Proto-Edalith

General Information
Proto-Edalith is the protolanguage a large language macrofamily on the planet Patrona, home of the alien Patronans. The current domain of Edalith languages is all across the subcontinental peninsula of Edalith, as well as west of the Shaibest mountains and in various colonies and ex-colonies including Westos. Among its descendant languages are some very important and influential languages, including Alemarese and Barejine.

Classification
Proto-Edalith diverged into the Edalith language family. Descendants include:
 * Northern Edalith family (Proto-Chevin)
 * Chevin (Old Chevin/Proto-Alemar-Barejine)
 * Alemarese
 * Barejine
 * Mid-Northern Edalith
 * East Holkeyan


 * Ngalryn family
 * Garla


 * Shaibest family
 * Foothill Shaibest
 * Mountian Shaibest
 * Shaibestyur
 * Chiwaran Shaibest
 * White Coast family

Consonants
The traditional classification and symbols are shown below.

Vowels

 * Diphthongs consist of any two consecutive vowels, even two of the same vowel.
 * Triphthongs consist of any three consecutive vowels, except that the first two may not be the same.

Stress
It is unknown how stress worked in Proto-Edalith, as nearly every daughter language treats it differently.

Pronouns
Pronouns in all Edalith languages share features such as being able to be replaced by noun phrases even in the first and second persons as well as being able to take adjectives as modifiers.

Pronoun comparison
Where pronouns are shown in pairs, the first being the nominative and the second the accusative. If the roots differ, other cases are built on the nominative roots. However, possessive determiners are based on the accusative roots.

Nouns
Nouns in Proto-Edalith are formed with optional prefixes, a root, a derivational suffix, and a grammatical ending. Nouns declined for gender, case, and number.

Case
Eight cases can be reconstructed, more than any daughter language has. Each case has a suffix associated with it. Some case suffixes also change for gender and/or number. The nominative suffixes are subject to a confusing number of alternative forms, interpreted differently in the daughter language families.

Gender
The two genders were the animate and inanimate, both of which are indicated with mandatory derivational suffixes. In Proto-Edalith, animate suffixes always ended in a consonant whereas inanimate suffixes always ended in a high vowel.

Example animate suffixes: nt, mag

Example inanimate suffixes: iu, du, ʔmu, ʔr2i

Number
Pluralization is shown by pre-case suffixes -ai for animates and -i for inanimates. These were absent from the genitive and ablative cases. Edalith languages as a rule treat all nouns as count nouns.

Examples
* r1eeh-nt-ta "person, being" (an.) * kor1e-ʔmu-r2 "straight stick, walking stick" (inan.) * tephu-ʔr2i-0 "article of clothing" (inan.)

Verbs
Verbs were definitely marked for person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (sg and pl), and tense (nonpast and past). No early Edalith language marked grammatical voice on finite verbs, and grammatical aspect is as a rule never marked via inflection. As for non-finite forms, there is no direct equivalent to an infinitive. Another peculiarity of Edalith verbs is that most can be used both transitively and intransitively. Verbs are exceedingly regular, as there are only a dozen or so irregular verbs.

Present tense
The present tense is formed with the present tense endings added to the verb stem. Two sets of present plural suffixes are reconstructed, with different language families inheriting different ones. The Chevin and White Coast families inherited the first set, whereas the Syaibest family inherited the second set. Ngalryn languages lost their person markers.

Syntax
Proto-Edalith was probably a broadly head-initial VSO language, like many of its ancient descendants.

Proto-Edalith to Proto-Chevin

 * 1) a-insertion in sg animate declension
 * 2) removal of final /s/ in declensions
 * 3) development of three gender system
 * 4) analogy results in Proto-Chevin inflectional system
 * 5) r2>v, h>q, ph>f, th>ts, [c, ch, j]>[s, ts, y] / _F, >[k, kh, g] elsewhere, kh>h
 * 6) diphthongs settle into [a, e, o]+[i, u]
 * 7) glottal stops leave compensatory vowel lengthening syllable-finally, then disappear
 * 8) metathesis moves consonants around to fit the phonotactics of Proto-Chevin

Proto-Edalith to Proto-Ngalryn

 * 1) aspirates are maintained, other h-clusters reduce
 * 2) R's merge
 * 3) glottal stops leave compensatory vowel lengthening on the nuclear vowel, then disappear
 * 4) vowel changes
 * 5) o > u / V_, _V
 * 6) e > i unless _V
 * 7) V > 0 / e_
 * 8) [i, u] > y / C_#
 * 9) ui, iu > y
 * 10) a[i, y] > e
 * 11) au > o
 * 12) consonant changes
 * 13) cʰ > ʃ
 * 14) c > ʃ / i_
 * 15) c > t
 * 16) N > ŋ / _[k, g]
 * 17) g > ŋ
 * 18) ɟ > j

Proto-Edalith to Proto-Shaibest

 * 1) consonant changes
 * 2) [ɟd] > z
 * 3) pʰ > h
 * 4) p > b
 * 5) t > d except _ʰ
 * 6) k > ʔ except _ʰ
 * 7) cʰ > s
 * 8) c > ʔ / _#
 * 9) c > k
 * 10) r2 > j
 * 11) r1 > r
 * 12) sound loss
 * h, ʰ > 0
 * : > 0
 * 1) ʔ > 0 / C_
 * 2) n > 0 / _s
 * 3) vowel changes
 * 4) eu > oi
 * 5) ou > u
 * 6) uj > oj
 * 7) u > o / _#
 * 8) i > e / _#
 * 9) devoicing of consonants after voiceless ones