Proto-Sumric

Proto-Sumric vocabulary

=Taboo Borrowings= Although contact between Proto-Sumric speakers and Proto-Berkabal speakers was quite limited and tense, Proto-Sumric nonetheless loaned words from it to replace native words that were associated with taboo subjects or words with a general negative meaning. Such words are:
 * *syṡəp- ("to bite, to nibble, to sip") < PB *sisap- ("to bite, to gnaw, to chew")

=Phonology=

Phonological History
ə > ∅

Cʷ > Cw

iw > y

aw > o/unstressed

a ɑ > o/stressed

a ɑ > ə/unstressed!#_

u > ɛ/unstressed

ð > n/_#

ð > t/V[+high]_,_V[+high]

ð > d/V[+low]_,_V[+low]

æː > aː/_#

æ > ø/stressed

æ > ∅/unstressed

ʝ > i/V_$

ʝ > j

f v > ɸ β

ç > k/_#

ç > ∅

j > i/_V

q > g/V_

q > k

w > ∅

h > ∅

Vu > Vʊ

∅ > ə/#_N

∅ > β/F_#

u > ɛ/#_, C_C

V1V2 > V1ː

y u > ʉ/_...ʉ/ʉ..._

ø o ə > ɵ/_...ʉ/ʉ..._

i e > y ø/_...ʉ/ʉ..._

ɛ > œ/_...ʉ/ʉ..._

a ɔ/_...ʉ/ʉ..._

Modernised Orthography for Proto-Sumric
The Modernised Orthography for Proto-Sumric (MOPS) is an alternative orthography for Proto-Sumric used to spell proper nouns in modern texts, as the main orthography was considered too ugly to refer to people and places in history books. MOPS is never used in any translated texts in Proto-Sumric and it is restricted to proper nouns only. It sees most use by theologians who use it to spell the reconstructed Proto-Sumric names of dieities and pre-golden age historical figures. Theologians do this so as to be as neutral as possible, as earlier theologians used either the names from their own native language or their Old Sumrë names which many felt showed bias. In order to reference gods in a strictly neutral way the reconstructed Proto-Sumric names were chosen as Proto-Sumric is the ancestor of the Tuuric, Sumric and Hajec languages. The dieties listed in this wiki will be referenced by their "MOPS name". For example the sun goddess whose name is Asilñe in Old Sumrë, Yslånji in Old Tuura and Islini in Hajec is reffered to as Yslanje in MOPS (and *yslənję in the regular Proto-Sumric orthography). An exception to this is when a particular god or historical figure appears only in one of the sub-sumric cultures, in which case the name from the relevant language will be used.

The MOPS orthography doesn't care to be accurate to pronunciation as these neutral names aren't intended to be pronounced out loud, serving only as ways to write them down. As such many distinct phonemes are written the same, such as tense and lax vowels having no written distinction.

When another language borrows names from sumric mythology (usually via translated literature) then it is typical for the language to borrow the MOPS name where the pronunciation is decided by spelling pronunciation according to the orthography of the language.

Long vowels are written as . Long   and  are written as and

To disambiguate the digraphs   and  from the vowel hiatuses /eo/ /oe/ and /ui/, the latter are written with diaresis over the second vowel:  /eo/  /oe/  /ui/.

Syllabic consonants are written the same as their non-syllabic counterparts.

Nouns
active v passive

Determinative Pronouns
=Verbs=

Transgressive
The transgressive is formed by adding the suffix -ʉḿ to the third person singular animate form of the verb:


 * *kəż- (“to wash”) > *kəżəṡ (“it washes”) > *kəżəṡʉḿ (LPS: *kəżɵṡʉḿ) (“while washing”)
 * *kjŕn- ("to petrify") > *kjərnəṡ (“it petrifies”) > *kjərnəṡʉḿ (LPS: *kjərnɵṡʉḿ (“while petrifying”)

The perfective transgressive is formed by adding the suffix -ʉḿ to the third person singular perfect form of the verb:


 * *kəż- (“to wash”) > *kəżʔə- (“to have washed”) > *kəżʔāṡ (“it has washed”) > *kəżʔāṡʉḿ (LPS: *kəżʔəṡʉḿ (“having washed”)
 * *kjŕn- (“to petrify”) > *kjərnʔə (“to have petrified”) > *kjərnʔāṡ- (“it has petrified”) > *kjərnʔāṡʉḿ (LPS: kjərnʔəṡʉḿ) (“having petrified”)