otherwise
 * {î â û}y {î â û}w → î û

Coda cluster simplification
Coda clusters were reduced to single lenis consonants. The cells highlighted in blue are cases where a liquid consonant was lost, triggering the same type 2 → 3 contour shift associated with stress and compensatory lengthening which occurred in monophthongisation. Note that loss of a nasal did not trigger this change:


 * Glide or liquid loss triggers tone shift:
 * *àykʰ → *îk
 * *àlkʰ → *âk
 * *àlŋkʰ → *âk
 * Nasal loss does not:
 * *àŋkʰ → *àk

Stem
Noun and verb stems consist of strong syllables and always end in a consonant other than *y, *w or *h.

Numerals
Proto-Kát, used a base-10 system of numerals. The ten basic numerals are shown below: Notes: *thri- < *tr̥əx₁s was incorporated into numbers as a prefix to numerals.