Proto-Chevin

General Information
Proto-Chevin (Gēfī riksu) is one of several descendants of Proto-Edalith. It was spoken by the early migrants into the Chevi (Gēfi) peninsula, extending north from the greater Edalith (Aidālītu) peninsula. The Edalith peninsula extends northeast from the equator on the east side of Chiwar, the largest continent of the planet Patrona (Bārtonar), home of the alien Patronans (Bārtonai bēlsar).

Classification
Proto-Chevin diverged into the Northern Edalith language family. The Chevin people stayed in the sub-peninsula and spread island-ward, with their language becoming Proto-Alemar-Barejine. The Chevin people also spread back into the main Edalith peninsula and across the Chevi-Holkey strait.


 * Northern Edalith (Proto-Chevin)
 * Chevin (Old Chevin/Proto-Alemar-Barejine)
 * Eastern Chevin (Alemarese)
 * Western Chevin (Barejine)
 * Mid-Northern Edalith (Proto-Mid-Northern Edalith)
 * East Holkeyan (Proto-East Holkeyan)

Consonants
The traditional classification and symbols are shown below.
 * The column labeled 'alveolar' was most likely laminal dentialveolar.
 * /f/ was almost certainly bilabial [ɸ].
 * /r/ could have been nearly any rhotic consonant, but it is currently constructed as an alveolar approximant, in line with other early Edalith languages.
 * /h/ was most likely a voiceless velar fricative [x].
 * /q/ was most likely farther back in the mouth than velar, possibly pharyngeal/epiglottal. It could have been a stop, fricative, approximant, or even a trill. There is simply no way to know given its diverse reflexes in descendant languages.
 * /v/ was almost certainly a labiovelar approximant [w].

Vowels

 * The vowel length distinction may have been accompanied by a tense/lax distinction.
 * The only diphthongs were /ei/, /oi/, /ai/, and /eu/, /ou/, /au/. Combinations of /u/ and /i/ with /y/ and /v/ in the morphology cause the vowels to lower.

Therefore, korēmu* "guideline, rule" may have been pronounced [kɔˈɹeˑmʊ].

Phonotactics
(C)V(C)


 * Word-initial clusters: /pm/, /pn/, /pt/, /ps/, /km/, /kn/, /kt/, /ks/, /pr/, /br/, /tr/, /dr/, /kr/, /gr/, /sr/, /hr/, /qr/, /pl/, /bl/, /tl/, /dl/, /kl/, /gl/, /sl/, /hl/, /ps/, or any obstruent or cluster ending in an obstruent plus /y/ or /v/
 * Intervocalic clusters: word-initial clusters plus /mp/, /mb/, /mf/, /nt/, /nts/, /nd/, /ns/, /nr/, /mr/, /nl/, /nk/, /ng/, /nh/, /nq/, /ny/, /mpt/, /mps/, /nks/, /nkt/, /rm/, /rp/, /rb/, /rf/, /rn/, /rt/, /rts/, /rd/, /rs/, /rl/, /rk/, /rg/, /rh/, /rq/, /ry/, /rv/, /lm/, /lp/, /lb/, /lf/, /ln/, /lt/, /lts/, /ld/, /ls/, /lk/, /lg/, /lh/, /lq/, /ly/, /lv/, /hn/, /qn/, /tn/, or any cluster ending with an obstruent or nasal plus /y/ or /v/
 * The vowel can be any short or long monophthong or a diphthong.
 * Vowel hiatus is not permitted.
 * Word-final codas can be any consonant or cluster except for the semivowels /y/ and /v/ or clusters ending with them, though word-final clusters are rare.

Stress
Stress was fairly regular, appearing on the final syllable of the root. ex. fetútya "tree" and bārúmu "mountain"

Gender
Proto-Chevin had three gender classes: animate, lustrous, and dull, shown in fusional suffixes and agreement with adjectives.

Examples
 * Animate: luqar "spinnerfly"
 * Lustrous: dōhi "gold"
 * Dull: qvertu "house, home"

Cases
There are six cases. Proto-Chevin retained all but the locative and ablative of Proto-Edalith.
 * Nominative: The dictionary form of a word. Used for the subject of verbs and as the object of a select few prepositions.
 * Accusative: Used for the object of a transitive verb, and the indirect object of a ditransitive verb, as well as the object of locative prepositions.
 * Instrumental: Used for instruments used to do an action and the direct object of a ditransitive verb.
 * Allative: Used to indicate movement towards something.
 * Genitive: Used to indicate movement away from something. Also used in compounds, compositions, and possession. Genitives are placed before nouns that they modify.
 * Vocative: Used to directly address a noun.

Animate declension
Animate nouns have the nominative ending -ar. These are mostly people and animals. It also contains all diminutives, some body parts, and generally helpful or beautiful plants.

ex. qrentar 'person'

Lustrous declension
Lustrous nouns have the nominative ending -i. These are mostly inanimate reflective items and abstractions, but it also contains the occasional body part or animate noun.

ex. kāsi 'light, brightness'

Dull declension
Dull nouns have the nominative ending -u. These are mostly inanimate non-reflective items, but it also contains the occasional body part or abstraction. It also contains all augmentatives.

ex. usinu 'bowl, cup, pot'

Full table

 * The dull genitive plural is -ou if -vou would violate phonotactics.

