Proto Csillan

General information
Proto-Čeuŋ ('tʃewŋ) is the ancestor of language family spoken by the Čis ('tʃis)- a humanoid blue-skinned race inhabiting the planet Csilla ('ksil.la) in the Unknown Regions- the most famous of which is Grand Admiral Ťran (θran). The language was first mentioned in the book Survivor's Quest written by Timothy Zahn as "Cheunh." Proto-Čeuŋ was spoken circa 14,000 BBY, before the Čis developed spaceflight technology. Note Zahn used spellings Cheunh, Chiss and Thrawn in place of Čeuŋ, Čis and Ťran. The vast majority of this information is to some extent dubious.

In case you're wandering what various Star Wars authors have developed for Cheunh, here's what Wookieepedia has on it:

Cheunh was the official language of the Chiss. It was adopted across Csilla early in Chiss history. Cheunh was a complex, dense tongue that used comparatively few core words and an involved syntax to express ideas; more complicated ideas were expressed by combining related words into a larger whole.

The written form of Cheunh was represented ideographically, and the agglutinative features of the spoken language were reflected in the written form, which combined simpler ideograms to present more complex ideas. The Chiss found the complex nature of their tongue to be a source of pride.

As Humans did not share the same vocal abilities as the Chiss, it was difficult for other species to pronounce it correctly, even after long periods of study. It followed a logical pattern, though, and could be understood after some study.

The Chiss also used Minnisiat as a lingua franca to trade in the space around their frontiers.

Known Words/Roots In other words, this should have been a candidate for Blob's recent worst conlang contest. Let's count up some of the worst sins they've committed: throwing about random apostrophes, post-vocalic aitches, defined as being "alien" and "unpronounceable" while having no phonetic features you couldn't find in any terrestrial language, and overall anglicized pronunciation. I won't even mention just how stupid the pohskaphforian/pohskapforian distinction is. Yes, languages do tend to have some quirky words like that, but they're never going to be five syllables long!
 * Ch'tra - Go
 * Crahsystor - Commander
 * K'rell - Corellia (Note: It is highly probable that this and the word below are simply the pronunciations used by Mitth'raw'nuruodo in 27 BBY due to his unfamiliarity at the time with Basic, and not actual Cheunh words.)
 * K'rell'n - Corellian (See above)
 * Ktah - A curse word
 * Pohskapforian (aspirated p in second syllable) - Merchant trader
 * Pohskapforian (unaspirated p in second syllable) - Fishing boat
 * Stae - Near (pronounced: "stee")
 * Visvia - Unit of measurement (Visvia:kilometer ratio around 5:8)

Since the Čis my favorite species from Star Wars (and Ťran my favorite overall character) I decided to do them some justice by giving them realistic languages (since saying that one language is uniformly spoken over several light years and has remained unchanged over several millenia is just...no).

OK, back to the language itself. Proto-Čeuŋ is a moderately fusional ergative-absolutive, featuring vowel-ablaut in addition to prefixes and suffixes.

Consonants
Note- the phonemes b and bz are attested very rarely and are likely allophones of p and ps, however no rules to explain where p and ps voice to b and bz can be reconstructed with given evidence.

The nature of the phonemes ɣ-ɰ is highly debated. Historically, they appear to have been analyzed as the same phoneme- however, sometimes their attested forms suggest a voiced fricative, other times a voiced velar approximant. The most likely and generally accepted theory is that sometime before 14,000 BBY (3,000 TS)* there were two separate phonemes that corresponded to their appropriate series; a voiced velar plosive g and a voiced velar approximant ɰ - by the time of the Proto-Čeuŋ split they merged into one phoneme, usually a voiced velar fricative ''ɣ. Some descendant languages still attest the glide, however because of their rarity this reconstruction adopts the usage of ɣ ''to represent this phoneme and assumes the appropriate pronunciation.

The ɲ -ŋ split is a similar story; some languages attest the first variant, but the majority attest the latter. Some languages even attest a palatal c in addition to the velar k, but this was likely a later development and was not a distinguishing factor before the split (i.e. languages that attest palatal ɲ only attest c when it is clearly the process of palatalization or do not attest it at all.)

* Toila Stivî, "before the kingdom" in Ancient High Čeuŋ, the typical Čis dating system.

Vowels
The slashes show possible variation among the phonetic values of the vowels. At this point it is impossible to reconstruct when each value occurred.

