Proto-Sato-Lhedh

General information
Proto-Sato-Lhedh is a proto-language of the Sato-Lhedh language family. It evolved into Proto-Sattic and Proto-Eltic. It uses a syntactical order of SVO though as it is inflected this can vary.

Consonants
1 - Only following i, e or ë.

2 - The syllables qua, quä, que, que, quë, qui, quo and quö all realise qu as /kʷw/. However, the cluster quu (sometimes just qu) realises it as /kʷu/.

3 - This can appear as an allophone of many occurences of h.

Note that sounds in brackets (i.e. not solely the IPA character) only appear in dialects. When letters are doubled, they are lengthened e.g. /ss/ = [s:]. The letters that can be doubled are m, n, p, t, d, k, s, š and l. Stress is always placed on the first syllable of a word without exception.

Alphabet
As an extinct proto-language no written PSL exists. However, the standard way of transliterating it (when differing from the IPA) is as follows:

Phonotactics
(s)(C)(r, l, ʲ)V(V)(r, l)(C)(C) e.g. sḳäirc (blood)

When two vowels occur together in this way, there is a slight glide that barely realises the second consonant. This is often thus considered either a single vowel or a diphthong. When vowels are in separate syllables they are separated by a glottal stop.

Dialects
Pronunciation of certain sounds changes depending on the main locations in which PSL is spoken, the North, West and South.

Declensions - Cases

 * Nominative: Subject or following the verb nahkeṭ (to be).
 * Accusative: Object, and used with most adpositions.
 * Genitive: Showing possession (of...).
 * Dative: Indirect object (to... or for...).
 * Proessive: Showing motion towards or into.
 * Ablative: Showing motion away from or out of, or an instrumental.

First Declension
Consonant-final. Model noun = sat, water.

Second Declension
ä-final. Model noun = valä, head.

Third Declension
e-final. Model noun = puore, grass.

Fourth Declension
o-final. Model noun = tahno, grass. 1) If the final consonant in the root here is any of t, d, l or k, it is palatalised in the proessive singular.

2) In the accusative and genitive, the final consonant of the root is doubled if possible.

Pronouns
Personal Interrogative Demonstrative

Pro-particles
aḳelu is a pro-verb. It stands in place of a verb used before it; which verb it refers to is determined by context. harkkan is a pro-adjective. this stands in place of an adjective.

e.g. čöiter nallu ki sän aḳelu. He left and so did I.

leave-inf be.3ps.past and I.nom prover

kalëram nah ki harkkan nuḷ. He is wise and I am also.

wise-nom.s be.3ps.pres and proadj be.1ps.pres

Verbs
Formation of verbs is simple as only two conjugate: to be - nahkeṭ, and the negative verb - säreṭ. Other verbs occur ass an infinitive which is placed before the appropriate form of a conjugating verb. Note that all other verbs end in -er.

e.g. teler nuḷ (säräḷ). I (don't) go.

go-inf be.1ps.pres (not.1ps)

kalëram neda (säräd). You are (not) wise.

wise-nom.s be.2ps.pres (not.2ps)

To Not...
Other verb forms do exist and are simple to form. The participle is formed by suffixing -e to the infinitive (telere, nahkeṭe) and the imperative by suffixing -av (telerav! nahkeṭav!).

Note that people in the South would be more likely to use the suffix -(u)tve or something with a similar effect than the negative verb, e.g. althisutve neda = You are without knowledge = You are not wise.

Derivational Morphology
PSL does not have an extensive derivational morphology. What it does is listed below. 1 - If the following word begins with a vowel the prefix ends with a glottal stop '.

2 - if the previous word starts with a vowel the suffix starts with a.

3 - If the previous word ends with a vowel the suffix starts with u.

Sandhi
Proto-Sato-Lhedh has strict sandhi which causes assimilation towards the second consonant in a pair, both in terms of articulation and voicing. This is rarely reflected in writing. The above table includes an example, ranpuore, pronounced ['rampu:oɾe]. There are some exceptions to this rule: the letters s, š, p, k and v will never change their voicing, but can cause voice change in the following sound (e.g. sd > st). The letters c and č also do not except in Southern dialects. The letter v never causes a change in place of articulation except with k, and excluding Western dialects.

Numbers
PSL uses a Base12 numeral system, thus there are separate numbers up to twelve and anything beyond is a compound of it and numbers below. Separate words exist for 120, 1200, 12000 etc.