Proto-Nulgbokan

Proto-Nulgbokan vocabulary

Proto-Nulgbokan affixes

Proto-Nulgbokan is a Jaronic language, being a direct descendant of Proto-Jaronic.

= Name = The name used for Proto-Nulgbokan was given by scholars as it is the reconstruction of the name of ???place???. The resconstructed name being *nulgbṓkan (< PJ *henl̥kbʷéykan, < *hénolkan bʷéykan "old rock"). A place where many PN speakers lived. Their descendants speak of the place in myths

Early Ordho-Luksunic: Nūlbṓkon

= Phonology =


 * Liquids cannot occur after voiceless plosives or /s/.
 * Two plosives of different voicing may not cluster. Should they come together, then the first plosives takes on the voicing of the second.
 * When the first plosive is *d and is before *k, it rather becomes *s
 * Two of the same consonant may not cluster.
 * If two of the same nasal/fricative/approximant come together then they merge into a short nasal/fricative/approximant.:
 * If two of the same voiceless/voiced plosive come together then the first becomes a nasal of the same PoA:
 * If two of the same labialised plosive come together then the first becomes *m:
 * If two of the same labialised plosive come together then the first becomes *m:
 * If two of the same labialised plosive come together then the first becomes *m:

Phonological History
é ó> í ú

éi̯ > oː/_C[+velar]

éi̯ ói̯ ái̯> éː óː áː/_C[+alveolar]

ei̯ oi̯ > e o

t>s/_k, k_

Cʷe Cʷa Cʷo Cʷi > Cø Cɵ Coː Cy

CʷVː > CuVː

e o> a u/V́..._

ói̯ oːi̯ > ou oːu̯

ai̯ > aː

ou̯ au̯> oː aː

Cʷʔ > C[-voice]k

ʔV>∅/#_ (accent shifts to new syllable)

m̥ n̥ r̥ l̥ ʎ̩ ɫ̩ ʟ̩> mo no ro lo li lo lu/#_

m̥ n̥ r̥ l̥ ʎ̩ ɫ̩ ʟ̩> um un ur ul i o u

ʎ > j

j> i/C_

p t k s > b d g z/$[+stress]_

b d g > w ð w/$[+stress]_

Cʷ > C/_#

ŋ>∅/C_C

{i,e}ɫ {u,o}ɫ {i,e}ʟ {u,o}ʟ > iː uː oː uː

ɫ{i,e} ɫ{u,o} ʟ{i,e} ʟ{u,o} > lo lu lo lu

ɫ ʟ > ∅/C_

ɫ ʟ > l

Stress
Proto-Nulgbokan had a stress accent where the accent could fall on any syllable given the correct environment. The stress fell on the initial syllable of a root but it could be shifted by the attaching of affixes. Certain affixes had a fixed accent such as the prefix.. When the suffix begins in a consonant then the initial syllable of the suffix carries the stress.

Ablaut
Ablaut is a series of vocalic gradiations inherited from Proto-Jaronic's ablaut. The rather simple e-o-a-∅ ablaut of Proto-Jaronic had been complicated by environmentally conditioned sound changes and as a result the ablaut went under considerable analogy.

All 1st grade stems containing *ō began gradiating as stems with *ō when a result of *e coming before *l3 (hypothetic unanalogised forms will appear in brackets): *mṓgas ("wolf") - *mágun ("wolve-ABS.PL") - *mksún ("wolves") (< *mṓgas -*mā́gun - *miksún).

All 1st grade stems containing *o began gradiating as stem with *o when a result of *e coming after *l2: *lónas ("bone") - *lanun ("bone-ABS.PL") - *lnsún ("bones") (< *lónas - lā́nun - lonsún).

When the consonants *m *n *l *r are in a syllable which lost its vowel in the 4th grade, they become *um *un *ul* ur: *sírwas ("dog") > *sursún ("dogs").


 * In brackets are unaccented forms where they vary from the accented forms.

Lenition
Proto-Nulgbokan lenitied plosives and /s/ when they occured in the coda of a stressed syllable. The result is that when the stress shifts away from such syllable, the consonants revert back to their original forms.

Case
Proto-Nulgbokan had two noun classes which were active and passive. Active nouns denote something that is typically an agent of a verb and passive nouns typically denote the patient but also many inanimate objects. The division is not an animate-inanimate split for animate beings can be referred to by passive nouns if they are the typical recipients of an action and inanimate things can be referred to by active nouns if they are viewed as being enactors of actions (such as tools but also "dynamic" things such as water, wind, fire etc that move without influence from an animate being).


