Dictionary:About Proto-South-Andusian
This page documents the dictionary's practice for Proto-South-Andusian (code YCP-XB), the reconstructed ancestor of the South 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.
- Prenasal split. The prenasalized stops split by position: word-initially they hardened to plain voiced stops, elsewhere they became plain nasals: *ᵐbu > bu “hand” but *geᵐb > gem “in”; *ᵑgɔm > gɔm “thunder” but *siᵑgir > siŋir “sing”.
- Palatal sibilation. *c > ʃ, *ɟ > ʒ: *cisɛc > ʃisɛʃ “house”.
- Labiovelar rounding. The labiovelars rounded a following unrounded vowel (*a, *ɛ > ɔ; *e > o; *i > u) and then delabialized: *kpam > kɔm “canoe”; *gbiq > guʔ “mouth”.
- Debuccalization and length. The breathy stops *bʰ, *dʰ became h word-initially and between vowels, and were lost after a vowel before a consonant or word-finally, lengthening that vowel: *bʰek > heʔ “woman”; *bʰebʰe > hehe “grandmother”; *abʰfiq > aːfiʔ “skin”; *qodʰ > qoː “we”. Vowel length is thereby phonemic.
- Intervocalic voicing. The voiceless stops *p, *t, *k, *q voiced between vowels: *meto > medo “water”; *ɲoquᵐb > ɲoɢum “ash”.
- Coalescence. The sequences *ao, *ae, *ɔɛ contracted to long vowels: *zae > zeː “straight”; *ᵑgao > goː “louse”; *gɔɛ > gɔː “say”.
- Final erosion. After a vowel, word-final stops reduced to ʔ and word-final *ɣ, *x were lost: *bʰat > haʔ “grass”; *ɣɔtsuɣ > ɣɔtsu “axe”; *seɣ > se “eye”.
Phonology
South Andusian is the only branch to retain the uvulars (q, ɢ — indeed intervocalic voicing feeds new ɢ), and it alone keeps ɲ. It gains the sibilants ʃ ʒ, the glottals ʔ and h (the latter much extended), and phonemic vowel length; the seven short vowel qualities survive unchanged. Lost: the labiovelar, prenasalized, and breathy series as such, and the palatal stops.