Ćín

General Information
Proto-Çin, [tʃin], as the name suggests, is the proposed parent language of the Çin language family. It is believed to have been spoken around 13,000 years ago in the Çinǝl (Chinel, [tʃinəl]) valley. It was first discovered by Calistos Malia ([kalɪsθos mãlja]) in 6253 and has been developed by linguists over the past 150 years. The Çin language family is currently spoken by around 11.5 billion language speakers today and consists of about 25% of the world's languages, though it makes up about 63% of all language speakers due to how widespread those languages are.

While the langauge was written, the script is not able to be typed; this transliteration (suggested by Malia) be will be used instead. There were two variants of Proto-Çin, formal (used in legal matters) and colloquial (used in everday matters). This page focuses on formal Proto-Çin. Differences will be pointed out when applicable.

Changes between Early and Late Proto-Çin

 * [f] and [v] became separate phonemes.


 * [tʲ] and [dʲ] became [tjV] and [djV]


 * [mṇ] became [m͡n].
 * [CC̣] > [CaC] or [CəC].


 * The ablative and allative cases began to merge

TBD

Hopefully this is a thorough overview of the language (there's more in the phonology section then ever before :).

Consonants
Proto-Çin's 23 consonants are listed below. The orthography is written next to them in bold. There are relatively few consonants in Proto-Çin. 1It is believed that [f] and [v] are allophones in colloquial speech, however, recoverd documents suggested that the official prounciation was closer to [v] than [f]


 * Palatal consonants can't end words, nor can they be follwed by /i/, another palatal consonants, /jV, jV:, wV, or wV:/.


 * n becomes palatal before a /jV or jV:/ diphthong and the cluster becomes /ɲV ~ nʲV/ (a long vowel is shortened).

Consonant clusters
Proto-Çin forms relatively few consonant cluster, and many are only allowed after vowel. Consonant clusters allowed at the beginning of a word are marked with *. They are listed below.

/kt/ - ct

/st/ - st*

/zt/ - zt

/lt/ - lt

/ʃt/ - şt*

/sp/ - sp

/sk/ - sc

/ʃp/ - şp*

/Pl/ - Pl* (P is a non palatalized consonant).

Any other case where two consonants are written next to each other are one of the following, though these cases are rare.

1) If the two consonants are different, the second consonat is a syllabic consnant (lownis* is ['lɔ.wṇ.is]).

2) If the two consnants are the same, it is a geminated consonant. (lowwis* is ['lɔ.w:is])


 * Not real words, just examples.

Vowels
Proto-Çin's 19 vowels are listed below along with the accepted dipthongs (V is a vowel). As with consonants, the orthography is written next to them in bold.
 * [e, ɛ, and a] become [ẽ, ɛ̃, and ã] before /m and n/.

Syllable
Because of the restriction on consonant clusters, syllables in Proto-Çin are simple. Note that if a syllabic consonant is the nucleus, the syllable may not contain another consonant (unless that consonant forms a cluster with the syllable  nucleus).

(C)V/C̣(C)

This leads to a possible syllables (once again, these are just hypothetical syllables, not actual words)

V Syllable

Clani - ['klan.i]

CV Syllable

Şatəl - ['ʃa.təl]

CVC Syllable

At̆el - ['a.tʲel]

C̣ syllable

lownis - ['lɔw.ṇ.is]

CC̣ syllable (extremely rare)

Knes - [kṇ.'es]

CC̣C syllable (less rare than CC̣, but still rare)
Vspal - ['vṣp.al]

Stress
Stress in Proto-Çin is very simple. Stress usually falls on the first syllable. However, if that syllable is a CC̣ syllable, the stress falls on the next syllable. Irregualr stress will be marked with an acute accent (V́), but stress is usually regular..

Double Stress
Exceedingly rare, it is possible for a word to have extra stress on the first syllable if the word before it is CC̣ (and no stress on the CC̣ word). This is usually realized as a rising pitch on the syllable.

Ex. Mn Z̧āmc - [mṇ ʒã:.mḳ], the name of a king.

Sandhi
While not extremely prevalent or complicaated, sandhi did occur at word boundries between a final vowel and a, ą, or i. This resulting in a liquid being placed between the two words, j for between a final vowel and a, w between a final vowel and ą, and l between a final vowel and i. Despite the fact it is written on the first word, it is pronunced with the second world (see below). While not written in colloquial Proto-Çin, it was written in formal Proto-Çin. For reasons unknown, it was always written as l. Example: cįnyl ąnim - (a) pretty plant, ['kɪ.ny 'wɑ.nim] vs. cįnoiz̧n ąnimai - from (some) pretty plants, ['kɪ.nɔɪ.ʒn̩ 'ɑ.ni.maɪ]. Sandhi was mandatory when applicable.

While it did not serve a grammatical function, it did generate irregularities in daughter languages.

Overview
Nouns in Proto-Çin inflect for number, case, and definiteness, eliminating the need for articles; they also show gender, indicated by the stem of the noun. Nouns have 4 stems, which must be memorized. The dictionary entry of a noun is the definite nominative singular.

