Historical changes
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From Proto-Abyssal to Nolwynn
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 30 Jul 2019, 20:55.
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1. 2022 Goals
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2. Historical changes
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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
- Proto-Abyssal had creaky voice. In
Dark Altalian and in Ancient Taleesian [the Abyssal branch that eventually gives way to 
Uixian], this gradually became tone.- Nouns were a closed class, which was a reflection of how the ancient Oceanites were adverse to change and new technologies, since they thought that naming a thing gave it power. These superstitions became Nolwynn's Avoidance Language, but nouns as a closed class eventually gave rise to complete nounlessness in Uixian.
-Proto-Abyssal had a classification system for verbs that clarified what kind of shape or what kind nature the referrent had. Remnants of this exists in the daughter languages: in Nolwynn, this classification system is seen in the verb-like demonstratives and in captative verbs, while a more complete type of classification system is seen in demonstratives. And in Uixian there are certain verbs which require the use of specific fossilized classification endings.
- It did not have pronouns or demonstratives
- It was ergative-absolutive
- It used a lot of particles
- It had a non-concatenating morphology that became Uixian’s triconsonant root system and Nolwynn’s infix system.
- Vowels could be long, creaky, or modal
- It had a similar phonemic inventory to Uixian: ingressive sounds, clicks, lunemes, etcetera
- Like Uixian, Proto-Abyssal used lunemes that could be any color: red, yellow, and blue lights could combine into many different variations. This evolved and simplified throughout the ages, becoming Nolwynn’s emotional signifier system.
All Abyssal languages inherited these traits from Proto-Abyssal:
- primarily some variation of ergative-absolutive
- lack of true pronouns or demonstratives: these tend to be verbs rather than nouns
- lots of particles
- remnants of a verb classification system
- non-concatenating morphology, but the extent varies
- ritualized register or words; and/or linguistic superstitions
Since nouns in
Proto-Abyssal are a closed class consisting of only a few individual words, how do you know which nouns actually existed in the past? Well, it gets tricky thanks to influence from other languages, semantic drift, obfuscation via taboo, and other influences. The collection of nouns in PBY was used in magical inscriptions, so those writings are another source of knowledge.You can determine which nouns actually existed in
Proto-Abyssal by seeing if they exist in BOTH branches [Altalian and Taleesian]. In Uixian, these are the verbs with the most restricted meanings. In Deep Uixian they appear in fossilized phrases, and a few of those exist as idiomatic expressions in Uixian. They don’t have any special status in 
Nolwynn . In
Proto-Abyssal, nouns are a closed class. How did this change? Several things took place:The Oceanites were a single tribe at first, and they developed language on their own independently from any other species due to their isolation.
The first thing that helped erode nouns as a closed class was contact from other languages and cultures where linguistic taboos didn’t exist. This was quite shocking at first and resulted in some Oceanites experimenting with the linguistic taboos by using them as insults or curse words. Eventually the taboo was erased among certain subcultures. They began worshiping different deities and developed different ideas about what was taboo and what wasn’t.
This was completely unacceptable to others within mainstream Oceanite culture - so unacceptable that it resulted in a schism, creating the Ancient Taleesian branch and the Ancient Altalian branch. These two tribes went to war over their religious differences, further separating their language and their culture.
In the Taleesian branch, the linguistic taboos remained quite strong. From these languages and dialects,
Uixian emerged. In this language, nouns don't exist because the linguistic taboos were so strong.In the Altalian branch, the linguistic taboos were considerably lessened, though they never fully disappeared. This branch became
Dark Altalian and eventually Nolwynn. ingressive consonants change
xh > k
hV at the beginning of the word is dropped
V̰θ > Vnt
words beginning with an ejective in Nolwynn followed this pattern in Proto-Abyssal: CVCV, where C is the same consonant and V is a vowel. For example: xhuxhurungmḛ > kxalina
#zj > #tš - if the syllable is stressed: consonants before palatalized vowels become palatalized if they are in stressed syllables; they may also become ejective: zjengmxe > tšyxim or zjnghuxhxe > tšuanka
fh > p
x > ʔ
th > f
In stressed syllables: CjV > ua
h̽w > w
r > l
a vowel in the middle of two SAME consonants is dropped, resulting in an ejective
#xṵ > #e in stressed syllables
Vh̽V̰ > V́
r > l
∫j > tš
fh > p
V̰ngmV > VnV
rʃ> lx
ᴕ > nk, but only in the middle of a word
ᴕV > l, but only at the end of a word
ƍVV > VʔV
ngm[unstressed vowel] > nw
#xḛ > #a
[stressed vowel] h̽sc> z
∫Vh̊ > zš
h̽ [unstressed vowel] sc > ts
ʃc > š
Vh̽V̰ > V́
hl > lx
For the vowels: extra-long > long; long > vowels with tone; creaky > vowel moves back [for example, ɤ̰ > ɑ]
-yx, yV, and wV could have arisen from a vowel cluster
- nk could have arisen from the deletion of an unstressed intermediary vowel...
- I want PBY to use determiners and classifiers, but I'm not sure how they would be used yet...
- chesherization is a fun sound change, but I'm not sure how to implement it.
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