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 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.