Proto-Namb language

Proto-Namb (abbreviated PNmb), also known as Proto-Northern Gäj (PNGäj) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Nambāno and Arklobu languages, which together form the Northern branch of the "Gäj" languages.

Consonants
Some analyses of Proto-Namb consider the sequences *gw *kw *khw *xw *ŋw to be a class of singular labialized velar consonants.

Vowels
The vowel system of Proto-Namb features a typical five-vowel system, *a *e *i *o *u, in which the vowels *a *e *o *u had additional fronted forms, transcribed *ä *ë *ö *ü respectively. These typically arose as allophones due to *i in the next syllable which was often lost, leaving a phonemic fronted vowel. The distinction between plain vowels and their fronted forms was entirely morphologically conditioned, and sometimes occurred by analogical extension in forms which never had a following *i.

Many Namb languages exhibit separate shifts between plain and fronted vowels, cementing their phonemic status. *e and *ë are reconstructed as separate sounds, suggesting that *e likely had a central or back quality [ə~ɤ]

It has also been suggested that *ä *ë *ö *ü were not fronted, but rather had an advanced tongue root, as is exhibited in Qʼachkav vowel harmony. This theory posits the following approximate vowel qualities:


 * a e o u [ɑ ɛ ɔ ʊ]
 * ä ë ö ü [a e o u]

Stem mutation
Proto-Gäj featured a pattern of grammatical alternation where stem-final consonants in certain inflections would mutate according to the rule:


 * -b -d -j -g -r -l -y -w > -p -t -c -k -s -∅ -∅ -∅

In Namb, stem mutation developed further due to the loss of *s, palatal assimilation, and vowel-fronting, whereby the vowels *a *e *o *u were shifted to *ä *ë *ö *ü respectively in the presence of *i in the next syllable. Vowel-final stems were also reanalysed as having a final *-x, an example of rebracketing, since many vowel-initial suffixes would insert an epenthetic *-x-, meaning the basic stem in Proto-Namb always ends in a consonant.

These changes yielded the following stem mutation rules which generally apply in Proto-Namb:


 * -b -d -j -g -kh > -p -t -c -c -ch
 * -r -l -y -w -ç -x > -∅
 * -a- -e- -o- -u- > -ä- -ë- -ö- -ü-

Stem mutation is the result of coincidental inflectional morphology causing multiple independent sound changes to frequently occur together, and the compound phonological variation which arose becoming recognised as a common pattern. This separated a stem into two distinct forms strengthened by semantic and morphological analogy. For example, the first and second person imperfective suffixes *-chir and *-chirkh triggered fronting of the previous vowel in the stem and blocked the voicing of a stem-final plain plosive which had become voiced in the perfective and irrealis conjugations, or triggered spirantisation of an aspirated plosive. In nominal inflection, the genitive suffix *-(m)i also triggered the same ablaut and consonant mutation, as did the ablative suffixes *-çi and *-thi.

Many paradigms of related forms which partially or inconsistently mutated the stem were analogically levelled into systems based around a singular mutated stem. For example, the genitive singular suffix *-(m)ax blocked voicing of obstruents, but would not have fronted the stem vowel. By analogy with other genitive suffixes and similar forms, this suffix also attached to the mutated stem, e.g. *öci, *öcax "stone-ɢᴇɴ.ᴘʟ, stone-ɢᴇɴ.ꜱɢ".

The semantic relationships between forms may also have influenced this analogy, for example in the nominal cases. There may have been a semantic split into more active or dominant roles like the possessive, genitive and ablative which happened to use the mutated stem, and passive/recipient roles like the absolutive, accusative and lative cases using the basic stem. In such a system, the ergative case would likely be more associated with the active roles, and this may be part of what led to Proto-Namb using the mutated stem for the ergative case, unlike the other Gäj languages.

Mutated ergative
The fronted vowel became the most important characteristic feature of the mutated stem in Namb, evidenced by other morphological changes revolving around the ablaut. For example, consider the Proto-Gäj inanimate ergative suffix *-ir, which triggered voicing of the stem-final obstruent, yielding forms like *ā́g-ir and *pwób-ir from PKn *ā́q-ir "hill-ᴇʀɢ" and *pwə́p-ir "moss-ᴇʀɢ" respectively. In Proto-Namb, these additionally underwent vowel fronting, so should have yielded the expected forms *öj-ir and *kwöb-ir respectively, but instead the forms *öc-ir and *kwöp-ir are reconstructed. This indicates that these forms were changed by analogy with other mutated stem forms which usually front the vowel and mutate the final consonant together, i.e. *öc- and *kwöp-.

The same analogical process also took place in the countable inflection, with vowel-fronting triggered by ergative singular and plural suffixes *-ix and *-ixax respectively. Barring a few irregular exceptions, this analogy firmly placed the ergative case into the mutated stem category in the Namb languages, distinguishing them from other Gäj languages which use the basic stem for the ergative. Namb ergative suffixation is generally less closely attached to the noun than the other cases, in some languages exhibiting clitic-like behaviour or disappearing entirely, and this may have been crucial to the change of base stem.

Loss of the initial *-i- on ergative suffixes may have generated the first phonemic fronted vowels in Proto-Namb, since they would remain in environments in which they would not have arisen allophonically. For example, compare *xura/xure "bird-ᴀʙꜱ.ꜱɢ/ᴘʟ" with its ergative form, which was likely *xäx/xäxax rather than *xäix/*xäixax.

A similar analogical process appears to have extended the fully mutated stem with the fronted vowel to the genitive singular *-(m)ax and much rarer possessives *-nu and *-nurax, yielding forms like *xä-max "bird-ɢᴇɴ.ꜱɢ".

Nouns
Gäj languages commonly feature two alternating forms of many nominal inflectional suffixes, depending on whether the stem ends in a consonant or a vowel. Namb in particular exhibits the irregular loss of nasals in genitive and possessive suffixes attaching to stop-final stems, not observed in any other morphemes.

Unlike a typical Koyanic system of countable animate nouns and uncountable inanimate nouns, nouns could inflect in multiple different paradigms, often with semantic variation between paradigms. For example, the root *khel- "person" refers to specific instances of people in the countable inflection, while the uncountable *khelur and associated inflectional forms represent "humanity" in general or some particular populace, rather than individuals.

Countable inflection
Ergative marking appeared only on non-human agents, with the absolutive case having a nominative usage for human referents.

The accusative case generally only appears on human referents, though non-human animate objects may sometimes have taken the accusative case if a human nominative agent was present.

The possessive case was reserved for human possessors, though could appear on non-human animal referents as a form of personification. Unlike the genitives, the possessive suffixes retained their initial consonant *-n- in all circumstances.

Examples of countable inflection are shown in the table below.

Uncountable inflection
A different inflection paradigm was used for uncountable nouns, which includes mass nouns like substances, colours and weather, as well as uniquely named entities like places, celestial bodies and months. Nouns in the latter category were commonly derived from the Proto-Gäj locative *-thu and ablative *-thi, with *-th reanalysed as part of the stem in Namb. These "unique" nouns use alternate forms of the absolutive and dative cases. Examples of uncountable inflection are shown in the table below.