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 heads are oriented to be more like cones.
I plan to evolve this until the present day.
Phonology/Orthography[]
Vowels[]
Front:
/e/ - [ɛ]~[e], can degrade to [ə] in unstressed syllables
/i/ - [i]; similar to [j] in intensity when alone
Back:
/a/ - [a] before bilabial consonants, [ɑ]~[ɤ] elsewhere
/u/ - [o]~[u]
There are 8 acceptable diphthongs:
Front:/ae/ [əɛ], /ai/[əi], /ei/[ei], /eu/[ɛo], /ie/[ie]
Back: /au/[ɑo], /ua/[oɑ], and /ue/[oe]
No more than two vowels can occur in a row.
Consonants[]
| Before Front | Before Back | |
|---|---|---|
| /b/ | [b] | |
| /m/ | [m] | |
| /d/ | [d̪] | [d̠] |
| /n/ | [n̪] | [n̠] |
| /s/ | [ʑ] | [s] |
| /l/ | [l] | [dɮ] |
| /g/ | [ɡʲ] | [g] |
| /h/ | [ç] | [x]~[h] |
Syllables[]
The only permissible syllable structure is (C)V.
Stress Rules[]
Generally, if there aren't any diphthongs in the word, the stress falls on the final syllable of the word. If there are diphthongs, they are stressed, and then every syllable an even number after the diphthong is stressed.
Exceptions:
- In "eugabi", the syllable "ga" is stressed.
Words[]
aenalabe - to see
aene - to be an eyeball
aihi - to make noise
ahuedi - (to be) nature or god
aliebu - to be many
aliehie - (to be) beautiful
aniedu - to flee
asiena - mysterious, new
asae - to cut
aseu - wind
asue - to die which is bad
auguma - (to be) a large herbivore, to be eaten, to be edible
bae - (to be) fruit
baeguba - imitation of the sound of footsteps hitting the ground
bau - (to be) (a) bone
biema - to be similar to another thing
budumua - to lightning and/or thunder, to shake, to make the ground electric, to arrive or come nearer (of the mythical monster)
bueda - (to be) the color of the sky right now
buha - to do, make, or speak of something
dage - to be done, to be made, to be a theoretical thing spoken of
dude - (to be) a carnivore/killer which is undesirable
edugu - (to be) a home, where someone lives generally
eida - (to be) day, the sun
elahi - (to be) a bird in the sky
elali - (to be) the earth, its creator, its bounty
emabe - stone
enaule - flatland, plain
esiba - to be affected by something
eugabi - an animal which isn't fit to be eaten due to moral circumstances
gigu - to listen and/or learn
gu - rain, (of rain) to fall, to attack ineffectively but relentlessly
ibi - to be the speaker
idule - to be similar
igu - to be the listener/audience
ihaedi - to sit
imau - to be at a specific place
inaeba - to charge forward
inihi - to stop
- adverb: indicates that the following happens after the previous thing stops
labe - to have fun with something
laela - (to be) grass
luamu - mud, which is mud
mau (interjection) - sad sound
nasi - (to be) a human
naude - (to be) a herbivore which is undesirable
nausu - (to be) a bird on the ground
nese - to be caught, to be obtained; used to create object for some predicates
nusi - to cast a shadow, a cast shadow
sase - specific knife used to cut things open most cleanly, to cut
sidi - indicates that the previous word is false
sigi - (to be) jutting up and down, such as mountains faraway
sima - sneakily stalk
uba - walk brashly
ude - to die which is good
uedau - to be wise
uge - (animal) to be dangerous in an admirable way, (human) to be renowned
ulali - to be happy, to be bright, to be near something which is good
ugebe - club to break things; to smash
ugeuba - to walk (like) an animal, with grace
ulaehu - (to be like a) flower
umau - be approached (by something else which was walking)
umi - (to be) a cloud
usisu - to whisper
Compound Words in General (with b- for clarity)[]
bisigi benaule - a jocular word for their mountain home, which is like a flatland to them
buge beugabi - used to specify an exalted animal
buge banasi - used to specify an exalted human
bunusi mesiba muluamu - to leave tracks (esp. in mud)
Prefixes[]
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-
When the predicate comes before a consonant, the vowel in between them is the same as the one after the beginning of the word.
Predicates which refer to the same thing have the same prefix.
Intransitive Sentences[]
Simple sentences can be represented in English by making the second word a verb. However, this is not actually a change in the word.
- Bauguma bimau bapau.
- SUBJ1-eaten.animal SUBJ1-be.at.place SUBJ1-be.bone
- The animal which could have been eaten is now at a specific place and is now a skeleton.
Generally, the word in the front is written as a noun in the transcription, though it is not different from a verb in practice.
- Bapau bimau baugama.
- SUBJ1-be.bone SUBJ1-eaten.animal SUBJ1-be.at.place
- The skeleton of an animal is over there.
Transitive Sentences[]
The slightly more complex transitive sentences have a setup where two words with different prefixes are next to one another, and they interact in such a way that the first one is implied to be related to the other.
- Buge bisima mumau mibi.
- SUBJ1-be.exalted SUBJ1-sneakily.stalk SUBJ2-be.approached SUBJ2-be.speaker
- The exalted one sneakily stalks me.
Generally, mumau is used for the objects of verbs involving the subject's physical motion towards something. However, this is not necessary.
- Buge bisima mesiba mibi.
- The exalted one sneakily stalks and it affects me in some way.
Reduplication[]
Reduplication of the first syllable implies an iterative nature. Reduplication of the last two syllables implies a habitual/gnomic nature. In reduplication, /i/ after /u/ becomes /e/; igigu -> igigu{igu} -> igiguegu
Sentences[]
Bisima buge mumau mibi. - The one who stalks is exalted and comes near me.
Bisima buge mesiba mibi. - The one who sneaks is exalted, which affects me somehow.
Story[]
Bauguma binaeba (mesiba) masue manasi beugabi.
The herbivore charges and kills one person, and is not fit to be eaten*.
Banasi baliebu bubuha mesiba meugabi.
Many people talk about the disgraced animal*.
(They have to find the animal. Then the story continues.)
Baliebu bugu mesiba meugabi balaliebu mesiba maniedu.
The crowd attacks the animal, albeit ineffectively, but the sheer number of attacks affects it, and it flees.
(When they find the animal, they go to kill it, but lightning strikes. This shows that the animal was not meant to be eaten, and they show it the way out of the fire. This is why you should not attack.)
*The animal is bad, and so it cannot be eaten because it has done evil and has killed for a reason other than eating. Therefore, it is referred to as an eugabi.
Culture[]
Names come from the baby's first babbling; they can have phones and phonotactic structures which don't appear in the language, like consonant clusters or syllable-final sounds. Eventually, though, people's names are mispronounced to the point that they fit within the
These people can skin animals.
They don't really have a musical instruments. The little music they have consists of clapping as they tell stories.