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 fortis-lenis 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 *tʲwək and *dʲwexb, 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 generally 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 *sl̥-)
 * {*d-lʲ-, *dʲ-lʲ-} → *dʲl- (traditional *zl-)
 * {*k-lʲ-, *kʲ-lʲ-} → *kʲl- (traditional *cʰl̥-)
 * {*g-lʲ-, *gʲ-lʲ-} → *gʲl- (traditional *cl-)

Nasal-nasal onsets are notably rejected, with the three clusters traditionally reconstructed *mn-, *ɲm- and *ŋm- replaced with *nw-, *nʲw-/*ŋʲw-, *ŋw- respectively.

The table below shows an example for each attested biconsonantal cluster within the onset of a single morpheme in NPKn. Greyed out cells indicate forbidden clusters. Fortition was a property applied to the entire onset cluster and is not phonotactically relevant, so the fortis-lenis obstruent pairs are considered together.

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

Vowels
Proto-Koyanic's traditional syllable nuclei are rejected and replaced with a new system of seven vowel qualities, making the laryngeal consonants *x₁ *x₂ *x₃ obsolete. The cardinal vowels *i *ī *u *ū *a *ā are reconstructed in the usual way, though are reinterpreted under newly proposed symmetries. Laryngeal nuclei are essentially rejected, being reanalysed as "centralised" forms of the cardinal vowels, represented as *e *ē *æ *ǣ *o *ō. The schwa, already being fully central, has no centralised form, thus the centralised vowels can be thought of as representing interpolations between the cardinal vowels and the schwa, though their exact qualities are unknown. NPKn supposes that a single laryngeal *x, likely a pharyngeal approximant [ʕ̞], appeared as a sonorant in the onset cluster of a syllable like *y and *w rather than as a core part of the nucleus, and that traditional PKn post-vocalic laryngeals are not necessary to reconstruct.

The reduced single-laryngeal nuclei *x₁ *x₂ *x₃ are also rejected, instead being attributed to certain unstressed instances of *xi *xa *xu, with the reduction to short creaky vowels [ḭ ɑ̰ ṵ] developing later.

A table of all Proto-Koyanic nuclei with their NPKn equivalents is shown in the table below. The schwa is ironically the only monophthong which may not be preceded by *x, according to an apparent phonological process which shifted *xə to *xæ.

Alternation
The well-established phenomenon of alternation between certain nuclei is typically explained as two separate processes applying to roots and some suffixes:


 * 1) *əx₁ *ə̄x₁ *əx₂ *ə̄x₂ *əx₃ *ə̄x₃ shift to *i *ī *a *ā *u *ū when unstressed.
 * 2) * *√cʰəx₂r̥h "thought" → *cʰə́x₂r̥hlir "brain, mind"
 * 3) * *cʰə́x₂r̥hlir "brain, mind" → *cʰar̥hl̥ítʰāŋ "intelligent"
 * 4) Syllables with single laryngeal nuclei *x₁ *x₂ *x₃ are deemed "light" syllables while all others are "heavy", and light syllables may only follow heavy syllables. If a morphological light syllable is not preceded by a heavy syllable, it is promoted to a heavy syllable by epenthetic insertion of a schwa.
 * 5) * *√tʰx₁t → *tʰx₁ə́tx₃r "growth, maturity (absolutive case)"
 * 6) * *əx₂stʰx₁t → *ə́x₂stʰx₁tx₃ər "shrub, tree (absolutive case)"

Novel Proto-Koyanic explains these phenomena as a single rule which applies regardless of the presence of the laryngeal *x:


 * *e *æ *o are decentralised to the cardinal vowels *i *a *u when unstressed.

This rule is not only much simpler, but follows a more straightforward phonological motivation and does not require the elision of the laryngeal consonant.

The examples shown above are reinterpreted under NPKn as follows:


 * *√kʲælʲh → *kʲǽlʲhlilʲ
 * *kʲǽlʲhlilʲ → *kʲalʲhlítāŋ
 * *√txed → *txédxur
 * *√ætʲtxed → *ǽtʲtxidxor

The change in form of the absolutive suffix from *-xur to *-xor can be explained as evidence for secondary stress on the second syllable after the main stress, thus the underlying form |xor| would decentralise to |xur| when not in this position, as in *txédxur.