Phonological History of the Kenic Languages

The following document describes the phonological history of the Kenic languages, detailing sound changes and phonological systems beginning from Proto-Austronesian and terminating in their modern-day forms.

See Also: Linavic – Language of Linaviar

Being a branch of the Austronesian language family, the phonologies of the Kenic languages are ultimately traceable back to Proto-Austronesian (PAN). The following is a reconstruction of PAN phonology by Robert Blust as described in the 2013 revision of The Austronesian languages. Some reconstructed consonants are still controversial or debated.

• *D only appears in final position.

• *j only appears in medial and final positions.

• *ñ, *c, and *z only appear in initial and medial positions.
  

1. Diachronic sources of individual vowels.
   

PAN syllable structure was (C)V(C), with coda consonants only occurring word-finally or in reduplicated stems or roots.

Proto-Kenic Phonology

The ancestor of the Austronesian languages currently spoken in Linaviar and Aprosia, Proto-Kenic (PK) arose c. 3000 – 2800 BCE.

PK syllable structure was (C)V(G)(C), where G constituted the glides *w and *y. Glides could only occur alongside a coda consonant, and coda consonants could only occur word-finally or in reduplicated stems or roots.

Stress was phonemic, and indicated by an acute accent above the vowel. Words could contain multiple points of stress, and monosyllabic words might lack stress. Stress generally appeared either on closed syllables or word-initially, but diachronic processes could subvert this tendency.

Sound Changes From Proto-Austronesian

Unlike the fairly conservative mergers that PAN underwent in transition to the widely-spread Malayo-Polynesian languages, the transition to Proto-Kenic saw a number of innovative sound changes operating on the featural level leading to a marked increase in the number of consonants and the rise of its phonemic stress system.

Unconditional Changes

Proto-Kenic underwent a handful of changes which occurred regardless of environment. Most acted as a simple 1:1 replacement, but *h loss triggered stress gain in the accompanying syllable.

Changes to *N and *j

*N and *j underwent one of two changes depending upon whether they acted as onset or coda consonants. When in coda position, the sounds would loose their palatal qualities and diphthongize their associated vowel with *-y (most of which would go on to form monophthongs). When in onset position however *N simply lost the palatal quality and transitioned to *l, while *j affricated and merged with *z.

Consonant Lenition & Fortition

The transition to Proto-Kenic saw many consonants undergo a lenition process, with most plosives fricating intervocalically and devoicing in the coda position. In addition to these featural changes:

• *q became glottalized intervocalically and was deleted and triggered stress in reduplicative clusters.

• *r shifted to *l intervocalically.
  

In contrast to this general trend, *C underwent fortification to *t in non-intervocalic contexts.

Vowel Changes

Proto-Kenic turned PAN diphthongs into pure monophthongs. Monopthongization triggered stress gain in the accompanying syllable.

Vowel Epenthesis

Plosive-consonant clusters arising from reduplication gave rise to epenthetic vowels. These vowels were conditioned based upon the vowel in the reduplicated root, taking its height and opposing frontness. The original reduplicated syllables in these instances gained stress, leading to a characteristic sing-song pattern.

General Stress Assignment

While a number of prior changes introduced inherent stress to words; those that did not followed the following steps for stress assignment:

• If the word possessed a closed syllable (syllable contained a coda consonant) then stress fell on the first closed syllable in the word.

• Otherwise, if the word was not monosyllabic, stress was assigned to the first syllable in the word.
  

Proto-Northern-Kenic Phonology

The ancestor of the Eastern Kenic languages and Taṛál, Proto-Northern-Kenic (PNK) arose c. 1400 BCE.

PNK syllable structure was (C)V(G)(C), where G constituted the glides *w and *y. Glides forming diphthongs could only occur on stressed syllables, and coda consonants could only occur word-finally or in reduplicated stems or roots. Stress was phonemic, and indicated by an acute accent above the vowel.

Sound Changes From Proto-Kenic

Proto-Northern-Kenic underwent two major changes during its evolution from Proto-Kenic: Insertion of the intervocalic pharyngeal fricative *ʕ before stressed vowels, and a broad weakening of vowels conditioned by stress and laryngeal consonants that drastically expanded the vowel space.

