Proto Csillan

General information
Proto-Vaiyanu is the first spoken language in the western continent of Nirunei, Andar.

Vowels
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.

Variations
Though not all places of articulation are definite, it is fairly certain that l and s are alveolar, and p, b and f are all labial (not labiodental, which does not appear in any Vaiyanu language except by borrowing from languages outside the Vaiyanu family), w is labiovelar, k and ŋ are velar, and y is palatal. N and t likely had both dental and alveolar allophones.

Phonotactics
Reconstructed words have been organized to follow a specific set of rules deducted from present patterns, given below. * Word-initial l can only appear due to the addition of the negative prefix *l-
 * The majority of base roots are disyllabic, with the syllables morphing and with prefixes and/oraffixes added on for morphology. A few roots are monosyllabic.
 * Geminates do no toccur, 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, anyoriginal ones are shortened/lose their glide.)
 * Initial constructions include C, Cl, Cw, Cy, m/n/ŋ/l*C**, and [plosive] + f/s 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) plus [fricative] + [plosive] + any vowel/diphthong.

** M/n/ŋ/l in this case functions as a syllabic sonorant, *ŋkaɣ thus is two syllables

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

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

2. -(e/i)(s/t/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 tonwāwēft, 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 nominative is just the stem form- the plural adds w, y, or a long vowel before the stem consonant for each declension respectively.

•The accusative 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 nominative since there is no diphthong)

•The dative adds f/s/ɣ to the accusative ending for each declension respectively, displacing the –l.

•The genitive simply lengthens the stem vowel in the nominative 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 -*ok to the root stem (the word without the nominative ending.) The plural adds the postposition to the nominative 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 saykleyok and saykleyēfp is still preserved.)

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

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

* ŋkē- all

* to- any

* pfa- one

* mye- two

* kwo- three

* nli- four

* se- five

* sepfa- six (se + pfa, as Proto Vaiyanu is base five.)

* myese- ten (mye * se, i.e. 2 * 5)

Verbs
Every verb comes from a noun- the noun itself can be used as a gerundive or infinitive, the nominative, dative, and genitive forms of the root noun (as well as their plurals) form the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons respectively. The verbs can be distinguished from regular nouns since they almost always bear one of the following prefixes:
 * wo- (from *wom, an action), do verb (kaɣ (life) > wokaɣ (do life, i.e. live), klīftom (tree) > woklīftom (do as a tree, i.e., grow)