Archaic Archipelago Southwestern

Archaic Archipelago Southwestern ——
Type
Isolating
Alignment
Nominative
Head direction
Final
Tonal
No
Declensions
No
Conjugations
No
Genders
No
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect

General Info

Archaic Archipelago Southwestern is an extinct Southwesterner language. It is the earliest attested ancestor of all SW Archipelago languages.

Phonology

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Dorsal	Laryngeal
Nasal	m mʱ	n nʱ		ɳ ɳʱ	ŋ ŋʱ
Plosive	p pʰ bʱ	t tʰ dʱ		ʈ ʈʰ ɖʱ	k kʰ gʱ	ʔ
Fricative	f	θ θʰ	s sʰ	ʂ ʂʰ	x xʰ	ħ ʕ
Approximant	ʋ w	ð	ɹ	ɻ	j ɰ
Trill		r			ʀ
Lateral app.		l		ɭ	ʟ

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid		ɜ
Low		a

Syllable Structure

As each phonetic Archipelago word was made up of one syllable, its syllables are equivalent to words. Each syllable is made up of three components: an onset, a nucleus, and an optional coda. Several suprasegmental features also exist.

Onsets

Archipelago onsets are the obligatory, initial consonantal component of an Archipelago syllable; they cannot be omitted and are thus always present. They can be simple, made up of one consonant, complex, made up of two to four consonants, and semisyllabic, containing a minor syllable.

Simple onsets are made up of a single consonant followed by a nucleus. Such onsets can be any single consonantal segment. In contexts that demand that a syllable be stripped of its onset, the default onset, inserted to prevent an onsetless syllable, will be /ʔ/.

Complex onsets are made up of anywhere from two to four consonants. Unlike simple onsets, they cannot be any sequence of consonants, and thus have special combinations. Each type of combination has its own unique name.

Biconsonantal onsets are the most diverse in makeup. They include the following classes of combinations:

• ...

Nasal-nasal sequences, known as dʱɨsp mʕu, are a simple kind of biconsonantal onset class. They include the following:

dʱɨsp mʕu	m	mʱ	n	nʱ	ɳ	ɳʱ	ŋ	ŋʱ
m			mn	mnʱ	mɳ	mɳʱ	mŋ	mŋʱ
n	nm	nmʱ
ɳ	ɳm	ɳmʱ
ŋ	ŋm	ŋmʱ			ŋɳ	ŋɳʱ

Nasal-plosive sequences are divided into two classes: voiced-plosive (ʀal tʀak mʕu) and voiceless-plosive (spɜ tʀak mʕu) nasal-plosive sequences. They include the following:

ʀal tʀak mʕu	m	n	ɳ	ŋ
bʱ	mbʱ	nbʱ	ɳbʱ	ŋbʱ
dʱ	mdʱ	ndʱ		ŋdʱ
ɖʱ	mɖʱ		ɳɖʱ
gʱ	mgʱ		ɳgʱ	ŋgʱ

spe tʀak mʕu	m	n	ɳ	ŋ
p	mp		ɳp	ŋp
pʰ	mpʰ		ɳpʰ	ŋpʰ
t		nt
tʰ		ntʰ
ʈ	mʈ		ɳʈ	ŋʈ
ʈʰ	mʈʰ		ɳʈʰ	ŋʈʰ
k	mk		ɳk	ŋk
kʰ	mkʰ		ɳkʰ	ŋkʰ

Nasal-approximant sequences, known as pʰi mʕu, are a wide group that includes the following:

pʰi mʕu	m	n	ɳ	ŋ
ʋ	mʋ	nʋ		ŋʋ
w	mw	nw	ɳw	ŋw
ɹ	mɹ	nɹ		ŋɹ
ɻ	mɻ		ɳɻ	ŋɻ
j	mj	nj	ɳj	ŋj
ɰ	mɰ	nɰ	ɳɰ	ŋɰ
r	mr	nr		ŋr
ʀ	mʀ	nʀ	ɳʀ	ŋʀ
l	ml	nl		ŋl
ɭ	mɭ		ɳɭ	ŋɭ
ʟ	mʟ	nʟ	ɳʟ	ŋʟ

Fricative-plosive sequences, known as tlan mʕu, include the following:

tlan mʕu	f	s	ʂ	x	ħ
p	fp	sp	ʂp	xp	ħp
pʰ	fpʰ	spʰ	ʂpʰ
t	ft	st		xt
tʰ	ftʰ	stʰ
ʈ			ʂʈ		ħʈ
ʈʰ			ʂʈʰ		ħʈʰ
k		sk	ʂk		ħk
kʰ		skʰ	ʂkʰ		ħkʰ

