Proto-Hma'ma language

Proto-Hma'ma (PHma) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Hma'ma languages, constituting the Western branch of the Kát languages.

Name
The name Hma'ma is taken from the native term *hmaʔ-ma "black-soil", a common geographical endonym reflected in several Hma'ma dialects.

Vowels
The Hma'ma languages feature only two phonemic vowels /a ə/ which typically have qualities modified by preceding consonants, so it can be assumed that Proto-Hma'ma worked similarly. A typical set of vowel allophones is shown in the table below:

Tone
Content words contrasted six tones, while grammatical particles and inflectional affixes distinguished only two.

Nouns
Nouns could take three case suffixes, which could be complemented with postpositions to mark more specific roles:


 * *-a — Absolutive, the subject of a stative or object of a verb
 * *-ə — Ablative, a generic relative case with locative and genitive usage
 * *-ər — Ergative, the agent or causator of a verb