Proto-Kát language

Proto-Kát (PKt) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Kátic branch of the Koyanic languages.

Consonants
The consonants highlighted in green were allowed in coda position.

Vowels
Proto-Kat features three vowel qualities and a symmetrical set of six tones, for a total of 18 phonemic vowels. The phonetic quality of the tones is not readily reconstructible, but the following symmetries are believed to represent the structure of the tone system:


 * Proto-Koyanic coda continuants tend to result in group A tones if unvoiced and group B tones if voiced.
 * The tones of group A follow inverse contours to group B, e.g. if A3 was a high falling tone, B3 would be a low rising tone.
 * Contour 1 was flat, Contour 2 was likely either a smooth rise or fall and Contour 3 may have been more complex and been pronounced longer.

Pre-Proto-Kát
Pre-Proto-Kát is a reconstructible intermediate stage between Proto-Koyanic and Proto-Kát. It is characterised by three important developments:


 * 1) The complete loss of contrastive vowel length
 * 2) The development of tone from Late Proto-Koyanic vowel phonation
 * 3) The harmonisation of phonation in consonant clusters

Loss of vowel length
Contrastive vowel length was completely lost, leaving only one phoneme of each vowel quality.

Tonogenesis
Tones in Kát were initially generated from Late Proto-Koyanic vowel phonation in a regular, systematic way: The resulting vowel inventory consisted of three qualities and four tones:

Consonant phonation harmony
Kát features consonant phonation harmony, where each consonant has a fortis and lenis form and consonants in a cluster must all be of the same phonation. This development occurred in Pre-Proto-Kát, where consonants within a cluster took on the phonation of the consonant closest to the nucleus. This change affected plosives in onset clusters, but not in coda clusters.

Dorsal stops chain shift
The dorsal plosives *c *cʰ *k *kʰ *q *qʰ each shifted forward to the next place of articulation, resulting in a merger of PKn palatal and alveolar plosives.


 * c cʰ > t tʰ
 * k kʰ > c cʰ
 * q qʰ > k kʰ

Tone split
Pre-Proto-Kát's four tones were split into Proto-Kát's six tones. The two new tones (A3 and B3) are the result of a shift triggered by the voicedness of continuant consonants in coda clusters:


 * A1 A2 → B2 B3 before a voiced coda continuant (z m n ɲ ŋ r l y w):
 * A1 (i a u) → B2 (ì à ù)
 * A2 (í á ú) → B3 (î â û)
 * B1 B2 → A2 A3 before a voiceless coda continuant (s h m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊ r̥ l̥ ẙ w̥):
 * B1 (ī ā ū) → A2 (í á ú)
 * B2 (ì à ù) → A3 (ǐ ǎ ǔ)

Monophthongisation
Glides in coda clusters were lost, colouring the vowel and shifting the type 2 contours to type 3:

Under the generally accepted assumption that contour 3 was pronounced with a longer vowel than contours 1 and 2, the tone shift here might represent an example of compensatory lengthening due to loss of the glide.
 * A1: {i a u}y {i a u}w → i u (A1)
 * B1: {ī ā ū}y {ī ā ū}w → ī ū (B1)
 * A2, A3: {í á ú ǐ ǎ ǔ}y {í á ú ǐ ǎ ǔ}w → ǐ ǔ (A3)
 * B2, B3: {ì à ù î â û}y {ì à ù î â û}w → î û (B3)

Coda clusters
Coda clusters were reduced to single lenis consonants. The cells highlighted in blue were subject to the type 2 → 3 contour shift associated with compensatory lengthening which also occurred in monophthongisation.

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.

Numerals
Proto-Kát, used a base-10 system of numerals. The ten basic numerals are shown below: Notes: *tr̥ì- < *tr̥əx₁s was incorporated into numbers as a prefix to numerals.