Proto-Zākh language
Proto-Zākh is a historical language that belonged to the Proto-ʔināši language family. It was spoken throughout Southeast Ausalon, primarily along the narrow stretch of land nestled between the grand Yablu 'Aẓumi Mountains (known in Proto-ʔināši as "Jablū ʿaẓimī") and the sea.
Proto-Zākh is distinguished by its preservation of emphatic consonants and the evolution of a sophisticated tense-aspect system. Additionally, it cultivated a rich system of prefixes and infixes that strikingly diverged from its parent language, Proto-ʔināši.
Despite its ancient origin, Proto-Zākh has profoundly influenced the linguistics of Southern Ausalon. The dialectal variations of Proto-Zākh have fostered a linguistic richness and diversity that continue to intrigue linguists and anthropologists studying the languages and cultures of Ausalon.
The linguistic heritage of Proto-Zākh is evident in the array of its daughter languages, each bearing unique characteristics and innovations. These languages include:
- Ṣ'hr: Situated in the arid expanses north of the mountains, Ṣ'hr underwent shifts that led to the loss of final vowels and the introduction of additional emphatic consonants.
- Bani: Nestled between the mountains and the sea, Bani saw a simplification of the consonant system, along with an expansion of vowel length distinctions.
- Aswiye: Spoken by coastal communities, Aswiye developed intricate tone patterns and an expanded system of infixes for tense and aspect marking.
- Aẓye: Found in the southernmost parts of the strip, Aẓye retained much of the Proto-Zākh vocabulary, but developed a distinct pitch accent system and simplification of the tense-aspect system.
- Qẓe: Located inland, Qẓe is characterized by a shift from vowel length distinctions to vowel quality distinctions and the reduction of the original consonant inventory.
- Či: Located in the hilly regions, Či saw a merging of several consonants and the development of new fricative and affricate phonemes, along with the simplification of the tense-aspect system.
Sound Changes
Sound changes from Proto-ʔināši to Proto-Zākh are as follows:- Retention of Emphatics: Emphatic consonants /ṣ/, /ḍ/, /ṭ/, /ẓ/ from Proto-ʔināši are retained, while in other descendant languages they often reduce to non-emphatic counterparts.
- Voicing of Fricatives: Voiceless fricatives /f/, /s/, /š/, /ḫ/ voice to /v/, /z/, /ž/, /ġ/ between voiced sounds.
- Final Devoicing: Voiced obstruents /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /ḍ/, /ḡ/, /v/ devoice to /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, /ṭ/, /ḫ/, /f/ word-finally.
- Unrounding: /u/, /o/ unround to /i/, /e/ respectively before /i/, /e/.
- Loss of Glottal Stop: The glottal stop /ʔ/ is lost in all positions.
- Nasalization: Vowels /a/, /i/, /u/ nasalize to /ã/, /ĩ/, /ũ/ before nasal consonants.
- Palatalization: /k/, /g/, /l/ palatalize to /č/, /ǧ/, /ʎ/ before front vowels.
- Diphthongization: /a/ and /u/ diphthongize to /ai/ and /au/ respectively before a consonant.
- Gemination: Consonants double when following a short, stressed vowel.
- Debuccalization: /p/, /b/, /f/, /v/ become /h/ word-initially.
- Rhotacism: /z/ becomes /r/ between vowels.
- Aspiration: Voiceless stops /p/, /t/, /k/ aspirate to /ph/, /th/, /kh/ word-initially.
- Deletion of Short Vowels: Short vowels in unstressed syllables are deleted.
- Lenition: Stops /p/, /t/, /k/ lenite to fricatives /f/, /s/, /x/ between vowels.
- Vowel Lengthening: Short vowels lengthen in open syllables.
Root Languages
Successor Languages
Spoken by