Intervocalic Epenthesis

In cases of vowel hiatus, where the ultimate vowel was stressed, a voiced pharyngeal fricative *ʕ was inserted between the two vowels.

Weakening of Unstressed Vowels

Unstressed vowels underwent a weakening during changes from PK to PNK, with diphthongs merging, close vowels lowering, mid vowels centralizing, and word-final *a outright eliding. Furthermore, some unstressed vowels transformed into glides, increasing the number of diphthongs.

Lowering of Close Vowels After Laryngeals

The laryngeal consonants *q and *ʕ triggered close vowels to lower to mid vowels, regardless of stress.

Diphthong Changes

Diphthongs arising out of word-final *a elision and vowels transforming into glides underwent yet further shifts to keep the vowel space distinctive. Unstressed diphthongs (always formed by *a dropping) merged into monophthongs, while stressed diphthongs vacated the mid height and opened in cases of *íy and *úw.

Old Eastern Kenic Phonology

Ocassionally refered to as Classical Kenic or Classical Linavic, Old Eastern Kenic (OEK) was spoken c. 500 BCE to 600 CE and was the first Kenic language to possess extensive writen records. While pictographic proto-writing systems were in use by Kenic speakers since c. 2300 BCE, the introduction of the Aprosiatic alphasyllabry in the 700s BCE marked the first true writing system in Kénamáli; this alphasyllabry would be used sporadically until the 300s BCE, at which time it was developed into the alphabetic Kúskaos script which is still in use today.

Discussion of OEK and its daughter languages utilizes the Heimdal transliteration of Kúskaos, which is presented below.

Stress in OEK was (C)V(G)(C), with the optional (G) being the secondary component of a diphthong. Morphological processes could shift this component to a consonant in intervocalic contexts (e.g. ⟨dáy⟩ /dai̯/ (upriver), ⟨dáyan⟩ /daːjɐn/ (river source)). Coda consonants could only occur word-finally or in reduplicated stems or roots.

The glottal stop is represented by a unicameral záʻis (U+02BB) which is conventionally replaced with an ASCII grave accent ⟨`⟩ when this character is unavailable.

Sound Changes From Proto-Northern-Kenic

Perhaps the most outstanding feature of Old Eastern Kenic is the broad level of stress-conditioned metathesis that the language underwent in its evolution from Proto-Northern-Kenic. This change, in combination with earlier shifts in fricatives, affricates, and rhotics, presented difficulties in establishing regular sound correspondences until Máokoil’s work in the late 1990s.

Fricative Chain Shift

The PNK fricatives *f, *θ, *ð underwent an unconditional chain shift which eliminated *ð and re-introduced the glottal fricative /h/.

Miscellaneous Changes to Sibilants and Rhotics

In addition to the prior chain shift, PNK’s sibilants and rhotics underwent a broader series of conditional shifts which notably saw the destabilization of *S, *s, and *R in some of their more common contexts.

Stress-Conditioned Metathesis

The metathesis that OEK underwent in its changes from PNK were unusual in both their form and breadth of application. The process consisted of two intertwined interactions: a shuffling of consonants while holding vowel positions constant, and a migration of stress/length toward the beginning of the word.

Using a superscript ⟨+⟩ to denote the presence of stress (and an accompanying OEK long vowel/tense diphthong), the following sequences underwent metathesis:

1. CV(G)CV⁺

2. V(G)CV⁺(G)C
   

Type (A) metathesis saw the two consonants in the pattern swap, while type (B) metathesis saw the first consonant move before the initial vowel, and the second consonant be copied in its place. In both cases, stress migrated from the second vowel to the first. Metathesis could only occur if the sequence was preceded by an unstressed vowel/diphthong or a word boundary.

The following table represents these rules symbolically, using numeric subscripts for clarity.

As a result of this broad metathesis, sound changes involving laryngeal and glottal consonants, as well as the schwa, occurred.

A-Rising

Low vowels occurring in hiatus before /a/ were raised in OEK.