User:Rostov-na-don/Kti/Proto-Ktarh

Here I'll be moving backwards from Kti and its dialects back to Proto-Ktaric, the ancestor language to Kti and several other otherwise undescribed but closely related languages. Upon reaching Proto-Ktaric, I shall move further back in time towards Proto-Dnaric, the ancestor of Kti, Dni and a myriad other otherwise undescribed languages.

Stage One - Early Ktarh (I)
The first stage before modern Ktarh is Early Ktarh; it is the common ancestor of the peninsular Ktarh dialects. Its most closely related dialects are upper and lower Tanarh. As its descendants are classified neatly as subdialects of Kti, its direct ancestor is still part of the main Ktarh phylum.

Characteristic features of Early Ktarh include:
 * A distinction between the consonants /l r ʂ/, as well as a small set of retroflex consonants (/ʂ ʐ ɽ/)
 * A six-vowel system (/i ɛ ɜ a u ɔ/) with an added distinctive dimension of vowel length
 * Six diphthongs with consistent rounding (/ɒy uy yɒ yɔ iɜ ɯʌ/) as well as three thriphthongs with a central element (/eʉɑ ɑʉɞ uʉɞ/)
 * Almost no vowels not bordering a consonant (only exceptions are words with isolated long vowels, <ā> <ē> <ī> <ū>, derived from earlier syllables that contained /h/)
 * No multi-consonant codas (the one such coda in Kti developed from Early Ktarh /-lɜx/)
 * Allowance of the /sx/ and /xs/ clusters
 * Almost invariant penultimate stress (antepenultimate stress occurs with clitics and postpositions)
 * Predominantly suffixing morphology
 * Two animacies, two genders
 * Three numbers and eighteen cases

The table below shows Early Ktarh consonant phonemes alongside the corresponding Latin character which I shall use to transcribe them:

Allophony amongst the consonants is hard to pin down and surely minor, but there is definite nasal assimilation to PoA; /n/ and more scarcely /m/ assimilate to /ɳ/ next to a retroflex consonant.