Proto-Luapellic

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proto-luapellic

Proto-Luapellic
Language Code	PLp
Language Family	Luapellic
Era	6000-8000 years ago

Proto-Luapellic is the last common ancestor of all languages in the Luapellic language family. It has a very complex grammar, with 22 noun declensions and 16 verb conjugation classes.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants		Labial	Dental/Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Stop	Fortis	pʰ <p'>	tʼ <t'>		t͡ɕʼ <c'>	kʼ <k'>
	Lenis	p	t [t̪]	ʈ <t́>	t͡ɕ <c>	k
	Voiced	ɓ <b>	d [d̪]	ɖ <d́>	d͡ʑ <ź>	g
	Nasal	m	n [n̪]	ɳ <ń>		ŋ
Fricative	Fortis		s [s ~ ʂ]
	Lenis		z [z ~ ʐ]
Approximant		ʋ <v>	l [l̪ ~ ɭ ~ ɹ ~ ɻ]		j	ʟ [ʟ ~ g͡ʟ ~ ˀlˠ] <l'>
Rhotic			ɾ [ɾ ~ ɽ] <r>

Vowels

Vowels	Front	Centre	Mid
High	i iː <ī>	ə <y>	u uː <ū>
Low	e eː <ē>	a æː <ā> ɒː <å>	o oː <ō>

Diphthongs

Diphthongs	ai̯ <ai>	au̯ <au>

Phonotactics

Group Letter	Phonemes
C	{pʰ,p,ɓ,m,tʼ,t,d,n,s,z,ʈ,ɖ,ɳ,t͡ɕʼ,t͡ɕ,d͡ʑ,kʼ,k,g,ŋ,s,z,ʋ,l,ɾ,j,ʟ}
V	{i,iː,ə,u,uː,e,eː,a,ɒː,æː,o,oː,ai̯,au̯}
X	{pʰ,p,ɓ,m,tʼ,t,d,n,s,z,ʈ,ɖ,ɳ,t͡ɕʼ,t͡ɕ,d͡ʑ,kʼ,k,g,ŋ,s,z}
Y	{pʰ,p,ɓ,m,tʼ,t,d,n,s,z,ʈ,ɖ,ɳ,t͡ɕʼ,t͡ɕ,d͡ʑ,kʼ,k,g,ŋ,s,z,ʟ}
W	{ʋ,l,ɾ,j}
O	{pʰ,p,ɓ,tʼ,t,d,n,s,z,ʈ,ɖ,t͡ɕʼ,t͡ɕ,d͡ʑ,kʼ,k,g}
N	{m,n,ɳ,ŋ}

Proto-Luapellic has a relatively straightforward syllable structure that is maximally (C)(C)V(C). Although the onset can have 2 consonants, only the sequence XW (i.e. a stop/fricative + a medial) is allowed. The velar lateral approximant /ʟ/ may not appear in an onset with 2 consonants. If /ʟ/ does appear in a sequence of 2 consonants, the 2 consonants are pronounced separately in separate syllables.

While individual syllables are quite simple, Proto-Luapellic has a complex set of assimilatory processes that complicate its already messed up agglutinative grammar.

Name	Original	Final	Description
Obstruent-Nasal Metathesis	ON	NO	Proto-Luapellic prefers having nasals come before obstruents. This step causes all sequences of obstruent then nasal to become a sequence of nasal then obstruent.
Nasal Place Assimilation	NC[$place]	N[$place]C	A nasal consonant assumes the place of articulation of the consonant after it. Palatal affricates are treated like alveolars while /j/ is a neutral consonant.
Affricatisation	{tʼ{s,z}, {t,d,ʈ,ɖ}s, {t,d,ʈ,ɖ}z}	{t͡ɕʼ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ}	A sequence of an alveolar plosive then a sibilant yields an affricate.
Velar Consonant to Velar Lateral	{kʼ,k,g,ŋ}{l,ʟ}	ʟʟ	Velar stops plus a lateral becomes a geminate velar lateral approximant /ʟʟ/.
R-Metathesis	ɾC-{j}V	CɾV	If /ɾ/ comes before another consonant C that is followed by a vowel (i.e. next syllable has an onset with only one consonant), then /ɾ/ and C will swap positions. This rule does not apply if C is /j/.
Word-final R-Metathesis	ɾC#	Cɾə	The sequence /ɾC/ at the end of a word becomes /Cɾə/. Normally, Proto-Luapellic does not allow 2 consonants at the end of a syllable, so you would only see /ɾC/ word-finally due to some weird grammatical trickery where, perhaps, a stem is treated as a full word.
Deletion of /ɾ/ before 2 consonants.	ɾCC	CC	This came about as a side effect of rapid speech being spread throughout the entire Proto-Luapellic-speaking population.
Epenthesis of Schwa after Diphthong and Liquid	{ai̯,au̯}{l,ɾ,ʟ}#	{ai̯,au̯}{l,ɾ,ʟ}ə#	Word-finally.

