Meskangela: Difference between revisions

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The period, named Old Meskangela, is marked by the reappearance of writing, although the records from that period are still rare. The earliest attestation of Old Meskangela dates back to approximately 2000 BNE and is an inscription on a temple on top of the ''Lhaidërmū'' Mountain (lit. “Pillar of the sky”). It is written in the early logosyllabic version of the Meskangel script and it reads: ''[PN] *imē-hwa wa-bu-*sVkwal, hwi-rai wa-ha-*kēn'' – “[PN] set a stream into motion, filled up a lake.” The first logogram likely represents a personal name (PN), the pronunciation of which is unknown. The syllables marked with an asterisk (*) were reconstructed. The corresponding Classical Meskangela sentence is: ''(PN)-is lwī sëkwaltekyi, eju dëgenkyi.''

By around 1300 BNE, the Meskangel people had a many chiefdoms in all of the three main islands. During that period the written language rose to prominence and was standardised for the first time (300 BNE). Later, Meskangela Proper became a prestige language after being adopted as a lingua franca between its various dialects. The dialects themselves had already developed their distinctive features by the classical period, and Meskangela Proper was not a common ancestor of those dialects, instead it was a standardised variety of the '''Central Syörilā''', which comprises Western and Eastern ''Tūŋëdēla'' (“Innersea”) group. During the New Era Meskangela is still often referred as a single language, even though by the end of the classical period it had already been a group of closely related languages. The most accurate term to describe Meskangela as a whole is a [[w:Dialect continuum|dialect continuum]].

By around 1300 BNE, the Meskangel people had a many chiefdoms in all of the three main islands. During that period the written language rose to prominence and was standardised for the first time in 300 BNE. Later, Meskangela Proper became a prestige language after being adopted as a lingua franca between its various dialects, as well as between speakers of the former and the Ilain people. The Ilain languages adopted many loanwords from Meskangela, particularly its Southern dialects. The dialects themselves had already developed their distinctive features by the classical period, and Meskangela Proper was not a common ancestor of those dialects, instead it was a standardised variety of the '''Central Syörilā''', which comprises Western and Eastern ''Tūŋëdēla'' (“Innersea”) group. During the New Era Meskangela is still often referred as a single language, even though by the end of the classical period it had already been a group of closely related languages. The most accurate term to describe Meskangela as a whole is a [[w:Dialect continuum|dialect continuum]].

===External relation===

The only neighbouring family to Meskangela is the Ilain languages in the southeast. There is no agreement whether the Ilain family is genetically related to Meskangela. The common reconstructed features of Proto-Meskangela and Proto-Ilai are spurious. A large amount of words that seem to be cognates are likely borrowings into Proto-Ilai or individual Ilain varieties from Meskangela, and inconsistent sound correspondences support that idea. The similarity in grammar, especially verbal morphology, is also likely due to later Meskangela influence, rather than a genetic similarity between the two branches. Some ancient morphological elements, such as the nominalising suffix ''-in'', agentive ''-uma/-upa'', optative-imperative ''p-'' prefix, the negative-prohibitive particle ''ma''; as well as some words belonging to core vocabulary: Il. ''cai'' – Cl.Mes. ''dzān'' “to eat”, Il. ''mecuki'' “full” – Cl.Mes. ''cyok'' “enough”, W.Il. ''līŋ'' “soul, heart”, E.Il ''paluŋ'' “stomach” – Cl.Mes. ''luŋ'' “heart” point out to a distant genetic relationship with a possible common ancestor breaking into the two branches no later than 8000 BNE.

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|-

! 1

| ''*~~tyik~~'' || ''dan'', ''acyik'' || ''tik'' || ''acyik'' || ''lăŋē'' || ''*aˀtyi'' || ''asa'' || ''áci''

| ''*tyek'' || ''dan'', ''acyik'' || ''tik'' || ''acyik'' || ''lăŋē'' || ''*aˀtyi'' || ''asa'' || ''áci''

|-

! 2

| ''*nis'' || ''ni'' || ''gënis'' || ''nis'' || ''gne'' || ''aˀ(a)li'' || ''āli'' || ''ára''

| ''*nis'' || ''ni'' || ''gënis'' || ''nis'' || ''gne'' || ''*aˀ(a)li'' || ''āli'' || ''ára''

|-

! 3

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|-

! 8

| ''*~~biryat~~'' || ''~~bëryat~~'', ''ryit'' || ''~~bërkyat~~'' || ''rit'' || ''mejat'' || – || ''meja'' || ''mia''

| ''*biryet'' || ''bëryet'', ''ryit'' || ''bërkyet'' || ''rit'' || ''mejat'' || – || ''meja'' || ''mia''