Fricative-nasal sequences, known as pjiʀ mʕu, include the following:

pjiʀ mʕu	f	s	ʂ	x	ħ
m	fm	sm	ʂm	xm	ħm
n	fn	sn		xn	ħn
ɳ			ʂɳ	xɳ
ŋ	fŋ	sŋ	ʂŋ		ħŋ

Plosive-fricative sequences, known as tʀɜn mʕu, include the following:

tʀen mʕu	p	t	ʈ	k	ʔ
f	pf	tf	ʈf	kf	ʔf
s	ps	ts		ks	ʔs
sʰ	psʰ	tsʰ		ksʰ	ʔsʰ
ʂ	pʂ		ʈʂ	kʂ	ʔʂ
ʂʰ	pʂʰ		ʈʂʰ	kʂʰ	ʔʂʰ
x	px	tx	ʈx		ʔx
ħ	pħ		ʈħ	kħ	ʔħ

Nuclei

Archipelago nuclei are the 'carriers' of its syllables; as such, they are obligatory. They can be divided into two types:

• Primary nuclei
  • The five cardinal vowels
  • Can be nuclei regardless of onset and coda
• Secondary nuclei
  • Sonorants
  • Can be nuclei only in appropriate contexts

Nouns

Archipelago nouns, in line with the rest of the language, were morphologically overwhelmingly bare and uninflected. Although isolating, they were grouped into four animacy classes, or 'genders', that were inherent to each noun:

• Superanimate
• Animate
• Edible
• Inedible

Each noun came with a specifying postfixed clitic classifier that classified it according to certain rudimentary properties. Some of the more common classifiers:

• ʔɜm – small animal
• ɻujp – large, dangerous animal
• ðɨ – bird
• pʰal – human
• gʱiʋ – one's close relative

All classifiers came after the noun. A noun could be introduced in full, nominal plus classifier, and then afterwards — when definite and certain — could be referred to using only the classifier.

Verbs

Archipelago verbs were, in essence, phrases made up of several words. Each verb was made up of one verbal root, one specifier — in the form of an obligatory noun, preposition or particle that acts as a classifier — and anywhere from zero to three pronominal arguments. The stucture of such specialised phrasal verbs (termed V_p) was rigidly ordered as TAM-classifier-pronoun-root.

Classifiers and Verb Class

Archaic Archipelago essentially had no intransitive verbs: each sentence had at least one object. For otherwise intransitive sentences, this object was taken to be the verb's nominal classifier — all 'intransitive' sentences had to have a verb with a nominal classifier component. 'Transitive' verbs, on the other hand, could have a particular or prepositional component instead of a nominal one.

All such components were marked as either classifiers or pronominals.

Nominal Classifiers [Intransitives]

All technically intransitive Archipelago verbs behaved as otherwise true transitives with one caveat: they always have a fixed and bare nominal component that goes along. This nominal is considered the object of the verb. As a rule, it is never a nominal classifier.

Verbs formed like this are usually fixed syntactical phrases — polyphrasal verbs.

Particular Classifiers [Transitives]

All transitive Archipelago verbs include a particular element as a classifier: it is usually a particle or a preposition indicating direction or benefit.

Pronoun Chain

Every archipelago verb had a pronoun chain, for personal agreement, that came between the verb's classifier and root. This chain included three types of pronominal elements: a nominative pronoun, an accusative pronoun and a benefactive. Not all verbs had all three pronouns, though verbs generally tended to include a benefactive regardless of valency.

The pronouns employed by the chain were:

Pronoun Chain Members
Person	Nominative	Accusative	Benefact.
1sg	kʰɨl	ðra	ðrim
2sg	ʈʰu	ʂaɭ	ʂɭim
3sg	θu	θraɭ	θlim
1du	kʰɜr	ðrak	ðram
2du	ʈʰɜr	ʈʰak	ʈʰam
1pl	spi	ðrɨk	ðrɨmʱ
2/3pl	li	lik	limʱ
refl		praɭ	pɨmʱ

Many verbs, when lacking a well-defined benefactive, would sometimes include a reflexive benefactive. The development of this feature shaped the verb systems of the language's descendants.

Syntax

Archaic Archipelago word order was mostly limited to SOV_p-type sentences.