Vowel Hiatus

Proto-Luapellic speakers staunchly avoid hiatus, where 2 vowels are immediately adjecent to each other. They fix this problem by adding an intrusive consonant in between the 2 vowels. The choice of consonant depends on the first vowel in the sequence.

First Vowel	Intrusive Consonant
{ai̯,i,iː,e,eː}	/j/
{au̯,u,uː,o,oː}	/ʋ/
{a,æː,ɒː,ə}	/n/

Final Obstruent Devoicing

In the coda position, obstruents are devoiced. However, speakers do not treat this change as morphophonemic; they still treat it as if they were uttering the full consonant.

Full consonant	Devoiced Final Obstruent
{pʰ,p,ɓ}	/p/
{tʼ,t,d,t͡ɕʼ,t͡ɕ,d͡ʑ}	/t/
{ʈ,ɖ}	/ʈ/
{kʼ,k,g}	/k/
{s,z}	/s/

Effects on Grammar

In Proto-Luapellic grammatical paradigms, you will see that nouns and verbs come in different word classes. These word classes are organised by the noun’s expected final phonemes (usually a sequence of consonant+vowel). For example, M-class verbs are generally expected to end in “-ma”. Due to the action of assimilation, a root may not end with the expected consonant+vowel sequence. Instead, assimilation could have caused the order of consonants to be inverted to fit the phonotactics of PLp. For such root words, undo all of the assimilation that led up to that point, add the relevant suffixes, then apply any relevant assimilatory steps for the new word.

• • • janza
    • (M-class)
    • see.INF.3.SG
  • • →
  • • jaz-ma
    • (undo assimilation)
  • • →
  • • jaz-mjaljō
    • (replace suffix)
  • • →
  • • janzjaljō
    • (reapply assimilation)
    • see-OPT.1.SG
• He/she/it sees → I want to see

Grammar

Proto-Luapellic is generally head-final like its parent Proto-Teppeli and also does not distinguish nouns and adjectives as separate parts of speech. While Proto-Luapellic has preserved most of the noun cases of Proto-Teppeli, it has developed a new case, the construct (CNS) case, which evolved from Proto-Teppeli’s comitative (COM) case. Proto-Luapellic has 3 grammatical numbers (singular, dual and plural), 6 basic TAMs with subject-verb agreement. Due to sound changes and Proto-Teppeli’s connotational endings, Proto-Luapellic has 22 classes noun declensions and 16 classes of verb conjugations.

Nouns

Nouns (Default)	Stem	NOM	ACC	VOC	CNS	DAT/LAT	LOC/TEMP	ABL
SG	-	-	-t'a* 2	-sa	-n/d(y)4	-ŋ/g(y)6	-l/l'(y)7	-c'y* 9
DU	-(j)ē-1	-(j)ē1	-j(y)t'a 3	-(j)ē1	-jyn5	-ź(a)	-j(y)li8	-j(y)c'i 10
PL	-lī-	-lī	-līt'a	-lī	-līn	-līŋ	-l'i	-lec'i

* If the word historically ends in a long vowel, the vowel MAY be shortened. Q class is for words historically ending in a long vowel, that undergo word-final vowel shortening before “-t’a” and “-c’y”.

1. {a,ā,å,ai} - jē > -ai, {VC?,#}X?{i,ī,e,ē} - jē > {VC?,#}X?jē
2. {i,u} - t’a > {e,o}t’a
3. {a,ā,å,ai} - j(y)t’a > -ait’a, {VC?,#}X?{i,ī,e,ē} - j(y)t’a > {VC?,#}X?jet’a
4. Usually -n(y), but -d(y) after {e,ī,o,ū,å}
5. {a,ā,å,ai} - jyn > -ain, {VC?,#}X?{i,ī,e,ē} - jyn > {VC?,#}X?jen
6. Usually -ŋ(y), but -g(y) after {e,ī,o,ū,å}
7. Usually -l, but -l’ after {e,ī,o,ū,å}. Epenthetic final -y added only if original word/stem ends jn a consonant
8. {a,ā,å,ai} - j(y)li > -aili, {VC?,#}X?{i,ī,e,ē} - j(y)li > {VC?,#}X?īl(i)
9. {i,u} - c’a > {e,o}c’a
10. {a,ā,å,ai} - j(y)c’i > -aic’i, {VC?,#}X?{i,ī*,e,ē} - j(y)c’i > {VC?,#}X?īc’i

Nouns (M class)	Stem	NOM	ACC	VOC	CNS	DAT/LAT	LOC/TEMP	ABL
SG	-m(y)-	-mu	-(n)na	-maz/-nza	-man	-maŋ	-ń(y)	-myc'y/-nc'y
DU	-mē-	-mē	-met'a	-mē	-meni	-meź	-mēl	-mec'i
PL	-nī-	-nī	-nīt'a	-nī	-nīn	-nīŋ	-ńi	-nīc'