Proto-Koyanic language

Proto-Koyanic (PKn) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Koyanic languages, a language family found throughout the Koyan region of western Fountainhead. Proto-Koyanic was likely spoken as a singular language in Kóty c. 4,000 - 3,000 BGS before breaking up into its major branches via major migrations through the third and second millennia BGS.

Consonants
The reconstructed consonant inventory of Proto-Koyanic is presented below.

Palatals
The palatal plosives *c and *cʰ are reflected by Proto-Qakhɯ́mɯ *k, indicating that Qakhɯ́mɯ may have branched at an early stage of the language which instead had palatalised velar stops *kʲ *kʲʰ, while the rest of the language family strongly supports the reconstruction of true palatals. By convention, these consonants are transcribed *c *cʰ even in considering Proto-Koyanic as the common ancestor of the entire family including Qakhɯ́mɯ.

Laryngeals
The laryngeal consonants *x₁ *x₂ *x₃ colour an adjacent schwa *ə *əː in characteristic ways, though the exact resulting vowel quality varies by daughter language. *x₁ gives a close front colouring [ɨ~i~e], *x₂ an open colouring [ə~e~æ~a~ɑ], and *x₃ a back rounded colouring [ɑ~ɔ~o~u]. The laryngeals are retained in certain phonological environments in some daughter languages with the following reflexes: *x₁ by [x~ɣ~h~ʔ], *x₂ by [χ~ʁ~h~ʔ] and *x₃ by [x~ɣ~ʁ~h~ɦ]. Since there is such a large overlap in their qualities, not much can be said about the original qualities of each laryngeal, only that they were likely fricatives articulated further back than the velum and *x₃ probably had some labialisation.

Sonority Hierarchy
The syllable structure of Proto-Koyanic is based on the sonority hierarchy X > G > L > N > O. Glides G and liquids L also form a natural group R in the syllable structure. The combination of groups L, N and O (i.e. all consonants except laryngeals and semi-vowels) is given the cover symbol C.
 * 1) Laryngeal X = {*x₁ *x₂ *x₃}
 * 2) Glide G = {*y *w *ẙ *w̥}
 * 3) Liquid L = {*r *l *r̥ *l̥}
 * 4) Nasal N = {*m *n *ɲ *ŋ *m̥ *n̥ *ɲ̊ *ŋ̊}
 * 5) Obstruent O = {*p *t *c *k *q *ʡ *pʰ *tʰ *cʰ *kʰ *qʰ *s *z *h}

Syllable Structure
There are two types of syllables, heavy and light, with different prosodic weights. Their structures are shown below A light syllable features fewer phonetic elements in its maximal structure and the nucleus is a single pharyngeal, it’s sometimes seen on root words but mostly in suffixes. Additionally there is the constraint that consonant clusters cannot decrease in sonority towards the syllable nucleus, following the sonority hierarchy. For example, *rm- is not an allowed onset cluster despite being an instance of CN-, as a liquid cannot precede the less sonorous nasal in the onset. A light syllable can only occur following a heavy syllable. If a light syllable ends up with no preceding heavy syllable, it is promoted to a heavy syllable by insertion of *⟨ə⟩ after its nuclear X. e.g. *√x₁t “the wind, life” surfaces as *x₁ət- in *x₁ə́t.cəm (H́.H) “the wind god” and *x₁ə́t.mnx₃ə (H́.H) “to blow”, but remains *-x₁t in *x₂əm̥.px₃ə́ː.kəx₃.sx₁t (H.H́.H.L) “to kill”. Note that this process is not related to stress whatsoever, but it does allow an underlying light syllable to take the stress if it surfaces as a heavy syllable.
 * Light syllable *(C)(N)(R)(X)V(X)(R)(N)(C)
 * Heavy syllable *(C)(N)(R)X(R)(N)(C)

Stress
Stress usually falls on the penultimate heavy syllable, but it’s possible to fall on other heavy syllables which have specific morphologically marked stress, e.g. in certain suffixes.