Personal
The personal pronouns are shown in pairs, the first being the nominative and the second the accusative. Where the roots differ, the other cases are built on the nominative root.

Determiners and indefinite pronouns
Adjectives


 * bekīne “which”
 * beirde “what state/description, how is _, what is _ like (pro-adjective)”
 * qēde “this (proximal)”
 * sōle “that (medial)”
 * tvēle “that (distal)”
 * pvife “few”
 * tlone “some”
 * beqe “many”
 * īpse “all”
 * sāde “any”
 * tlīme “other”

Pronouns (all adjectives can be turned into pronouns by declining them as nouns)


 * bidvar “who (person)” (bidvae “whose”)
 * bevu “where”
 * byainqu “when”
 * hetahu “how much, how many”
 * idvar/idvi/idvu “who/that (relative pronouns)” (note idvae “whose (relative pronoun)”)
 * qrentar “person, someone”
 * gvar “thing, something”
 * fīsuqu “place, somewhere”
 * proki “degree, amount”

Verbs (all adjectives can also be turned into pro-verbs)


 * puva “do it, do something”

Adjectives
Adjectives decline similarly to and agree with nouns, though they have their own declension classes.


 * The dull genitive plural is -ou/eu if -vou/veu would violate phonotactics.

Proto-Chevin also had a morphological comparative formed with the infix -ins- which agreed with the superior noun, with the inferior noun following in the genitive. ex. Emoim qrentait kvibinseit tlīmau īpseu. "We are a people happier than all others."

Verbs
Verbs are exceedingly regular, as there are only a dozen or so irregular verbs. There are four conjugation classes (or themes) based on four thematic vowels: a, e, u, and o. Conjugation is based on suffixes. U verbs lower their theme vowel to o when diphthongized with a following i or u. V stands in for a thematic vowel in this section.

Synthetic forms
The citation form of a verb, as well as the most common form used in combination with another verb, is the conauxiliary, which has no ending other than the theme vowel. ex. tsēre "hunt".


 * Some common verbs have a null 3s ending. ex. emo "be" > em "it is"

Participles are first declension adjectives when modifying nouns, but remain endingless in periphrastic verb forms.

Periphrastic forms
Proto-Chevin had several periphrastic verb forms, that is, forms with auxiliary verbs. All auxiliaries are placed after the corresponding verb, which is in either the conauxiliary form or a participle.

A past tense is formed with a past participle preceding the auxiliary ve.

A future tense is formed with a conauxiliary preceding an auxiliary usage of emo "be".

A hypothetical is formed with a conauxiliary preceding the auxiliary ha. This can combine with the past, with a past participle preceding the conauxiliary or ve preceding the auxiliary ha.

Passives can be formed from any of these by changing the lexical verb into its passive participle form, past if the event occurred in the past, present otherwise. If there is no other auxiliary, an auxiliary usage of puva "do" is found.

Invariable adverbs also play a key role in the verbal system. Negation was shown with negative adverbs including īs, present relevance with lā, and repetition with fel. These adverbs are placed either before the verb or at the end of a sentence for more emphasis.

Examples
puva "do" Participles: ex. puvagi sevo "I do."

Irregular verbs
Irregularities in verbs are mostly confined to some verbs using a different stem in the indirect evidentialities, and some verbs having a null ending in the 3s present.

emo "be"

Syntax
The most unmarked word order in Proto-Chevin was VSO, though the typical sentence structure was more like V-X-F, that is, the verb was placed first and the focus was placed last, with everything else in between. Since the nominative and accusative singular are the same for lustrous and dull nouns, a pronoun would be left in their place if the normal word order is changed.

Proto-Chevin is broadly head-initial, with two notable exceptions: periphrastic verb forms and genitives.

Anatomy

 * harkūhar "body"
 * kali "skin"
 * drahni "hair"
 * firūnar "head"
 * meutsumar "face"
 * polduvar "mouth"
 * pusyar "lip"
 * oktar "tongue"
 * itsi "tooth plate"
 * qyu "head ridge"
 * otvankru "nose"
 * kērar "outer ear"
 * yeiksairar "inner ear"
 * riduri "eye"
 * qamusi "neck"
 * folequ "throat"
 * delgetvu "shoulder"
 * qoislu "lower back"
 * sunti "tail"
 * limuqar "buttock"
 * manar "chest"
 * qvadlar "belly"
 * vulsar "arm"
 * faudrar "hand"
 * tseitvu "back of the hand"
 * eutansar "digit"
 * līfu "nail"
 * sakar "leg"
 * hambar "foot"

Colors

 * kindi "red, purple"
 * plāfi "yellow, white"
 * qvoiki "gray"
 * arīti "black, blue"
 * pvarsi "green, cyan"

Numbers
All numbers were exclusively nouns, some of which were animate nouns. Numerals are in base-8 and place values are ordered opposite that of English.