Melaś

Classification
Proto-Meya (2500 B.C.): Other people possibly spoke languages related to this Sora (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 (300 A.D.):
 * Melaś (Melaś proper) (32,000)
 * Coastal Melaś (500 A.D.) a.k.a "Murra Meya" (separated from Old Melaś)
 * Okhotsk dialect (extinct, 1992)
 * Pacific dialect (2500)
 * Mećka (800 A.D.)
 * Liao dialect (300)
 * Hun dialect (10, poss. extinct)
 * Proto-Orong (~500 B.C.)
 * Orong (80) (some consider it a dialect of Poreng)
 * Poreng (ext., early 19th c.)
 * Temian (ext., 17th c.)
 * Sora language (unknown divergence date, though much earlier than the above branches; ext., 1930s)

The external classification of the Meya languages as a whole has been a matter of much academic debate. Regardless, they have been placed in the "Paleoasiatic" linguistic grouping, a blanket term for the languages spoken in East Asia and Siberia before the spread of Tungusic, Mongolian, Sinitic, and other larger language families.

Some linguists propose that Proto-Meya (the reconstructed ancestor of Melaś and its relatives) may have distant relations to Uralo-Siberian (especially Uralic), Dené–Yeniseian, or Korean. None of these proposals in particular have majority support, but the first has recently garnered much attention.

Proponents of the Nostratic hypothesis have suggested that Pre-Proto-Meya (the distant ancestor of Proto-Meya, along with any extinct languages paraphyletic to it) may represent one of the earliest, if not the earliest branch of Proto-Nostratic to reach East Asia. Notwithstanding, Nostraticists who believe Indo-Uralic or Uralo-Siberian to be true genetic groupings within Nostratic propose that Proto-Meya may be the closest relative alongside one or both of these families, if not within them already.

Consonants
{| class="wikitable" ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2" rowspan="1" |Labial ! colspan="2" rowspan="1" |Alveolar ! colspan="2" rowspan="1" |Postalveolar ! colspan="2" rowspan="1" |Palatal ! colspan="2" rowspan="1" |Velar ! colspan="1" rowspan="2" |Uvular ! colspan="1" rowspan="2" |Glottal !

Plain
!

Aspirated
!

Plain
!

Aspirated
!

Plain
!

Aspirated
!

Plain
!

Aspirated
!

Plain
!

Aspirated
! colspan="2" |Nasal ! colspan="1" rowspan="2" |Plosive ! Plain ! Labialized ! colspan="2" |Affricate ! rowspan="2" |Fricative ! Sibilant ! Non-sibilant ! rowspan="1" colspan="2" |Liquid ! rowspan="2" |Semivowel ! Plain ! Labialized
 * - align="center"
 * m̥ m
 * n̥ n
 * ɲ̥ ɲ̟
 * ŋ̊  ŋ
 * [ɴ]
 * - align="center"
 * ŋ̊  ŋ
 * [ɴ]
 * - align="center"
 * [ɴ]
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * p
 * pʰ
 * t
 * tʰ
 * c ɟ
 * cʰ
 * k g
 * kʰ
 * ʔ
 * - align="center"
 * ʔ
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * kʷ gʷ
 * - align="center"
 * kʷ gʷ
 * - align="center"
 * kʷ gʷ
 * - align="center"
 * kʷ gʷ
 * - align="center"
 * kʷ gʷ
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * ts
 * tɕ
 * - align="center"
 * tɕ
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * s
 * sʰ
 * ɕ ʑ
 * ɕʰ
 * - align="center"
 * ɕʰ
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * β
 * ð
 * ç ʝ
 * [x] ɣ
 * h [ɦ]
 * - align="center"
 * ç ʝ
 * [x] ɣ
 * h [ɦ]
 * - align="center"
 * h [ɦ]
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * ɾ~r
 * l
 * ʎ
 * - align="center"
 * l
 * ʎ
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * j
 * colspan="3" rowspan="1" | ɰ ~ ʁ
 * - align="center"
 * j
 * colspan="3" rowspan="1" | ɰ ~ ʁ
 * - align="center"
 * j
 * colspan="3" rowspan="1" | ɰ ~ ʁ
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * ɥ
 * w
 * }
 * ɥ
 * w
 * }
 * ɥ
 * w
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

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).