Melaś

Classification
Proto-Meya (600 B.C.): Other people possibly spoke languages related to this one (especially further west), but nothing besides their name is known. Their languages remain unattested, except in the toponymy and a few words & names in Russian records.
 * Old Melaś (600 A.D.):
 * Melaś (Melaś proper) (32,000)
 * Coastal Melaś (800 A.D.) a.k.a "Murra Meya" (separated from Old Meya)
 * Okhotsk dialect (extinct, 1992)
 * Pacific dialect (4,500)
 * Mećka languages (1000 A.D.)
 * Liao dialect (300)
 * Hun dialect (10, poss. extinct)
 * Proto-Orong (100 A.D.)
 * Orong (80) (some consider it a dialect of Poreng)
 * Poreng (ext., early 19th c.)
 * Temian (ext., 17th c.)
 * Sora language (unknown divergence date, though presumably earlier than the above branches; ext., 1930s)

Some linguists say that the Proto-Meya language (ancestor of Melaś and its relatives) may have distant relations to Uralo-Siberian (especially Uralic), Dené–Yeniseian, or even Korean. None of these proposals have overwhelming support, but the first has recently garnered much attention, due to archeological, genetic, and linguistic support.

Syntax
Generally, Melaś follows a very free VSO (verb-subject-object). However, this is the result of free word order, where the position of grammatical elements is used for emphasis. In interrogative sentences, this is especially the case:
 * "Ćäq p ïn rä?" Who is he/she? (simply asking who he/she is)
 * " P ïn rä ć äq?" Who is he/she? (not only asking who he/she is, almost as if asking, "is that who I think it is?")

Historically, Old Melaś had free word order, and this has sometimes been posited for Proto-Meya as well (the other competitor being SOV).