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/
/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.