The Development of the Çomyopregi Language

The purpose of this page is to explain the development (phonologically, at least) of Çomyopregi through the ages. The sound changes described below are presented in chronological order, and are treated in three stages. The first stage deals with preliterate sound changes, from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) to the Proto-Quepaquic (PQ) language, ancestor of Çomyopregi and its relatives; the second stage deals with the alterations that resulted in Old Çomyopregi (OCmp) as it appeared in its early texts; the final stage deals with changes from Old Çomyopregi to the modern language (MCmp). Keep in mind that both PIE and PQ are unattested. Also keep in mind that because the rules below are arranged chronologically, each successive rule also affects anything resulting from a previously listed rule. Finally, in linguistic usage, > means "evolves into" and < means "derives from".

But first, you should be aware of the sounds we're starting out with. If we analyze and classify the assumed sound-system of Proto-Indo-European, it would be like so:

Syllabic Elements

• short vowels: i, e, a, o, u
• long vowels: ī, ē, ā, ō, ū
• short diphthongs: ei, ai, oi, eu, au, ou
• long diphthongs: ēi, āi, ōi, ēu, āu, ōu
• laryngeals: h₁, h₂, h₃
• syllabic sonorants: @r, @l, @m, @n

Non-syllabic Elements (Consonants)

There is an alternative conception of Indo-European consonants if you adhere to the "Glottalic Theory" instead of the traditional reconstruction. However, whatever its merits, discussing competing views of PIE phonology would be confusing and outside the purpose of this description. Also, the syllabic sonorants are traditionally represented with a hollow subscript dot, but I have no idea how to do that in HTML, so I've substituted a "@" in front of the sonorant. So whenever you see @ in front of something, imagine it's a hollow dot under something. One more thing: z is merely a variant (allophone) of s in front of certain other sounds, like d.

From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Quepaquic

1. First, the palatovelars were absorbed into the plain velars.
2. Geminate (doubled) stops and voiceless stops followed by a laryngeal become voiceless aspirated stops.
3. The voiced aspirated stops became plain voiced stops after a nasal (including syllabic nasals).
4. A voiced aspirated stops became a plain voiced stop when followed by another voiced aspirated stop in the next syllable within the same word.
5. Aspirated stops changed into the corresponding spirants, i.e., bh > v, dh > dh, gh > gh [γ], gwh > ghw [γw], ph > f, th > ss, kh > x.
6. zd(h) > st, occasionally ss.
   *nizdo- > nisto; *-mezdha > -messa
7. Any combination of two dentals, except st and zd(h), becomes ss.
8. An s in an initial three-consonant cluster is lost.
   *spregis > pregi, *skrībh- > crívem)
9. sbh > sv > f
   *k^wrepos-bhis > qrepofi
10. ps > f.
11. ks > ş
    *koksā > coşa
12. tk, skt, dk, ky, k^wy > ç
    *dkmtom > çinto, *sok^w-ye- > soçe
13. dhgh, dhg^wh, g^wy > j
    *dhghemya > *jemya
14. An intervocalic s (not counting ss) either preceded or followed by u > ch
    *wlk^wo(i)su > ulquochu, *geus- > giochem
15. The laryngeals all fall together as ä (Presumably, ä was pronounced as a schwa.)
16. The syllabic sonorants become äm, än,är, äl.

From Proto-Quepaquic to Old Çomyopregi

1. Before another stop, p > f, k > ş, and k^w > ch.
   *kāptos > cáfto, *duktos > duşto, *lik^wtos > lichto
2. In syllable-final position, g and gh > y, g^w and g^wh > u, k > ş, k^w > ch, d > t, and p and b > u or m.
   *egnis > eyni; *makno- > maşno
3. When initial before another consonant except r or l: g and gh > y, g^w and g^wh > u, and k^w > u; then y or u are relocated to after what was originally the second consonant.
   *gnō- > nyóm
4. When initial before another consonant except r or l, k > ş and p > f.
   *pneu- > fnevem
5. m before r or l > b
   *mreghmo- > breymo
6. j > ç
   *jemya > çemya
7. eye > é
   *ok^weye- > oqué
8. uio, uwe, uoy, ū-ī, iou, euu, ioy, euy > uy.
   drioghmä > drioymä > druyma
9. Intervocalic w > v.
   *nowos > novo
10. Unstressed, non-initial ye and wo not preceded by another vowel, become i and u respectively.
    *ekwos > ecu; *mor-ye- > morimor

From Old Çmyopregi to Modern Çomyopregi

1. ghy > y
   *wrughyos > vruyo
2. tl, dl, hl > ll
   *tlok^w- > lloquem, ahlom > allo
   
3. ls > ss
   quolsom > quosso
4. uä, yä become u, i
5. är, äl, äm, än > ir, il, im, in, rarely or, ol, om, on
6. Any remaining ä's > a
7. e > i after u, but usually not after qu, gu, ghu.
   uelem > uilem, but querem stays querem
8. Sometimes, an unstressed e > i under the influence of a nearby e/é, or unstressed o > u near an o/ó
9. Final s is often dropped.

Table of Indo-European Sound Correspondences

To get an idea of how Çomyopregi is related to its cousins, the table below summarizes the basic sound correspondences in PIE languages. This is not supposed to be technical, just to present a "big picture". If any professional historical linguists out there happen to notice something wrong with my table, feel free to email a correction.

NOTES:

1. Proto-Indo-European, mother of all Indo-European languages, is unattested, reconstructed, hytpothetical. No one can be absolutely sure what the sounds of the language were, or what its vocabulary was. Unattested forms are marked with an asterisk (*).
2. - indicates that a sound was simply lost.
3. In the daughter languages, the laryngeals were usually lost.
4. The position of a sound in a word also affects sound change. In Germanic, p would become f when initial or immediately preceded by the accent, and b when in other positions, etc.