| Proto-Western-Ulitan | |
| Pronunciation | /ʊlɪtan/ |
| Period | ca. 7000BK - 4000BK(?) |
| Spoken in | Northern Amutet |
| Total speakers | Unknown |
| Writing system | None |
| Classification | Ulitan |
| Typology | |
| Basic word order | SOV |
| Morphology | aggulating |
| Alignment | Nominative-Accusative(marked Nominative) |
| Credits | |
| Created by | k1234567890y |
The Proto-Western-Ulitan language was the common ancestor of all Western Ulitan languages, the Proto-Western-Ulitan language itself was developed from the Proto-Ulitan language.
Proto-Western-Ulitan was an unwritten language, its forms are reconstructed rather than attested.
Since Proto-Western-Ulitan had terms for horticulture, it is supposed that at least some speakers of Proto-Western-Ulitan were settled land-ploghers, while others might be nomadic herders.
Phonology[]
| labials | dento-alveolars | post-alveolars/palatals | velars/uvulars | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasals | *m | *n | *ɲ | *ŋ | |
| plosives | *p *b | *t *t' *d | *tʃ *tʃ' *dʒ | *k *k' *g | |
| fricatives | *s *z | *ʃ | *ʁ | *h | |
| sonorants | *w | *r *l | *j |
- It is possible that */h/ had an allophone [x] or [χ] when not followed by any vowel, and it is possible that */ʁ/ was actually *[ɣ] in most situations.
| front | back | |
|---|---|---|
| high | *i | *u |
| mid | *e | *o |
| low | *a |
/ŋ/ is transcripted as <ng>, /ʃ/ is transcripted as <sh>, /j/ is transcripted as <y>, /h/ is transcripted as <h>
stress falls on the last syllable of the root.
Grammar[]
Nouns[]
There were cases and numbers in nouns:
Numbers:
- Dual: *-ta
- Plural: *-e/*-re
Cases:
- nominative: *-wu/*-u
- accusative: *-Ø
- genitive: *-ne/*-n
- dative-locative: *-mi/*-m(also used to turn nouns into adverbs)
- ablative: *-ku/*-k
- instrumental-comitative: *-bi/*-b
- benefactive: *-su/*-s
Number suffixes precede case suffixes.
Proto-Western Ulitan probably had an differential subject marking based on definiteness, that means the nominative case suffix might be only used for subjects that were definite, subjects that were indefinite might not be marked with nominative case; also, it is likely that some dialects didn't use the *-wu/*-u suffix for nominative.
Verbs[]
Tense-aspect-mood:
- present/imperfective: *-e
- past imperfective: *-unge
- perfective: *-a~*-ak
- subjunctive: *-ot
- imperative-hortative: *-Ø(personal agreement are suffixed directly to the verbal stem)
- jussive: *-en
- desiderative: *-o~*-ok
Voice:
- passive: *-r
Agreement:
- 1st sg: *-m
- 2nd sg: *-r
- 3rd sg: *-Ø/-ya(-ya is for animates; -Ø for inanimates)
- 1st pl: *-ke
- 2nd pl: *-ze
- 3rd pl: *-ye
Negation: *ga-(stem)-hu(the existence of ga-prefix only left some evidences in few daughter languages, in most of the daughter languages, the ga-prefix didn't leave any traces.)
Adverbial(turning verbs and adjectives into adverbs):-mi/-m
Words[]
Pronouns:
- 1st sg: *ka
- 2nd sg: *za
- 3rd sg: *ha
- 1st pl: *ke
- 2nd pl: *ze
- 3rd pl: *he
interrogative:
- who/what: ma
- which: ha
demonstratives:
- this: me(<mi: a)(pronominal form: ame)
- that: ya(<ya a)(pronominal form: aya)
- here: ame-mi/ame-m
- there: aya-mi/aya-m
Numerals:
It seemed that they had a base-5 or base-10 system:
- one: *muso/mu-
- two: *taso/ta-
- three: *aleso
- four: *moleso(<*mu-aleso)
- five: *zek(same as "hand")
- ten: *ta-zek(lit: "two hand/a pair of hands")
- twenty: *mu-nah(lit: "one person")
conjunction:
- and: bi/e
- or: ta-sh(lit: "two-place")
nominal clause/content clause marker: kaya(also has a function like the so-called fused relative pronoun in English)
Example[]
- zowu tormi ake - zo-wu tor-mi ak-e - the sun shines on the sky.(when the Sun is seen as a god, it should be "zowu tormi akeya")
- ya nahu tik zegeya - ya nah-wu tik zeg-e-ya - that person holds a stick.
- ya nahu tik zegeya, ya tiku panaye - ya nah-wu tik zeg-e-ya, ya tik-wu pana-e - that person holds a stick, (and) that stick is broken.
- gahu pahbi koyeya - gah-wu pah-bi ko-e-ya - the child goes with the father.
- pirahu nires piraʁe - pirah-wu nires piraʁ-e - that forest was burnt in the fire/someone burnt that forest with fire.
- ya nahu zegeya tiku panaye - ya nah-wu zeg-e-ya tiu pana-e - the stick that person holds is broken.
- kan pinah hekazega? - ka-n pinah hek-a-ze-ga? - Did you see my friend?
- sokta mezazaye - sok-ta mezaz-a-ye - they killed two huks.
- nahu han gahib han mod kommaheya - nah-wu ha-n gah-i-b ha-n mod kommah-e-ya - the person plows his land with his children.
- me towu ngab-e - me to-u ngab-e - this meat is salty.
- koke - ko-ke - let's go!