View source for Dictionary:About Proto-North-Andusian

This page documents the dictionary's practice for '''Proto-North-Andusian''' (code ''YCP-XA''), the reconstructed ancestor of the North Andusian branch of the [[Andusian]] family. Like [[Dictionary:About Proto-Andusian|Proto-Andusian]] itself, it is a reconstruction: entries live at plain phonemic titles, the leading * is supplied automatically, and entries are created as etymologies come to cite them rather than in bulk.

== Development from Proto-Andusian ==
The laws below apply in order; forms cited are Proto-Andusian on the left of the arrow.

# '''Low-mid merger.''' *ɛ, *ɔ merged into *e, *o, vacating the low-mid space (''*lɛbʰ'' > ''leb'' “bee”, first stage).
# '''Final nasal absorption.''' Word-final *-ŋ was lost, nasalizing the preceding vowel: ''*saŋ'' > ''sã'' “sun”; ''*oŋ'' > ''õ'' “at”. Nasal vowels resist the following law.
# '''Register-to-quality.''' Vowels laxed and lowered after the breathy stops *bʰ, *dʰ (*a > ''ɑ'', *e > ''ɛ'', *i > ''e'', *o > ''ɔ'', *u > ''o''), and the breathy stops then merged into *b, *d: ''*bʰek'' > ''bɛk'' “woman”, ''*bʰat'' > ''bɑt'' “grass”, ''*dʰes'' > ''dɛs'' “go”. The breathy series survives only as vowel colour: old and new low-mids contrast as in ''*dʰɔkfo'' > ''dɔxfo'' “moon” beside ''*ɔᵐbu'' > ''oᵐbu'' “cut”.
# '''Uvular collapse.''' *q > ''ʔ''; *ɢ merged into ''ɣ'': ''*qodʰ'' > ''ʔod'' “we”; ''*buɢ'' > ''buɣ'' “dust”.
# '''Medial weakening.''' Between vowels, *d > ''r'', *b > ''v'', *g > ''ɣ'', and *h was lost: ''*dʰudo'' > ''doro'' “sew”; ''*mubʰe'' > ''muvɛ'' “wash”; ''*ɲehits'' > ''ɲeits'' “warm”. The weakening postdates law 3 and so feeds on the reflexes of the breathy stops.
# '''Cluster laws.''' *k spirantized to ''x'' before a consonant (''*dʰɔkfo'' > ''dɔxfo''), and *t assimilated fully to a following *m (''*vutme'' > ''vumme'' “name”; ''*kpetme'' > ''kpemme'' “neck”).

== Phonology ==
The labiovelar (''kp'', ''gb'') and prenasalized (''ᵐb'', ''ᵑg'') series survive intact — North Andusian is the branch that keeps the ancestral consonant frame — while the vowel system triples: plain ''a e i o u'', the laxed register vowels ''ɑ ɛ ɔ'', and the nasal vowels ''ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ''. New consonants: ''ʔ''. Lost: the uvulars and the breathy stops.

== See also ==
* [[Dictionary:About Proto-Andusian]]
* [[Andusian]]