Koyanic languages

The Koyanic languages are a language family found throughout the Koyan region of western Fountainhead.

Internal classification
The Koyanic language family is typically considered in seven main groups, each representing of a relatively well-defined branch of related languages:


 * Hma'ma, a group of tonal languages spoken along the Laede river and throughout the Khey desert.
 * Agacam, a broader group of related tonal languages spoken in the Riverline plains.
 * Bezgonic, minority languages spoken in northern Kóty and Krobu. May be a stem group rather than an actual genetic clade.
 * Namb, the largest group by number of speakers, spoken by various peoples of Krobu and Qnōp'.
 * Duodoseic, a dialect cluster spoken on the Irekindipakka islands.
 * Tsittar, spoken in the mountains of western Kóty, close to the assumed urheimat of the Koyanic language family.
 * Hnäzb, spoken by various nomadic tribes on the Red Steppe.

By comparison of broad phonological shifts in each of the seven groups, the Proto-Koyanic language has been reconstructed to have split into four primary branches around 2000-3000 BGS. These branches are named after 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 four major Koyanic branches are:

There are several sound changes shared between the Gäj, Kát and Hak groups, but it is not clear whether this represents genetic relation since the relative order and particular details of the changes are slightly different in each group. For example, the debuccalisation of *s to *h did not effect coda *s in Duodoseic, and the loss of uvulars was achieved differently in all three:
 * Kát, consisting of Hma'ma (Western Kát) and Agacam (Eastern 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.
 * Gäj, consisting of Namb (Northern Gäj) and Bezgonic — Merges the uvulars into the velars and voices the plain plosives *p *t *c *k → *b *d *ɟ *g in certain environments.
 * Hak, aka Duodoseic — Merges the palatals into the velars, shifts the uvulars to *h and merges aspirated and plain plosives.
 * Qʼač, consisting of Hnäzb and Tsittar — Innovates ejectives from the glottalisation of obstruents by laryngeals and retains voiceless sonorants.


 * q qʰ > k kʰ > c cʰ > t tʰ chain shift in Kát.
 * q qʰ > k kʰ merger in Gäj.
 * q qʰ > h in Duodoseic.

These shared changes are generally interpreted as areal changes affecting the three groups after they were already separated. Current theory suggests that after Proto-Koyanic split into its four major dialects, Qʼač migrated into the mountains leaving the other three branches in contact in the Kóty heartlands for around another millennia, in which time these shared changes spread. The Qʼač and Gäj were traditionally thought to be slightly more closely related than the other branches, with Duodoseic being the earliest diverging. The first proposed phylogenetic tree of the Koyanic family is shown below:


 * Koyanic
 * Duodoseic
 * Nuclear Koyanic
 * Kát
 * Hma'ma
 * Agacam
 * Arklobu-Qachkav
 * Gäj
 * Namb
 * Bezgonic
 * Qʼač
 * Qʼachkav
 * Hnäzb

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. Where stress affected the vowel, the two qualities are presented: stressed / unstressed.

Vocabulary comparison
Cognate sets representing common vocabulary in the seven major Koyanic proto-languages are presented below, with reflexes of the Proto-Koyanic term shown wherever a reflex survives.