Koyanic languages

The Koyanic languages are a language family found throughout the Koyan region of western Fountainhead, with languages spoken in Qnōp', Krobu and Kóty.

Internal Classification
Koyanic is divided into three major branches based on their reflex of the Proto-Koyanic numeral *qx₂ə́c "one", which demonstrates some characteristic sound changes of each major branch of the language family and appears in the formation *qx₂əc-kʰə́mə "one-people" which is used as an endonym in several daughter languages. The reflexes of *qx₂ə́c are also used to name the branches:


 * Hak, also known as Duodoseic, merges the palatals into the velars, shifts the uvulars to *h and merges aspirated and plain plosives.
 * Kát develops Proto-Koyanic laryngeal vowels into a system of tone and shifts the dorsal stops forwards *c *cʰ *k *kʰ *q *qʰ > *t *tʰ *c *cʰ *k *kʰ.
 * Qʼač innovates ejectives from the glottalisation of obstruents by laryngeals and retains voiceless sonorants.
 * Gäj merges the uvulars into the velars and voices the plain plosives *p *t *c *k → *b *d *ɟ *g in certain environments.

The Qʼač and Gäj branches are thought to be slightly more closely related than the other branches, with Duodoseic being the earliest diverging.

One proposed phylogenetic tree is shown below.
 * Koyanic
 * Hak
 * Nuclear Koyanic
 * Kát
 * Arklobu-Qachkav
 * Qʼač
 * Qʼachkav
 * Hnäzb
 * Gäj
 * Arklobu
 * Nambāno

Obstruents
The table below shows the reflexes of Proto-Koyanic's obstruents in single-consonant onsets in each of the four major proto-languages. The voiceless continuant onset clusters *hr̥-, *hl̥-, *hẙ- and *hw̥- are also shown, since these evolved into single obstruents in some branches.

Syllable nuclei
The table below shows the reflexes of Proto-Koyanic's syllable nuclei in the major branches of the language family. Vowel length is not considered here, since it did not affect vowel quality in these early Koyanic branches.