Proto-Teppeli
| Proto-Teppeli | |
|---|---|
| Language Code | PTp |
| Language Family | Teppeli |
Proto-Teppeli (PTp) is the spoken language from which all Teppeli languages are descended. It was spoken roughly 12000 to 8000 years ago in the plains and mountains surrounding the Ryzano river.
Proto-Teppeli’s phonology was primarily inspired from the Dravidian languages, with no distinctions between voiced and unvoiced consonants but with a series of retroflex consonants. PTp’s also consists of pre-nasalised stops in lieu of Dravidian’s nasal series. The vowel inventory only has 4 vowel qualities: /a/, /i/, /u/ and /ə/, with additional length distinctions on some qualities.
PTp is mostly head-final, with SOV word order and postpositions. Nominals can have any of 8 cases and 3 numbers. Although nouns do not decline for grammatical gender, pronouns still distinguish human and non-human referrents. Verbal grammar are more complicated than nouns, with conjugations for subject-verb agreement, 2 tenses and 4 moods, plus constructions for grammatical voice and additional moods.
Phonology
Consonants
Proto-Teppeli has 17 consonants, most of them are either plosives or pre-nasalised stops.
| Consonants | Labial | Denti-Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | t [t̪] <t> | ʈ <t́> | c ~ t͡ɕ1 <c> | k | ʔ4 <'> |
| Prenasalised | ᵐb <m/mb> | ⁿd [ⁿd̪] <n/nd> | ᶯɖ <ń/ńd́> | ᶮɟ ~ ᶮd͡ʑ2 <ñ/ñz> | ᵑg <ŋ/ŋg> | |
| Fricative | s | |||||
| Approximant | l | ɭ ~ ɻ ~ ɽ3 <ĺ/ŕ> | j | w | ||
| Rhotic | ɾ <r> | |||||
- /t͡ɕ/ in South Proto-Teppeli
- /ᶮd͡ʑ/ in North Proto-Teppeli
- /ɭ/ in South Proto-Teppeli, /ɻ/ in North Proto-Teppeli and /ɽ/ in East Proto-Teppeli
- /ʔ/ is non-distinct word-initially. Final /ʔ/ may have subsequent epenthetic /ɨ̆/
Vowels
| Vowels | Front | Centre | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i <i> iː <i> [ɪ, e, e̞] | ə <e> [ɨ] | u <u> uː <ū> [ʊ, o, o̞] |
| Low | a <a> aː <ā> [æ, ɑ, ɒ, ɐ] | ||
Phonotactics
PTp syllables are maximally (C)V(ʔ). Morphemes may not necessarily follow this rule but full words must. Illegal clusters are broken up using <e> /ə/.
Syllables that consist of an optional onset consonant and a short vowel are considered light syllables while all other syllables (with long vowels or a final /ʔ/) are considered heavy syllables. Light syllables are assigned a value of 1 mora while heavy syllables have a value of 2 morae.
Sandhi
Proto-Teppeli words undergo sandhi.
| Environment | Result | Description |
|---|---|---|
| C$1 - C$2 | C$1əC$2 | When 2 morphemes are joined, an epenthetic /ə/ is added between the 2 morphemes if the consonant that ends the first morpheme is different from the consonant that starts the second phoneme. No /ə/ is added if the final consonant in the first morpheme is /ʔ/. |
| C$1 - C$1 | C$1 | When 2 morphemes are joined, and the final consonant (C) of the first morpheme is the same as the initial consonant of the second morpheme, only one of C is preserved. |
| i(ː)V | ijV | If i or ī end up coming before a vowel without an intervening consonant, a /j/ is epenthesised between the 2 vowels, and long ī becomes short i. |
| u(ː)V | uwV | If u of ū end up coming before a vowel without an intervening consonant, a /w/ is epenthesised between the 2 vowels, and long ū becomes short u. |
| i(ː)ji(ː) | iː | iji → ī |
| u(ː)wu(ː) | uː | uwu → ū |
| V$1(ː){ə,V$1(ː)} | Vː | If a vowel V (regardless of length) comes immediately before /ə/ or another of V (regardless of length), they merge to become long V̄. |
| əV(ː) | Vː | If /ə/ comes before another vowel, the vowel becomes long. |
| əə | a | |
| ʔj | ʔc | In East Proto-Teppeli, /j/ becomes /c/ after /ʔ/. |
| ʔw | ʔp | In East Proto-Teppeli, /w/ becomes /p/ after /ʔ/. |
| ʔj | ʔᶮɟ | In South Proto-Teppeli, /j/ becomes /ᶮɟ/ after /ʔ/. |
| ʔw | ʔᵐb | In South Proto-Teppeli, /w/ becomes /ᵐb/ after /ʔ/. |
| Vː - ʔ | Vʔ | An initial glottal stop in the second morpheme shortens the word-final long vowel in the first morpheme if present. |
| C$1 V[short]? - ʔ? C$1 | ʔ? C$1 | If the second morpheme starts with consonant C that matches the consonant C nearest to the end in the first morpheme, any word-final short vowel in the first morpheme is deleted. Example: /ᵐbatu/ + /-ʔtalə/ > /ᵐbaʔtalə/ |
| ə - j | ij | |
| ə - w | uw |
Prosody
Primary stress falls on the syllable containing the 3rd-last mora. If the word does not have at least 3 morae, the 1st syllable is stressed.
