User:Dewrad/stuff

Some thoughts on proto-Western

Proto-Western probably has a similar time depth to proto-Ngauro and proto-Isthmus. Vaguely amerindian in nature. Broadly, proto-Western seems to have been a lightly inglecting language. Nouns inflected for three numbers, three cases and possessor. Numbers: singular, plural and dual. Cases: ergative, absolutive and construct. There were three genders- sentient, edible and inedible. Dual number is only inflected on nouns- pronouns and verbs lack the dual and congruence is displayed with the singular.

Adjectives have two forms- plain and intensive, the latter formed by reduplication.

Verbs inflect for two tenses- past and non-past. They exhibit agreement with both patient and agent. Indefinite objects are incorporated.

Postpositions, OV word-order. A lot of sentential information (aspect, mood, manner, instrument etc) are expressed by clitics and adverbs.

Syllable structure is C(L)V(L)(C), codas only permissable in auslaut.

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Nominal inflections:

Case/number: sing	dual 	plural erg	-γ	-γʷi	-kʷi abs	-0	-wi	-k const	-ʔu	-ʔułwi	-ʔũ

Possessor: alienable		inalienable sing	plural		sing	plural 1	ña-	mi-		γa-	wi- 2	ta-	či-		tʰa-	čʰi- 3	ʔe-	ʔu-		še-	su-

Demonstrative classifiers:

Demonstratives and quantifiers (numerals, pronouns etc) take the following classifiers depending on the qualified noun. Note that these also serve as absolutive verb suffixes.

human			ʔa solid, inedible object	łta solid, edible object	ta liquid			ye sticklike object	γũ granular mass		łki mushy, inedible object	šiw mushy, edible object	če intangiable object	ʔi

Verbal Inflections:

ROOT-[object]-ABS-ERG

Past tense is marked by changing the root, either by nasalising the root vowel or changing the front/back quality. Unpredictable synchronically.

Abs		Erg sing	plu	sing	plu 1	-na	-nã	-mey	-mẽl 2	-tʰa	-tʰã	-čʰey	-čʰẽl 3	-	-	-ʔa	-ʔa

Noun Incorporation

Nouns can be incorporated in the verb. Should the resulting verb be intransitive, the incorporated noun signifies an indefinite object. If the resulting verb is transitive, with an object, the incorporated noun signifies an instrument or a baneficiary.

ña tuγanĩdzuna. ña-0  tuγa-nĩdzu-na I -ABS seek-woman-1SG.ABS I'm looking for a woman.

taγ nu džiʔa nĩdzu tuγaʔačʰey? ta -γ  nu  dži      -ʔa    nĩdzu-0   tuγa-ʔa   -čʰey you-ERG INT what.kind-HUMAN woman-ABS seek-HUMAN-2SG.ERG What kind of woman are you looking for?

nĩdzu tuγaγũmey nĩdzu-0  tuγa-γũ       -mey woman-ABS seek-STICKLIKE-1SG.ERG I'm looking for a thin one