30000 BC

This proto-lang will be made in the equivalent of 30,000 BCE. This constitutes the Upper Paleolithic.

It will be for an alien species which is (what a coincidence) biologically very similar to humans, but is probably different in some way. Maybe their hands are made differently or they can climb trees a bit better, or maybe their mouths are even shaped slightly differently.

But they think in terms of predicates.

What words?

Vowels
/e/ - somewhere near a mid-front vowel, but can degrade in fast speech to sound like /i/ or /a/

/i/ - high front vowel, similar to [j] in intensity, never degrades

/a/ - most variable sound; is a back low vowel, but can shift to any low vowel and many mid vowels

/u/ - mostly distinguished from /a/ by closeness of the lips; always a back vowel; most similar, at its core, to the Japanese u

a only counts as a back vowel if it is alone or before u. Otherwise, it is neutral in the sense that it doesn't change consonants as if it's a back vowel.

Acceptable diphthongs are /ae/, /au/, /ua/, /ue/.

Consonants
/b/ - bilabial plosive;

/m/ - bilabial nasal;

/d/ - alveolar ; inches closer to the front of the mouth before /e/ and /i/ and diphthongs and closer to the back before back vowels

/s/ - alveolar fricative; partially voiced and palatalized before /e/ or /i/

/n/ - alveolar nasal; follows the same rules as /d/

/l/ - alveolar lateral; is an affricate before back vowels and an approximant elsewhere

/g/ - velar stop; is palatalized before /e/ and /i/

/h/ - back fricative; can be palatal fricative before /e/ and /i/, while is uvular/glottal fricative before back vowels

Words
XaYane - (X happens) such that (Y happens)

abae - (to be) fruit

abau - (to be) (a) bone

adage - to be done, to be made, to be spoken of

ahuedi - (to be) nature or god

alabe - to have fun with something

alaela - (to be) grass

anasi - (to be) a human

anaude - (to be) a herbivore which is undesirable

anausu - (to be) a bird on the ground

asue - to die which is bad

asuse - specific knife used to cut things open most cleanly, to cut

auguma - (to be) a large herbivore, to be eaten, to be edible

eida - (to be) day, the sun

elahi - (to be) a bird in the sky

emabe - stone

esiba - to be affected by something

ibi - to be the speaker

idule - to be similar

igigu - to listen and/or learn

igu - to be the listener/audience

imau - to be at a specific place

inaeba - to charge forward

isima - sneakily stalk

uba - walk brashly

ubudumua - to lightning and/or thunder, to shake, to make the ground electric, to arrive or come nearer (of the mythical monster)

ubuha - to do, make, or speak of something

ude - to die which is good

udude - (to be) a carnivore which is undesirable

uge - (animal) to be dangerous in an admirable way, (human) to be renowned

ugebe - club to break things; to smash

ugeuba - to walk (like) an animal, with grace

ugu - rain, (of rain) to fall, to attack ineffectively but relentlessly

umau - be approached (by something else which was walking)

umi - (to be) a cloud

usisu - to whisper

Grammar
Word Order
 * The language is very strictly SV for its simple sentences.
 * The more complex (transitive sentences) have this setup:
 * X-XVerb-YVerb-Y-XaYane
 * I don't know if this means that they aren't predicates anymore.

Reduplication
 * Reduplication of the first syllable implies an iterative nature.
 * Reduplication of the last two syllables implies a habitual/gnomic nature.
 * /i/ after /u/ becomes /e/; igigu -> igigu{igu} -> igiguegu

Underlying Non-Predicates
There are some underlying non-predicates. These are prefixes which attach to the beginning of the word and signify connected things. They generally go in this order, from first to last:
 * b-
 * m-
 * d-
 * n-
 * g-
 * h-

I didn't create them as pronouns, but that is what they can theoretically be glossed as.

Predicates which refer to the same thing

Sentences
Bauguma bimau bapau. - The animal which could have been eaten is now at a specific place and is now a skeleton. (SUBJ1-eaten.animal SUBJ1-at.place SUBJ1-be.bone) Bapau bimau baugama. - The skeleton over there is an animal.

Buge bisima mumau mibi bamane. - The exalted one sneakily stalks me.

Bisima buge mumau mibi bamane. - The one who stalks is exalted and comes near me.

Buge bisima mesiba mibi bamane. - The exalted one sneakily stalks and it affects me in some way.

Bisima buge mesiba mibi bamane. - The one who sneaks is exalted, which affects me somehow.

Bahuedi bubuha mauguma

Culture
Names come from the baby's first babbling; they can have phonemes and phonotactic structures which don't appear in the language, like consonant clusters or syllable-final sounds.

Story
Beugabi binaeba masue manasi bamane.

The herbivore charged and killed one person.