The acceptable diphthongs include “ay, ey, oy, iw, ow and aw.” Vowels can also be lengthened, though it is unknown if length affected vowel quality at this point.

Phonotactics
Reconstructed words have been organized to follow a specific set of rules deducted from present patterns, given below. Since conlang wikia has an aneurysm whenever I use a combining diacritic, an apostrophe is used whenever m/n/ŋ/l is syllabic: i.e. lwom (one syllable) means a member of the Čis species, 'lwom (two syllables) means inaction.
 * The majority of base roots are disyllabic, with the syllables morphing and with prefixes and/or affixes added on for morphology. A few roots are monosyllabic.
 * Geminates do not occur, nor do long vowels in a diphthong. Only one of each diphthong and long vowel can occur per word (if an ending adds a diphthong or long vowel, any original ones are shortened/lose their glide.)
 * Initial constructions include C, Cl, Cw, Cy, and m/n/ŋ/lC followed by any vowel/diphthong.
 * Medial constructions include the same except the m/n/ŋ/l is no longer syllabic, as it follows a vowel
 * Final constructions depend on the grammatical ending.

Nouns
Nouns decline to case and number in three declensional patterns. Each declension can be recognized by the consonant and vowel in its ergative singular ending.

1. -(o/i)(f/p/b/m)

2. -(e/i)(s/t/d/n)

3. -(a/o)(ɣ/k/ŋ)

The three declensions are also called labial-grade, dental-grade and velar-grade respectively

NB: the hyphens separate morphemes (some of which, like the second w in *tonāwiz, have no grammatical meaning and simply serve to prevent illegal clusters)

•If the first syllable has a diphthong, the glide is removed whenever there is another diphthong in the ending. Same with long vowels.

•The absolutive is just the stem form- the plural adds w, y, or a long vowel before the stem consonant for each declension respectively.

•The ergative adds an –l, displacing the stem consonant. The plural switches around the diphthong (displacing any w, y, or l present in the stem) and adds an –l (for the 3rd declension, the w/y/l is preserved if present in the ergative since there is no diphthong)

•The dative adds ps/ts/ks to the absolutive ending for each declension respectively, displacing the –l.

•The genitive simply lengthens the stem vowel in the ergative and removes the stem consonant (in 1st and 2nd declension plurals, the vowel and glide are also switched because long vowels cannot diphthongize.) Prepositions that indicate anything other than motion or location take this case.

•The locative adds the postposition -*zi to the root stem (the word without the absolutive ending.) In the singular, the -zi changes to iz. This is also hinted at in some descendants of the plural, though both forms (zi and iz) are considered equally credible. This reconstruction uses the former, thus the plural of tōdiz is tōdowzi. The plural adds the postposition to the absolutive plural (for the third declension, a w is added to the postposition since the nom. pl has no diphthong.) For all declensions, the glide is considered part of the last syllable (thus why the diphthong ay in saykleyzi and saykleyēfp is still preserved.)

•The allative case works the same as the locative except with –ān.

Though endings only decline to two numbers (singular and plural), many more quantifying particles can be prefixed to the word.

* ako- a few

* oti- many

* ame- a group of

* ksē- all

* to- any

* tsa- one

* mye- two

* kwo- three

* nli- four

* se- five

* bzo- six

* day- seven

* leygza- eight

* wāŋɣe- nine

* kiw- ten

* kiwpsa- eleven (kiw + psa)

* myekiw- twenty (mye * kiw)

Pronoufns
Two systems of pronouns have been reconstructed. The most accepted theory is that one was emphatic and the other unstressed, though the descendants often used them as suppletive forms, e.g. emphatic in absolutive, genitive and locative, unstressed in all others.

Person
Every verb comes from a noun- the noun itself (usually with one of the prefixes discussed later) can be used as a gerundive or infinitive, the absolutive, dative, and genitive forms of the root noun (as well as their plurals) form the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons respectively. Thus wonaydzom (consider) has the present tense forms