 * Nominative: Marks the sole argument of an intransitive clause and subject of a transitive clause
 * Abolutive: Marks the patient of a verb and involuntary agent of a verb, the predicate of the copula verb
 * Vocative: Marks a noun when referred directly to
 * Essive: A state of being, "as",
 * *drubʷmíz ("as a father")
 * Relative: Regarding/concerning/about X, possessive
 * *dríubōs ("father's, about the father")

Proto-Nulgbokan was an active-stative language, meaning that the sole argument of an intransitive clause was marked the same way as an an agent of a transitive clause (in the nominative case) but may be marked the same way as a patient (absolutive case) to mark an unwilling or unintending agent (i.e it implies a lack of volition):


 * dríuw-ös tur-gló

father-NOM.ACT cut-3S.ACT.PST

"father cut"


 * dríuw-ös pḗd-∅ tur-gló

father-NOM.ACT rope-ABS cut-3S.ACT.PST

"father cut rope"


 * dríubʷ-∅ pḗd-∅ tur-gló

father-ABS rope-ABS cut-3S.ACT.PST

"father accidentally/was made to cut rope"

As-Stems
This declension contains active nouns which have the nominative singular suffix -as. In this declension the nom.pl, res.pl and essive cases take the 4th grade and the abs.pl and voc.pl take the 3rd grade.

Es-Stems
This declension contains active nouns which have the nominative singular suffix -es. These stems tend to be the longest.

Iuz-Stems
This declension contains active nouns which take the nominative singular suffix -iús which descends from the active form of the Proto-Jaronic suffix *-yó which served to derive nouns from adjectives.

Ös-Stems
This declension contains active nouns which take the nominative singular suffix *-ös which derived from *-es when after labialised plosives. In this declension the nom.pl, res.pl and essive cases take the 4th grade and the abs.pl and voc.pl take the 3rd grade. In these nouns the labialised plosive of Proto-Jaronic takes several forms. In the nom.sg and voc.pl it takes the weak form of the plosive (*bʷ *dʷ *gʷ > *w *dh *w). In the nom.pl, absolutive, essive, respective.pl is remains as a labilaised plosive. In the voc.sg and res.sg it becomes a voiced plosive (*bʷ *dʷ *g > *b *d *g)

An-Stems
This declension contains nouns with the nominative singular suffix *-an. Stems in the declension contain 3rd grade vowels. This declension has two subgroups, subgroup I contains monosyllablic roots while subgroup II contains polysyllabic stems where the stress does not fall on the syllable before the *-an suffix. The 1st grade occurs in the abs.sg and voc.sg while the 4th grade occurs in the nom.pl, essive and res.pl.

Iun-Stems
This declension contains nouns with the nominative singular suffix *-iún, derived from the Proto-Jaronic suffix *-yó.

Demonstrative Pronouns
Proto-Jaronic makes no proximal distinction in its demonstratives.

Interrogative Pronouns
Active "what" (*yídhas) is equivalent to "who" and passive "what" (*yádhan) is equivalent to "what, which".

Adjectives
Adjectives in Proto-Nulgbokan agree with the head noun in gender and case but not in number. Agreement is made by attaching the same nominal suffixes to the adjective's stem (which will trigger the same grade as on the noun). Adjective in Proto-Jaronic can be placed either before or after the noun but they tend to be placed before:
 * *núlg- ("old") > *núlgas guḗdhas ("old warrior"), ''*nulkmís gydmíz ("as an old warrior")
 * *brḗn- ("big") > guḗdhas brḗnas ("big warrior"), büígan brǘinan ("old rock")

The equative suffix *-īz attaches to adjectives to denote "as X as". Such adjectives can be used either attributively or predictively. The compared to noun is placed in the essive case. When used attributively the compared to noun is compounded onto the adjective as a prefix and the subject is in the nominative case. No adjective with this suffix takes on any further inflection.

síru buḗdh-ug bryn-īz umk-míz

dog-ABS be-3S.ACT big-EQ wolf-ESS

"the dog is as big as the wolf"

śírw-as um-miz-bryn-īz

dog-NOM wolf-ESS-big-EQ

"the dog which is as big as the/a wolf"

Comparitive formed with the verb *grṓgui "to surpass" with the adjective taking on the nominal suffix -urniúz (active) or -urniún (passive).

comparative dverbs: -urniúiti

=Verb Phrase=

Conjugation
Proto-Nulgbokan lost the stative inflection of Proto-Jaronic, leaving only the present and past, although it remains in the copula verb *buḗdhui when the predicate is a temporary state. There are two sets of verb endings: one for verbs where the accent falls of the final syllable of the verb and those whose accent falls on an earlier syllable, referred to as Class I, II respectively.

Class II
Verbs in this class always experience ablaut on the final vowel of the verb stem. The ablaut in the infinitive form is the 2nd grade. In this case *sígzusoi experiences *u in the infinitive and the 3rd persons in the active present, *ā in the present middle, *ē in the middle past and the 3.ACT.PL active past and *∅ elsewhere.

Derivation from verbs
Verbal nouns are created with the suffix *-wíg. When the root ends in a plosive or dental fricative, the plosive is voiced (or the dental fricative becomes *d) and the suffix is *-ö́g.
 * *guḗdhui > *gydö́g

Active participles are derives with the suffix *-ad and middle participles with the suffix *-nu.
 * *guḗdhui > *guḗdhad, *gǘidhnu

Such participles could be made into nouns by adding the typical noun gendered endings onto the suffixes