Gender

Gender in Proto-Çin is not "gender" in the classical sense, but rather a noun's classification. There are 5 genders in Proto-Çin: animate, living, natural, celestial, and inanimate. The animate gender is reserved for nouns that are both living and able to move, that is animals and humans. The living gender is reserved for nouns that are alive, but are unable to move. The natural gender is for nouns that are not living but that are not man-made, such as wood, water, fire, etc. The celestial gender is for nouns that are in the sky or space. Finally, the inanimate gender includes every other noun.

It is important to memorize the gender of a noun because adjectives and verbs must agree with a noun in gender. The gender of a noun is based on its stem, but many nouns have irregular gender (for example, fire, air, and water are "animate" nouns), and natural and living nouns usually share a stem. However, because gender is usually based on definition, memorizing gender is a relatively easy process.

Nouns are separated into declension by gender.

Number

Nouns can have one of 4 numbers: single, dual, plural, and mass. The singular form of a noun is used, as expected, when there is only of the noun. The dual form of a noun, contrary to its name, is used when they are 2 - 3 of a noun (also when there are a few, some, etc.). The plural and mass forms are both used when there is a lot of a noun; however, the plural form is used when the number of items is known or is possible to be determined. The mass form is used when the number of items is unable to be determined.

Case

There are 9 cases in Proto-Çin: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive, Vocative, Instrumental, Ablative, Allative, and Locative. Other cases are expressed using prepositions + another case.

The instrumental case, in addition to marking a noun as being used in an action and marking association, it can also be used to turn the noun into another part of speech.

The table below detailes the general use of each case, along with its gloss and the required stem.

For unknown reasons, the indefinite vocative does not appear to inflect for number. This might be due to a sound change from Pre-Proto-Çin.

As mentioned above, knowns have 4 stems. The definite and indefinite A-stems are used for the Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive, and Vocative cases. The definite and indefinite B-stems ar used for the Instrumental, Ablative, Allative, and Locative cases. These 4 stems make up the 4 principle parts of the noun and must be memorized.

Definiteness
Definiteness in Proto-Çin is very simple; nouns are definite (the) or indefinite (a/an). The difference between definite and indefinite is a stem change.

1st Declension
1st Declension nouns are for nouns of the animate gender. Their definite A-stem is -a, their indefinite A-stem is -ā, their definite B-stem is -es, and their indefinite B-stem is -oiz̧. Their declension is listed below.

Example noun Endings

2nd Declension
The 2nd declension is for nouns of living gender. While these nouns share a stem with the natural gender, much of their declensions are different. The definite A-stem is -y, the definite B-stem is -ō, the indefinite A-stem is -ȳ, and the indefinite B-stem is '''-yz̧. '''

Example noun Endings

3rd Declension
3rd Declension nouns are nouns of the natural gender and had stems identical to those of the living gender ('''-y, -ō, ȳ, yz̧). '''Their declensions were laregely the same and are listed below. The different declensions have been highlighted below Endings The second insturmental declenion is only used when the instrumental case is being used as an adjective.

4th Declension
The 4th declension nouns are nouns of the celestial gender are a much smaller class of nouns. They also tend to be more irregular than nouns of other genders. Despite the small number of nouns in this gender, there are two sets of stems. The first set of stems are -e (Definite A-stem), -ē (Definite B-stem), -æ (Indefinite A-stem), and -æv (Indefinite B-stem). Due to the fact that, from the perspective of the ancient spekers of Proto-Çin, the stars appeared to move on their own, some 4th declension nouns also have the same stem as first declension nouns (-a, ā, es, oiz̧). However, both stems are conjugated the same way.

5th Declension

The 5th declension nouns are nouns of the inanimate gender. Their stems are -vi (Definite A-stem), -şæ (Definite B-stem), -iv (Indefinite A-stem), and -æş (Indefinite B-stem).

Pronouns
It is believed that pronouns are closer to adjectives than nouns, as they are very similar to the instrumental endings for each gender. They decline regularly in early Proto-Çin, though became irregular(ish) in late Proto-Çin.

  Adjectives
There are two types of adjectives in Proto-Çin: Modifier (Dependent) Adjectives and Instrumental Adjectives. While their roles in sentences are somewhat different, their declension patterns are identical (though instrumental adjectives may insert a "linking" vowel between the stem and the declension).

Modifier Adjectives
Modifier adjectives are adjectives that cannot stand on their own and are not derived from a noun, such as hāliį, slow. They must modify a noun to exist in the sentence. While there are a wide variety of stems, they are easy to detect as they do not contain the stem for a noun.

Instrumental Adjectives
Instrumental adjectives are adjectives that are derived from a noun and can exist on their own (often in lieu of a noun). Depdending on their rule in a sentence, they follow two different declension patterns. If it is standing alone, it declines as the same gender as the noun it is derived from. If it is modifying another noun, it declines like a modifier adjective.

Features
Both adjectives (when serving as a modifier) decline to agree in number, gender, and case (but not definiteness) as the noun they are modifying. They both follow the same declension pattern when acting as modifiers, an ending attatched to the stem. Adjectives also decline to show "intensity." There are 5 levels of intensity: superlative dimunitive, dimunitive, normal, comparative, and superlative and serve two purposes.

Sound Changes in the Çin language family
Proto - Çin to Proto-Shalax ['ʃal.aks]

i:, y: > i:

y > ɪ