Sing. wonaydzom, wonaydzops, wonaydzō

Pl. wonaydzowm, wonaydzwops, wonaydzwō

And tlesotsen (understand, like) has

Sing. tlesotsen, tlesotsets, tlesotsē

Pl. tlesotsey, tlesotsyēts, tlesotsyē

Prefixation
The verbs can be distinguished from regular nouns since they always bear one of the following prefixes: In addition to these prefixes, prepositions of motion and location can be prefixed to verbs of motion or location respectively.
 * wo- (from *wom, an action (intransitive connotation)), means "do X," e.g. kaɣ (life) > wokaɣ (do life, i.e. live), tōd'm (tree) > wotōd'm (do as a tree, i.e., grow)). Can also mark basic transitive verbs, e.g. samtoɣ (sight) > wosamtoɣ (see, transitive meaning only).
 * ne- (from *nes, a being), means "be X," e.g. lwom (Čis) > nelwom (be a Čis).
 * tle- (from tlētsoŋ, entitlement or ownership) means "have X," e.g. mket (hearing) > tlemket [the m disyllabifies] (be able to hear).

Voice
Proto-Čeuŋ has four voices: active, antipassive, causative and middle; these are infixed right after one of the prefixes above.
 * active: default, woteksim (hunt)
 * antipassive: -ma- (from *mawof, actor, doer), mapsōntet (eat (without object))(NB: prefix wo- not necessary in this voice) (the object is formed with genitive + *ŋo (for))
 * causative: -pyo- (from *pyomlin, cause; means), tlepyosotsen (cause another to understand)
 * middle: -dzo- (from *dzoɣ, self) dzotiksoŋ (burn), wodzotetim (wash oneself). Note: without wo the meaning is "true middle," with wo it is mediopassive (reflexive)

Mood and Aspect
Two moods and aspects can be reconstructed for Proto-Čeuŋ. Or, at least, two words from which the moods and two words from which aspects were formed.

Mood: Aspect: Any combination of any of the suggested forms are possible. As of now, many casualties have been caused in...discussions...over how the forms were used. In order to prevent further injury, the author (who's name remains undisclosed for his or her safety) acknowledges the credibility of all other possibilities, but for convenience's sake he or she will use the system (initial aspect consonant)(final two modal letters.) For example, the perfective irrealis would be doŋ and the progressive volitional would be zes. The indicative places the stem vowel of the aspect after the verb with no other marker. The author puts the this auxiliary before the verb, but it could very well have been after or even split into two parts circumlocated around the verb. The author would like to stress that this is one possible system and that if the reader disagrees and prefers a different system they should by no means seek out the identity of the author and plan some elaborate revenge on him or her.
 * koŋ (possibility); irrealis, conditional, (in some dialects) future tense, dubiative & softened imperative/hortative. Suggested forms: ko, ok, oŋ, o, k-, -ŋ
 * wes (desire); volitional, hortative, imperative, (in some dialects) future & dubiative. Suggested forms: we, ew, es, e, w-, -s
 * da (from, with); perfective, retro/prospective, durative, past. Suggested forms: d-, -d, da, a
 * zi (at, in, on); progressive, habitual, gnomic. Suggested forms: z-, -z, zi, i

Example text
Ō Tokom wā

Our Father

Ō Tokom wā psetintān,

voc Father.abs.s. we.gen. beyond-earth-all.s

Our Father who art in heaven,

Wopsekadzā zes ɣlanen Ē.

trans-apart-place.3p.s prog-hort name.abs.s 2s.gen

Hallowed by Thy name.

Zitenpā des ksoliped

Here-go.3p.s pfv-vol

Thy kingdom come,

Wō san des wes Ē

Wō and pfv-hort will 2p.gen

Thy will be done

Tintān syel wozetyē psetintān

earth-all.s as trans-demonstr.3s beyond-earth-all.s

On earth as it is in heaven.

Masēnets zoŋ for nōtseyā yatelō yatelān waks

antip-give.2s prog-sub eat-nomeninstrumenti.gen.s sun-time.gen.s sun-time-all.s we.dat

Give us this day our daily bread

Maldesips zoŋ kwotletsō ŋo wā.

antip-neg-grasp.2s from-ownership.gen.pl for we.gen

And forgive us our trespasses

Maldesiw syel kwotletā ŋo zetyē.

antip-neg-grasp.1p as from-ownership-nomenagenti.gen.pl for we.gen.

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lmabeytenpaks zoŋ lnetyān fwo wā ŋo

neg-antip-before-go.2s prog-sub neg-ease.pl-all into we.gen for

And lead us not into temptation.

Mek mnaziw zoŋ ltadzyān kwo.

but un-bind.1p prog-sub neg-goodness from

But deliver us from evil.

Wō zes.

do.3s prog-vol

Amen (ie, let it be)