Proto-Upic language

Proto-Upic (PUp) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Upic languages. It is thought to have been spoken c. 5,000 - 4,000 BGS somewhere in the Koyan region of Western Fountainhead, likely on the red steppe.

Phonology
Below are the reconstructed phonemes of Proto-Upic.

Dorsal Plosives
The dorsal plosives span three places of articulation, palatal *c *c’, velar *k *k’, and uvular *q *q’. The distinction between all three places was eventually lost in all Upic languages, surviving the longest in Cisi, but is important to consider in reconstructing early stages of all Upic branches.

Dorsal Fricatives
The fricatives *x and *h are unusual in that they cannot be definitely associated with single places of articulation, but rather seem to each possess properties of two groups simultaneously. In some circumstances, both synchronic and diachronic, the distinction between *x and *h appears to be palatal/velar, while in others it functions as velar/uvular, but the distinction is almost always maintained. In the Northern Upic languages, which retains the palatals, *x is generally reflected by a sibilant fricative [ʃ~ɕ], while *h is reflected by both velar and uvular fricatives [x~χ], which are either allophones of a single phoneme or phonemically distinct depending on the language. In the Southern Upic languages, which merge the palatals into alveolar affricates, *x does not follow suit and is instead reflected by a velar fricative [x], leaving *h reflected purely by a uvular or pharyngeal fricative [χ~ħ].

*r
Various assimilation and dissimilation rules in early daughter languages imply that Proto-Upic *r was most typically a uvular consonant when Upic began to split into its major branches in the 4th millennium BGS. The most commonly accepted value of *r is a uvular trill [ʀ], due to its reflection by an alveolar trill in Proto-Öbic, which then merges with /l/ in Low Alöbi.

Investigation into sound symbolism in Proto-Upic has demonstrated that *r appears in similar phonesthemes to the voiced coronal consonants *n, *l and *y, rather than consonants which were likely articulated at or near the uvula like *q', *q, *ʔ, *ħ and *h. This is an example of iconicity, the analogy between the real form of a sign and its semantic meaning, and has been considered by some as proof that Proto-Upic *r was an alveolar trill [r]. However, this coincidence directly offers information only about the cognitive perception of sounds by speakers of the language, not the actual phonetic value. One possible interpretation is that the consonant was pronounced as an alveolar trill in an earlier stage of the language, or that the alveolar and uvular trills were in free variation in early Upic languages, with the alveolar quality prevailing in Proto-Öbic and the uvular quality remaining elsewhere.

Vowels
Proto-Upic had only three phonemic vowels, *i, *a and *u, and may have had a non-phonemic, epenthetic schwa. It was previously believed that Proto-Upic had a greater inventory of phonemic diphthongs and syllabic liquids, but this theory is no longer accepted.

Phonotactics
Syllables had the maximal form CRVRC, where C is a non-resonant consonant (nasal, plosive or fricative), R is a resonant consonant (*w *l *y *r) and V is a vowel (*i *a *u). Unlike its descendants, Proto-Upic is reconstructed to have had no further constraints on which consonants could be paired in the onset.

Syllabic resonant theory
Initial attempts at reconstructing Proto-Upic made the assumption that certain phonological phenomena and alternation patterns observed in descendant languages represented a system of syllabic resonants. This system was described as having a single default vowel, *a, and the four resonants *y *w *r *l each having two syllabic forms, a simple monophthong form and a closing diphthong form: The diphthongs were reconstructed to have been pronounced with a syllabic vowel component with a quality distinct from the three cardinal vowels *a *i *u, usually assumed to be a schwa and transcribed *e.

The key principle of the system was the merger of *Vy *Vw *Vr *Vl into *ey *ew *er *el respectively before a coda consonant. Thus, *-ar, *-ir, *-ur, *-r̩, *-r̩k, *-erk are all valid rimes while *-ark, *-irk, *-urk, *-er, would be forbidden. This can also be described as two phonotactic constraints:

These constraints were said to have regularly applied to morphological constructions. For example, the Proto-Upic root *riw is generally reflected by -liw- or -lew- "tie, twist" in Alöbi, while -lüt- "knot", formed with the resultative *-t, implies a different original nucleus: *rewt < *riw-t.
 * A resonant consonant R (*y *w *r *l) may occur as the coda consonant only when following a vowel V (*a *i *u).
 * The diphthong forms of the resonants (*ey *ew *er *el) may only occur preceding a non-resonant coda C.

This theory has been found not necessary to reconstruct, and is now usually considered inaccurate due to the following issues:


 * The existence of both monophthong and diphthong forms was proposed due to the belief that an early stage of Alöbi, perhaps Proto-Öbic, had contrastive vowel length. This has now been rejected, thus key evidence for syllabic resonant theory no longer exists.
 * *r̩ and *er are now understood to produce identical reflexes and are therefore not reconstructible as separate nuclei.
 * *-al doesn't appear to engage in the kind of alternation described above. For example the root *cal "boundary" appears in the Alöbi word nacom "transitionary period", rather than **nacum which would be expected if *cal-m had yielded *celm.
 * More recent evidence from an Upic substrate in the Hnäzb languages implies that sequences like *iRC may have been distinct from *aRC in some Northern Upic languages, supporting the behaviour of *-al described above and further implying that Alöbi and Cisi underwent diphthong neutralisation independently after Proto-Upic had split.

It is quite likely that neutralisation of *iRC and *uRC was already present in Proto-Upic, particularly *iw *uy > *uw *iy and *ir *ur > *ar, but full diphthong alternation is now considered a feature unique to the Öbic languages. In Alöbi for example, *Vy and *Vw became various diphthongs, but preceding a coda consonant are reflected by i and ü respectively.

Root
Proto-Upic roots are monosyllabic morphemes which did not belong to any particular word class and had broad semantic meaning. More precise meanings able to be expressed through serial root constructions and certain affixes. The following affixes are reconstructed:


 * Singular absolutive noun *i-
 * Plural absolutive noun *hu-
 * Genitive noun *-i
 * Dative noun *aħ-
 * Possessed noun *-(a)n
 * Perfective/Resultative *-(a)t
 * Stative *-u
 * Adjective *-a

Numerals
Proto-Upic is reconstructed to have had a base-5 system of numerals, with a unique root for the number ten. The table below shows all six reconstructed numeral roots, with equivalent forms in Proto-Koyanic for comparison.

A more recent theory is that Proto-Koyanic adopted these terms, among others, from an unattested early Upic language. This places the period of language exchange in Kóty around the 4th millennium BGS, implying Proto-Upic was spoken perhaps as early as 5000 BGS.

Assuming this theory to be true, the reconstruction of Proto-Upic *ʔVrc poses multiple issues. Firstly, the presence of uvular *q in Koyanic is unusual, since it would be expected that PUp *q and *ʔ would be associated with PKn *q and *ʡ respectively. The second issue is the presence of *c in the Koyanic term. Proto-Koyanic *c was likely a palatalised velar plosive [kʲ], while Proto-Upic *c was more likely an affricate, reflected variously as [tɕ~tʃ~ts~s] in later languages. Loaning [~ʔVtʃ] as [qVkʲ] has very little phonological motivation, so a more realistic explanation is that both Proto-Koyanic and Proto-Upic received their shared vocabulary from an even older source, perhaps a common ancestor of the two.