Dictionary:About Proto-Unterian
This page documents the dictionary's practice for Proto-Unterian (code YCP-XC), the reconstructed ancestor of the Unterian branch of the Andusian family, native to Unteria and the adjacent southeastern seaboard. 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.
- Sonorization. The breathy stops melted into sonorants: *bʰ > w, *dʰ > r: *bʰek > weki “woman”; *dʰes > resi “go” (final vowels by law 5).
- Simplification of the marked series. *kp, *gb > p, b; *ᵐb, *ᵑg > m, ŋ — except word-finally, where they released with an echo vowel: *-ᵐb > -mu, *-ᵑg > -ŋu (*muᵐb > mumu “snow” beside *mum > mumi “scratch”; *ciᵐb > simu “tree” beside *sim > simi “wood”). *q > ʔ; *ɢ > g; *ts, *dz > s, z: *kpam > pami “canoe”; *qɛ > ʔɛ “sit”; *dziq > ziʔi “small”.
- Palatal resolution. *c > s, *ɲ > n, *ɟ > j — Unterian thereby acquires the plain n that Proto-Andusian famously lacked, completing a full m n ŋ series: *ɲehits > nehisi “warm”.
- Coda dissolution. Obstruents were lost before another consonant: *ritskos > rikosi “bird”; *kpetme > peme “neck”; *izvo > ivo “salt”.
- Open-syllable drift. Words ending in a consonant took a final -i: *vutme > vume “name”; *saŋ > saŋi “sun”; *qodʰ > ʔori “we”.
Phonology
The most restructured branch consonantally and the most conservative vocalically: all seven vowel qualities and the vowel sequences survive (*ᵑgao > ŋao “louse”), while the consonant inventory reduces to p t k b d g ʔ f v s z x ɣ h m n ŋ r l w j. Syllables drift strongly open. Every uniquely Unterian n, j, or ʔ is diagnostic: an innovation of this branch.