Proto-Koyanic language

Proto-Koyanic (PKoy) 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}
 * 3) Liquid L = {*r̥ *l̥ *r *l}
 * 4) Nasal N = {*m̥ *n̥ *ɲ̊ *ŋ̊ *m *n *ɲ *ŋ}
 * 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.

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.