Secondary stress falls on every possible heavy syllable, but cannot be adjacent to another stressed syllable. Secondary stress is calculated after primary stress and is calculated from left to right.
- li’tuŋga’jāketekulī
- /ˌliʔtuˌᵑgaʔjaːkətəˈkuliː/
- avoid-INFR-(PAST)-3SG
- He/she/it must have avoided (something).
Grammar
Proto-Teppeli has 2 main parts of speech (POS), nouns and verbs. Native words belonging to these 2 POS usually end in a predefined list of endings that form the nominative or indicative form. These endings are arranged in a descending order of connotation, with which ending a word has determining their connotations. These endings are typically used to derive multiple meanings out of a single stem.
For example, the stem pāl- meaning “sound”, can have the positive suffix -emba added to it to create pālemba meaning to “to talk, speak or say”. Alternatively the negative suffix -ñzi can be added to turn it into pāleñzi, meaning “a disturbance or annoyance”. As can be seen, this suffixes do not have any concrete meaning accept carrying their innate level of connotation.
In addition, the endings can also be shortened into a connective (CONN) stem that is used to add more morphemes after the stem. For the ending -ñzi, the corresponding connective stem is -ñz-, which allows you to add inflectional or derivational morphemes onto the end, like -li’ca, to form pāleñzeli’ca meaning “from the disturbances”.
Nouns
Here are the connotational endings for nouns, adjectives are not really distinct from nouns in PTp, so they share the same set of endings.
| Connotation | Ending Name | NOM.SG Ending | Connective Stem |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positive | M class | -mbu | -mb- |
| N class | -ndu | -nd- | |
| I class | -i | - | |
| Neutral/Positive | Ĺ/Ŕ class | -ĺu/-ŕu | -ĺ/ŕ- |
| Ń class | -ńd́a | -ńd́e- | |
| T class | -tū | -tu | |
| Neutral/Negative | Ŋ class | -ŋga | -ŋge- |
| L class | -lu | -l- | |
| R class | -ru | -r- | |
| Negative | Z class | -ñzi | -ñz- |
| S class | -ese | -es- |
When declining nouns or using it as a affix, the final ending must be converted to the corresponding connective stem. Hence, iĺeńd́a must be converted to iĺeńd́e- before a suffix like the accusative suffix -‘tale can be added to form iĺeńd́e’tale /iɭəˈᶯɖəʔtalə/.
Nominal Declensions
Nouns can inflect for 8 cases and 3 numbers.
| Nouns | Nominative/Genitive | Accusative | Vocative | Possessive | Comitative | Dative/Allative | Locative/Temporal | Ablative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | -'tale | -sā | -t́u | -nda' | -ŋga' | -ĺe | -'ca | ||
| SG | - | - | -'tale | -sā | -t́u | -nda' | -ŋga' | -ĺe | -'ca |
| DU | -jā | -jā | -ja'tale | -jāsā | -jāt́u | -jānda' | -jāŋga' | -jāĺe | -ja'ca |
| PL | -lī | -lī | -li'tale | -līsā | -līt́u | -līnda' | -līŋga' | -līĺe / -ĺīle | -li'ca |
Nominative
The nominative case is the default form of the word and is used as the subject for intransitive verbs and as the agent in a transitive verb. The nominative case is also used like a genitive case, more in possessive.
Possessive
The possessive case is used to signify ownership between 2 nouns. This implies that the modified noun has a subordinate relationship to the modifying noun. This is different from the role of a genitive case, which only implies an association between 2 nouns. This role is fulfilled by the nominative case. Thus, it is more appropriate to say:
- rītū
- /ˈɾiːtuː
- mountain.NOM.SG
- ti’pali
- ˈtiʔpali/
- deer.NOM.SG
- Mountain deer
or
- rīti’pali
- /ɾiːˈtiʔpali/
- mountain.CONN-deer.NOM.SG
- Mountain deer
instead of
- rītut́u
- /ˈɾiːtuʈu
- mountain.CONN-POSS
- ti’pali
- ˈtiʔpali/
- deer.NOM.SG
- Mountain’s deer
as the latter implies that the mountain owns the deer.