Kappa Historical

[qiihoskeh]

Last Edited: 2006.Aug.04 Fri

Protolanguage Syllables

are CV(V)(C).
Coda consonants may be limited to *q, *n, *f, *s, *l, and *r.
Onset consonants may be limited to *p, *t, *k, *q, *b, *d, *g, *f, *s, *l, and *r.
The vowels are *i, *e, *a, and *u.

There are three syllable lengths in the protolanguage which are reduced to two; I'm not sure I'll keep the reduction as it is now. I'm also not sure if *q is [?]; it might be [h].

Historical Vowel Development

The following table show the cumulative development of 2-vowel combinations. Entries use orthographic notation. Where two values are given, the first is for short vowels and the second when long.

	+ *i	+ *e	+ *a	+ *u	+ 0
*i +	i	ye	ya	yu	i, ê
*e +	i, ê	e	e	u, eu	i, ê
*a +	e, oi	a, ae	a	o, ao	o
*u +	wi	we	wa	u	u, ô

Vowels are long due to compensation from loss of a following consonant.

Consonant Mutations

These are called mutational changes because although word-initial consonants aren't affected, stem-initial consonants are. There are three grades (maybe). This section is very likely to change.

(1)		(2)		(3)
p	[p]	b	[b]	v	[v]
b	[b]	m	[m]
t	[t]	dd	[d]	d	[D]
d	[d]	n	[n]
c	[tS)]	jj	[dZ)]	j	[Z]
j	[dZ)]	ny	[J]
k	[k]	gg	[g]	g	[G]
g	[g]	ng	[N]
q	[?]	q	[?]		0
f	[f]	v	[v]	h	[h]
s	[s]	z	[z]
sx	[S]	j	[Z]	x	[C]
ll	[K:]	l	[l]	l	[l]
rr	[r_0:]	r	[r]	r	[r]

There are actually more changes going on which I've tried to group into three columns, but I'll probably have to change this. Also, I'm not sure about the specifics of the grades: whether the 3rd grade of the voiceless stops should be voiced fricatives, whether the voiced stops don't become nasals in more environments, etc.

Consonant Changes

In addition to the mutational changes, *t and *d become c and j, respectively, before *i (or y). Then, kwi and gwi become ti and di, respectively. Finally, pw and bw become kw and gw.

Sl and fl become ll, sr and fr become rr.