Novel Proto-Koyanic language

Novel Proto-Koyanic (NPKn) is a reconstruction of the ancestor of the Koyanic Languages which deviates significantly from the traditionally used Proto-Koyanic reconstruction.

Consonants
Consonants are considered in two articulatory groups, central and peripheral, with each group having unique properties distinguishing it from the other group.

Central consonants
The novel reconstruction then introduces palatalised forms of each of the eight central consonants. These are phonemically distinct single consonants which may occur in all the same positions as the plain forms. They should not be considered equivalent to sequences with medial *-y-, which NPKn supposes are forbidden for the central consonants.
 * Obstruents — In the form of plosives with a variedness distinction, may only occur at syllable boundaries
 * Nasals — May additionally occur in medial positions, closer to the syllable nucleus than the obstruents
 * Approximants — May occur even closer to the nucleus than nasals, producing the familiar maximal syllable structure CNRVRNC.

The reconstruction of palatalised consonants may explain two phenomena unique to Duodoseic:
 * Reconstructing palatalised velars *kʲ *gʲ rather than true palatals *cʰ *c more naturally explains the Proto-Duodoseic reflexes as velar consonants *kʰ *k, since an unconditioned palatal > velar shift may not be possible.
 * Two PKn roots traditionally reconstructed *swə́kʰ "string" and *zwə́x₁p "birch" are reflected by Proto-Duodoseic *twōkʰ and *dwēp respectively. In NPKn, these roots are *tʲwák and *dʲwíʕb, with the Duodoseic reflexes explained as depalatalisation of *tʲ *dʲ to *t *d immediately preceding the opposing unpalatalised glide *w. In all other circumstances, *tʲ *dʲ would then shift to *s *z, as is observed in all daughter languages.

Peripheral consonants
While *x₁ *x₂ *x₃ are rejected, the other laryngeal consonants *h *ʡ are reconstructed much the same as usual, patterning as a fortis-lenis obstruent pair.

Onset clusters
An additional constraint is that palatalised medial consonants *-nʲ- *-ŋʲ- *-lʲ- *-y- may only occur following peripheral consonants, while central consonants may only take unpalatalised medials. If a cluster of a central consonant and a following palatalised medial were to arise morphologically, it is believed a special rule would shift the palatalisation onto the initial consonant, e.g. *k-nʲ-, *ŋ-y- become *kʲn-, *ŋʲ- respectively. Palatalised consonants could still occur before a medial *-w-, an important consideration in their reconstruction.

This theory simply explains the lack of medial *-y- following the traditional PKn consonants *tʰ *t *s *z *kʰ *k *cʰ *c *ɲ *r *l, as well as the more curious lack of the clusters *tʰr̥- *tr- *sr̥- *zr- *kʰr̥- *kr- *cʰr̥- *cr-, while their equivalents with *-l- are abundant. NPKn proposes that *r was originally palatalised *lʲ, thus being forbidden from clustering with other central consonants. If these forbidden clusters arose morphologically, they would shift the palatalisation to the onset, yielding clusters which are commonly attested: The traditional constraints regarding medial nasals in onsets also hold, that homorganic clusters are forbidden and nasal-nasal onsets are allowed only when one of those nasals is *m. Novel Proto-Koyanic was initially challenged on its failure to explain the clusters *sn̥- and *zn-, which are undeniably attested and would be reconstructed *tʲn- *dʲn- in NPKn, violating the well-established homorganic plosive-nasal rule. However, the lack of *cʰn̥- *cn- in traditional PKn means that these can actually be successfully reconstructed as *kʲn- *gʲn- in NPKn, with later development to *sn̥- *zn- by simple assimilation.
 * {*t-lʲ-, *tʲ-lʲ-} → *tʲl- (traditional *sl-)
 * {*d-lʲ-, *dʲ-lʲ-} → *dʲl- (traditional *zl-)
 * {*k-lʲ-, *kʲ-lʲ-} → *kʲl- (traditional *cʰl-)
 * {*g-lʲ-, *gʲ-lʲ-} → *gʲl- (traditional *cl-)

A table of all possible onset clusters of two consonants in NPKn is shown below, with the attested forms marked with a tick (✓).

Comparison
The table below shows the reflexes of onset plosives in the major Koyanic branches, subject to laryngealisation by adjacent *ʕ and devoicing by adjacent consonants.

Vowels
Proto-Koyanic's traditional syllable nuclei are rejected and replaced with a new system, making the laryngeal consonants *x₁ *x₂ *x₃ obsolete. The cardinal vowels *i *ī *ə *ə̄ *u *ū *a *ā follow a similar reconstruction, though a phonemic distinction between *ə *ē and *a *ā is not necessary to reconstruct. In contrast, the laryngeal nuclei are reanalysed as sequences of cardinal vowels and the pharyngeal approximant *ʕ. The reduced single-laryngeal nuclei *x₁ *x₂ *x₃ are also rejected, instead being attributed to certain unstressed instances of *ʕi *ʕa *ʕu (traditional *x₁ə *x₂ə *x₃ə), with the reduction to short creaky vowels [ḛ ɑ̰ o̰] developing later.

Three underlying phonemic vowel qualities are proposed, /i a u/, which had the allophones [e ɑ o] when next to *ʕ.