Phonological Development from Proto-Koyanic
The vast majority of Koyanic languages reflect a common set of sound changes which remodelled Proto-Koyanic's laryngeal system into a system of varying vowel phonation. The later stage of the Proto-Koyanic language after these changes took place is known as Late Proto-Koyanic (LPKn), and is distinguished only by three characteristic sound changes, assumed to have occurred concurrently: Each of these changes occurred regularly in certain phonological environments involving Proto-Koyanic's laryngeal consonants *x₁ *x₂ *x₃. The resulting remodelled phonology retains many features of Proto-Koyanic, but is structurally distinct. LPKn may also have featured the development of true palatals *c *cʰ from older palatalised velar consonants *kʲ *kʲʰ, but by convention these consonants are transcribed *c *cʰ in older Proto-Koyanic too.
 * 1) Laryngeal colouring of schwas
 * 2) Vocalisation of laryngeals
 * 3) Merger of laryngeals

The environment in which each change occurred, and the nature of the change itself, are described below with example words. In each example given, the start (PKn) and end point (LPKn) for each word is shown, with relevant intermediate steps underlined.

Laryngeal colouring of schwas
Proto-Koyanic schwa *ə(ː) was coloured and partially glottalised by an adjacent laryngeal consonant within the same syllable, with the resulting vowel quality dependent on the flavour of laryngeal and the phonation dependent on its position relative to the schwa. Stress and vowel length are retained from Proto-Koyanic and do not affect the resulting vowel quality. In addition, the laryngeal consonant was lost in all environments except at the start of words and between vowels.
 * ə(ː) > iˀ(ː) before *x₁ — *tr̥ə́x₁s > *tr̥íˀs "to count"
 * ə(ː) > ˀi(ː) after *x₁ — *ɲ̊ɬx₁ə́ > *ɲ̊ɬˀí "herb"
 * ə(ː) > aˀ(ː) before *x₂ — *ŋə́ːx₂n̥s > *ŋáˀːn̥s "malaise"
 * ə(ː) > ˀa(ː) after *x₂ — *qx₂ə́c > *qˀác "one"
 * ə(ː) > uˀ(ː) before *x₃ — *ə́x₃m > *úˀm "baby"
 * ə(ː) > ˀu(ː) after *x₃ — *x₃ə́m > *x₃ˀúm > *xˀúm "five"

Vocalisation of laryngeals
When a laryngeal consonant was not adjacent to a schwa, i.e. when between two consonants or adjacent to the other Proto-Koyanic vowels (*i(ː) *a(ː) *u(ː)), it was vocalised to a glottalised vowel. These vocalised laryngeals were phonemically distinct from all other vowels and were always short and unstressed.
 * x₁ > ĭ when not next to *ə(ː) — *x₁ús > *ĭús "bird"; *ə́x₂stʰx₁t > *áˀstʰx₁t > *áˀstʰĭt "tree"
 * x₂ > ă when not next to *ə(ː) — *kə́ːx₁mx₂n > *kíˀːmx₂n > *kíˀːmăn "beginning"
 * x₃ > ŭ when not next to *ə(ː) — *áːqsx₃z > *áːqsŭz "high land"

Merger of laryngeals
All other instance of laryngeal consonants are those which occurred next to a schwa *ə(ː), which by this stage had received laryngeal colouring. This means that the three laryngeals (*x₁ *x₂ *x₃) only occur before their three corresponding vowel colours (*i *a *u), and therefore can be described as a single phoneme *x (note that this is not a velar fricative, and that the place of articulation of *x is not known). This represents an example of transphonologization, where the contrastive feature which was carried by the laryngeal consonant in Proto-Koyanic has shifted to the coloured vowels, but no overall change in phonemic contrast has occurred. Note that *x likely still had different phonetic realisations in the three different environments, but that these would be considered allophones in considering the phonology of LPKn.
 * x₁ > x — *x₁ə́wəx₂t > *x₁ˀíwaˀt > *xíˀwaˀt "lord"
 * x₂ > x — *x₂ə́r̥x₃ə > *x₂ˀár̥ˀu > *xˀár̥ˀu "heart"
 * x₃ > x — *x₃ə́m > *x₃ˀúm > *xˀúm "five"

Consonants
The consonant inventory of Late Proto-Koyanic is largely the same as the older form of the language, with the merger of the laryngeals *x₁ *x₂ *x₃ into *x being the only distinguishing feature. *x should not be confused with the voiceless velar fricative [x], it was likely a voiced fricative with an unknown place of articulation, though [ʕ~ɦ] has been suggested as a voiced counterpart to *h.

