Proto-Qongalan

Phonotactics
Several minimal pairs appear to have existed varying only by stress or vowel length, this developed into a full tonal system in the Bawa-Pochean languages and some have suggested that Proto-Qongalan was in fact tonal.

Sound Changes
Modern Panatec is the result of three main periods of sound change from Proto-Qongalan over 2500 years ago. The most significant changes are the widespread glottalisation of aspirated consonants and complete loss of the isolated [s] phoneme through various.

Proto-Ingo-Qongalan
Below are the major sound changes associated with the transition from Proto-Qongalan (c. 700 BCE) to Proto-Ingo-Qongolan (c. 0 CE).
 * 1) All fricatives lost preceding vowels
 * 2) [s] became [ts] following ([p] and nasals), [ʃ] following ([k], approximants and aspirated consonants).
 * 3) Affricates and fricatives modified following [a] into [e].
 * 4) [ts] absorbed preceding ([p], [l] and [k]), lengthening and stressing previous vowel.
 * 5) All long vowels automatically become stressed. In words with no long vowel, the stressed vowel becomes long. This rule holds thereafter.
 * 6) [tl] became [to] word-finally, [tol] elsewhere.

Early Qongāl
Another period of sound change, induced by further contact with Mayan languages, took Proto-Ingo-Qongolan to the Inguoan split (c. 600 CE).
 * 1) [h] became [ʃ] word initially, [ʔ] between differing vowels and created a long vowel between identical vowels.
 * 2) [kh] became [q] before ([o], [u] and [a]).
 * 3) Word-final aspirated consonants [Ch] became [Cu]. All other aspirated consonants became unaspirated.
 * 4) Unvoiced obstruents became voiced between vowels.
 * 5) Word-initial [b] became [ɓ].

Modern Qongāl
Finally, another period of sound change developed into Classical Panatec (c. 1500 CE) which has since seen some change to become Modern Panatec (Qongāl).
 * 1) Word-initial [s] became [ts] before ([o] and [u]), [θ] before ([e], [a] and [i]).
 * 2) [s] became [θ] if either neighbouring vowel is stressed.
 * 3) [tw], [dw] and [bw] became [θw], [ðw] and [β].
 * 4) [j] became palatised to [ʝ].
 * 5) Word-final [s] became [θ] if stressed, otherwise it was lost completely.
 * 6) Word-initial [ɾ] became [d].
 * 7) Consonant clusters become completely unvoiced if they include an unvoiced consonant.
 * 8) ([e] and [a]) became ([e̞] and [ɐ]).

Verbs