PN Diachronics

I've been working (almost) exclusively on Noshal language family diachronics lately, starting from Proto Noshal (duh) and moving forward, through Common Noshal to the Noshal and Eilart branches, and through Proto Doniani to the Doniani branch, and its proving to be a very difficult process.

First, I can't decide which 'flavor' I want for each branch. I know I want Kail to very very consonantal and Nêke more flowing. On the side of the Doniani branch, the tribes that speak it migrate west to an area were I want to establish a sprachbund which includes, among other quirks, prenasalized consonants.

Second, I feel on one hand that the branches look too similar to each other, and on the other that the changes are too far-fetched, or perhaps too fast for the history I have planned.

Some things I'm toying with right now are adding a series of labialized stops to Noshal, and syllabic consonants for Proto Eilart.

We'll see, we'll see...

PPA comes full circle

...well, not really.

Last week I translated Elly Sherman's poem Full Circle into Proto Pekemí-Aescal, as an exercise to build up some vocabulary to provide examples to its grammar (in-progress). Here it is:

Original Poem:
I am made of
Sun Fire
Dinosaur Dust
Star Light
Volcano Flames
Unknown Lives
Comet Tails
And all the future
Beasts and things
Shall also be
Me.


PPA Version:
E
1S.ABS
tseŋsekhas
sun-fire-OBL
phaŋpehaktur maras
big-foot-bad-ANIMAL-GEN dust-OBL
nikir sewas
star-GEN light-OBL
sektawkar sekhwasen
volcano-GEN flame-OBL-PL
akanren mitetre
NEG-known-ANIM-PL life-OBL-PL
lunikir kekwasenmu
comet-GEN tail-OBL-PL-and
takune
be_made_of-PRES-1S.ABS
ene khatiŋir
and future-GEN
watukenimu lewakenimu
animal-ERG-PL-DEF-and thing-ERG-PL-DEF-and
e uŋuŋena
1S.ABS RED(FUT).be.1S.PF

I took the poem from a translation challenge held at the ZBB before I joined.