Vowels
The result of the sound changes presented above is a rich system of vowel phonation in the cardinal vowels *i(ː) *a(ː) *u(ː), while the plain schwa was retained in environments where no laryngeal was present. The nature of the vowel phonation is difficult to reconstruct due to the broad variety of reflexes in daughter languages. The current prevailing theory is that there were three underlying phonemic vowel qualities (not counting the schwa), *i *a *u, which each had four voices of glottal phonation:
 * Modal voice — glottis remains open for the full duration of the vowel
 * Pre-glottalised — initial glottal constriction, opens up through the duration of the vowel
 * Post-glottalised — initially open glottis, closing into glottal constriction at the end of the vowel
 * Fully glottalised — glottis remains constricted for the full duration of the vowel

Roots
Roots are a particular morphological unit which can act as a word stem with a class just like any other stem, but are most typically used to derive new stems. The canonical Koyanic root is a single syllable, either heavy or light, but with strictly only a single laryngeal *X, and the only allowed vowels are *ə *əː, i.e. the allowed nuclei are {*Xə(ː) *ə(ː) *ə(ː)X *X}. Roots are notated with √, e.g. *√mx₃n "to grow, increase".

{*ə(ː)x₁ *ə(ː)x₂ *ə(ː)x₃} regularly alternate with {*i(ː) *ɑ(ː) *ʊ(ː)} when unstressed. Note this applies only to root nuclei, /ə(ː)X/ can occur unstressed elsewhere. For example, the roots *√təx₂w "to speak" and √x₁əx₃s "bird" appear as *tə́x₂w-x₁ʊs "blue jay" but *tɑw-x₁əx₃s- in the word *tɑw-x₁ə́x₃s-tʰɑːŋ "the colour of a blue jay".

Derivation
Word stems are typically formed by attaching an affix to a root or compounding roots. Not all words are formed from roots, some words are polysyllabic and contain other vowels but cannot be morphologically broken down, e.g. *tʰʊyəː “house” and *ir̥lʊy “ball”. Compounds of two stems are common, with the typical patterns shown below.
 * Noun-transitive: A transitive verb with noun as object
 * (In)transitive-noun: A noun which performs a verb
 * (In)transitive-adjective: A verb characterised by an (adverbial) adjective
 * Noun-adjective: A noun characterised by an adjective

Infixation
Verb conjugation makes use of some infixes which are sensitive to phonotactics. The infix is inserted immediately after the first consonant of the base, or attached as a prefix on a vowel-initial base. An epenthetic *⟨ə⟩ may be inserted before the infix if phonotactically required. Some examples of infixation using hypothetical infixes on real reconstructed forms, and their surface phonological forms with prosodic structures, are shown below.

Root-based affixes
There are some derivational affixes used exclusively to derive stems from roots. These are generally prefixes and infixes.
 * *⟨qx₂əq⟩ derives transitive verbs from roots with typically intransitive meaning, e.g. *tə⟨qx₂ə́q⟩ɑw "to speak with, tell" from *√təx₂w "to speak".
 * *əː- derives intransitive verbs from roots with typically transitive meaning, often with an involuntary or passive meaning, e.g. *əː-tʰəːm "to sink, drown" from *√tʰəːm "to submerge".

Derivational suffixes
There is also a separate category of derivational suffixes which can be applied to stems or roots to derive new stems, usually involving a change of word class. A selection of reconstructed suffixes are shown below.

Nouns
Proto-Koyanic had several cases depending on the animacy of the noun. The animate series of cases also marks plurality in the accusative, ergative, oblique and genitive cases.

Transitive Verbs
Transitive verb stems were inflected with a large set of prefixes, infixes and suffixes. Each major AQ language uses these affixes in slightly different constructions and patterns, meaning the overall system of conjugation at the time of Proto-Koyanic is not known. The morphemes which have been reconstructed are shown below, though how they interacted is not clear, so this table should not be assumed to represent individual forms of a single conjugation paradigm.

Intransitive Verbs
Intransitive verb stems have a similarly reconstructed set of inflectional affixes, shown below.

Pronouns
First and second person pronouns in Proto-Koyanic distinguished three cases, absolutive, genitive and instrumental; while the third person pronouns have additional ergative and dative marking.

Numerals
Proto-Koyanic, like all its descendants, used a base-10 system of numerals. The numerals 1-5 are thought to be related to those forms reconstructed for Proto-Upic, the common ancestor of the Upic languages, as the Upic forms bear strong resemblance to the Hnäzb and Qʼachkav reflexes in particular. Proto-Upic almost certainly had ejective consonants, so the lack of ejectives in the Upic forms indicates they may originate from an unattested sister branch to Qʼač which did not generate ejectives, or an unattested Hnäzb language which lost them before contact with Proto-Upic.