|-

! 9

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===Syllable structure===

The typical Proto-Meskangela root syllable consisted of the following structural elements: an onset consisting of a root initial consonant '''Ci''', optionally followed by a liquid '''L''' or semivowel glide '''G''' (either "j" or "w"); and a vocalic nucleus consisting minimally of a simple vowel '''V''', followed by a ﬁnal consonant '''Cf'''. The semivowels could also occur postvocalically, forming falling diphthongs in "-w" and "-j", thus belonging to the inventory of '''Cf'''. Unlike word roots, prefixes and suffixes followed a different pattern, consisting of a single consonant followed by a vowel '''PVp''' or '''SVs''' (in case of prefixes and suffixes respectively). Only root vowels could carry vowel length (:) and tone ('''t'''), the latter being a consonantal feature at the Proto-Meskangela stage. There was no contrast between zero-initial *VC and glottal-initial *ʔVC, in such cases the second variant is reconstructed with '''Ci''' being an obligatory element. of the root syllable. Two non-syllabic sufﬁxes are reconstructible for Proto-Meskangela, *-s and *-n. When added they could have resulted in a forbidden postvocalic sequence of two consonants ( e.g. -Cfs or Cfn). For these specific instances the suffixes are instead reconstructed as '''əsS''' with "ə" being a short semi-syllabic element that disappeared in Classical Meskangela and later dialects. In other cases, where a single ﬁnal consonant suffix is expected, a "hollow" consonant is reconstructed (which in some cases gives rise to tone Ht, or disappear without a trace H0), as in *rjaH0ən “to laugh”. In Classical Meskangela the suffix became phonetically identical the Cf, becoming a part of the root ( e.g. ''gësata'' ← ''*~~gVsaH~~0t-ʔa'' “he/she kills”. Thus a potential fully inflected word consists of the following elements:

The typical Proto-Meskangela root syllable consisted of the following structural elements: an onset consisting of a root initial consonant '''Ci''', optionally followed by a liquid '''L''' or semivowel glide '''G''' (either "j" or "w"); and a vocalic nucleus consisting minimally of a simple vowel '''V''', followed by a ﬁnal consonant '''Cf'''. The semivowels could also occur postvocalically, forming falling diphthongs in "-w" and "-j", thus belonging to the inventory of '''Cf'''. Unlike word roots, prefixes and suffixes followed a different pattern, consisting of a single consonant followed by a vowel '''PVp''' or '''SVs''' (in case of prefixes and suffixes respectively). Only root vowels could carry vowel length (:) and tone ('''t'''), the latter being a consonantal feature at the Proto-Meskangela stage. There was no contrast between zero-initial *VC and glottal-initial *ʔVC, in such cases the second variant is reconstructed with '''Ci''' being an obligatory element. of the root syllable. Two non-syllabic sufﬁxes are reconstructible for Proto-Meskangela, *-s and *-n. When added they could have resulted in a forbidden postvocalic sequence of two consonants ( e.g. -Cfs or Cfn). For these specific instances the suffixes are instead reconstructed as '''əsS''' with "ə" being a short semi-syllabic element that disappeared in Classical Meskangela and later dialects. In other cases, where a single ﬁnal consonant suffix is expected, a "hollow" consonant is reconstructed (which in some cases gives rise to tone Ht, or disappear without a trace H0), as in *rjaH0ən “to laugh”. In Classical Meskangela the suffix became phonetically identical the Cf, becoming a part of the root ( e.g. ''gësata'' ← ''*gasaH0-tV-ʔa'' “he/she kills”. Thus a potential fully inflected word consists of the following elements:

: {|

|PVp—Ci—L—G—V(:)—Cf/H0/t—SVs—(əsS)

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|}

Later dialects generally follow the model above, modifying some individual elements, such as adding more permissible clusters, or merging the clusters into single consonants, thus retaining all the elements only nominally. This is especially true for the Southern dialects, most of which became fairly analytic and lost most of their suffixes and prefixes in the process, as well as tone and contrastive vowel length.

==Grammar==

In this subsection only the grammar of Classical Meskangela is discussed, considering the amount of variation among different dialect groups and uncertainty of the Old Meskangela morphological structure. Classical Meskangela as well as most of its dialects are [[w:Agglutinative language|agglutinative]] or weakly [[w:Fusional language|fusional]], the individual morphological elements are not easily segmentable, due in large part to the presence of [[w:Portmanteau|portmanteaux]] morphemes and [[w:Allomorph|allomorphy]].

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[[w:Evidentiality|Evidentiality]] in Classical Meskangela is an optional category that indicates evidence for a statement. This category is indicated with evidential particles, or copulas. The unmarked verb is assertive – representing a simple fact or general truth. The corresponding copula is ''ré'', the negative copula is ''mīn/mīd'', likely from ''*ma-rijan'' “being absent”.

A similar copula ''uré'' and its negative counterpart ''mórid'' are basic locative copulas that mark possession (''~~maroŋ~~ uréŋ'' “I have a cat”) or location (''tau uréŋi'' “we are here”).

A similar copula ''uré'' and its negative counterpart ''mórid'' are basic locative copulas that mark possession (''marwaŋ uréŋ'' “I have a cat”) or location (''tau uréŋi'' “we are here”).

