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?

Phonology/Orthography

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/
/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

People

anasi - (to be) a human
ibi - to be the speaker
igu - to be the listener/audience

Animals

auguma - (to be) a large herbivore
anausu - (to be) a bird on the ground
elahi - (to be) a bird in the sky
anaude - (to be) a herbivore which is undesirable
udude - (to be) a carnivore which is undesirable
uge - (animal) to be dangerous in an admirable way, (human) to be renowned

Weather

eida - (to be) day, the sun
ubudumua - to lightning and/or thunder, to shake, to make the ground electric

• This also represents a mythical monster. Because of this, it has the meaning of "to arrive (of the mythical monster)"
   

umi - (to be) a cloud
ugu - rain, (of rain) to fall, to attack ineffectively but relentlessly

Other Actions

adage - to be done, to be made, to be spoken of
esiba - to be affected by something
imau - to be at a specific place
inaeba - to charge forward
isima - sneakily stalk
uba - walk brashly
ubudumua - to arrive or come nearer (of the mythical monster)
ubuha - to do, make, or speak of something
ugeuba - to walk (like) an animal, with grace
umau - be approached (by something else which was walking)
usisu - to whisper

Food

ababe - (to be) fruit
asue - to die which is bad
apau - to be (a) bone
auguma - to be eaten, to be edible
ude - to die which is good

Objects/Tools

XaYane - (X happens) such that (Y happens)
asuse - specific knife used to cut things open most cleanly, to cut
emabe - stone
ugebe - club to break things; to smash

Grammar

Word Order

• The language is very strictly SV for its simple sentences.
• The more complex (transitive sentences) have this setup:
  • Agent-AVerb-PVerb-Patient-AaPane

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.

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 mibi mesiba bamane - The exalted one sneakily stalks you.

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 manasi masue bamane.
The herbivore charged and killed one person.