The postverbal particle ''lak'' is testimonial, it represents witnessed, first-hand experience. It also acts a locative copula with the meaning “there is”. Its negative form ''milak'' has only a locative meaning.

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|-

| 2→3.PT ''-nta''

| rowspan="3" | ~~1du~~;2du.Pat ''-es''

| rowspan="3" | 3du;2du.Pat ''-es''

|-

| 1→2.NPT ''-nya''

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[[Category:Languages]]

[[Category:Meskangela]]

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 The period, named Old Meskangela, is marked by the reappearance of writing, although the records from that period are still rare. The earliest attestation of Old Meskangela dates back to approximately 2000 BNE and is an inscription on a temple on top of the ''Lhaidërmū'' Mountain (lit. “Pillar of the sky”). It is written in the early logosyllabic version of the Meskangel script and it reads: ''[PN] *imē-hwa wa-bu-*sVkwal, hwi-rai wa-ha-*kēn'' – “[PN] set a stream into motion, filled up a lake.” The first logogram likely represents a personal name (PN), the pronunciation of which is unknown. The syllables marked with an asterisk (*) were reconstructed. The corresponding Classical Meskangela sentence is: ''(PN)-is lwī sëkwaltekyi, eju dëgenkyi.''
-By around 1300 BNE, the Meskangel people had a many chiefdoms in all of the three main islands. During that period the written language rose to prominence and was standardised for the first time (300 BNE). Later, Meskangela Proper became a prestige language after being adopted as a lingua franca between its various dialects. The dialects themselves had already developed their distinctive features by the classical period, and Meskangela Proper was not a common ancestor of those dialects, instead it was a standardised variety of the '''Central Syörilā''', which comprises Western and Eastern ''Tūŋëdēla'' (“Innersea”) group. During the New Era Meskangela is still often referred as a single language, even though by the end of the classical period it had already been a group of closely related languages. The most accurate term to describe Meskangela as a whole is a [[w:Dialect continuum|dialect continuum]].
+By around 1300 BNE, the Meskangel people had a many chiefdoms in all of the three main islands. During that period the written language rose to prominence and was standardised for the first time in 300 BNE. Later, Meskangela Proper became a prestige language after being adopted as a lingua franca between its various dialects, as well as between speakers of the former and the Ilain people. The Ilain languages adopted many loanwords from Meskangela, particularly its Southern dialects. The dialects themselves had already developed their distinctive features by the classical period, and Meskangela Proper was not a common ancestor of those dialects, instead it was a standardised variety of the '''Central Syörilā''', which comprises Western and Eastern ''Tūŋëdēla'' (“Innersea”) group. During the New Era Meskangela is still often referred as a single language, even though by the end of the classical period it had already been a group of closely related languages. The most accurate term to describe Meskangela as a whole is a [[w:Dialect continuum|dialect continuum]].
 ===External relation===
 The only neighbouring family to Meskangela is the Ilain languages in the southeast. There is no agreement whether the Ilain family is genetically related to Meskangela. The common reconstructed features of Proto-Meskangela and Proto-Ilai are spurious. A large amount of words that seem to be cognates are likely borrowings into Proto-Ilai or individual Ilain varieties from Meskangela, and inconsistent sound correspondences support that idea. The similarity in grammar, especially verbal morphology, is also likely due to later Meskangela influence, rather than a genetic similarity between the two branches. Some ancient morphological elements, such as the nominalising suffix ''-in'', agentive ''-uma/-upa'', optative-imperative ''p-'' prefix, the negative-prohibitive particle ''ma''; as well as some words belonging to core vocabulary: Il. ''cai'' – Cl.Mes. ''dzān'' “to eat”, Il. ''mecuki'' “full” – Cl.Mes. ''cyok'' “enough”, W.Il. ''līŋ'' “soul, heart”, E.Il ''paluŋ'' “stomach” – Cl.Mes. ''luŋ'' “heart” point out to a distant genetic relationship with a possible common ancestor breaking into the two branches no later than 8000 BNE.
@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 |-
 ! 1
-| ''*tyik'' || ''dan'', ''acyik'' || ''tik'' || ''acyik'' || ''lăŋē'' || ''*aˀtyi'' || ''asa'' || ''áci''
+| ''*tyek'' || ''dan'', ''acyik'' || ''tik'' || ''acyik'' || ''lăŋē'' || ''*aˀtyi'' || ''asa'' || ''áci''
 |-
 ! 2
-| ''*nis'' || ''ni'' || ''gënis'' || ''nis'' || ''gne'' || ''aˀ(a)li'' || ''āli'' || ''ára''
+| ''*nis'' || ''ni'' || ''gënis'' || ''nis'' || ''gne'' || ''*aˀ(a)li'' || ''āli'' || ''ára''
 |-
 ! 3
@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 |-
 ! 8
-| ''*biryat'' || ''bëryat'', ''ryit'' || ''bërkyat'' || ''rit'' || ''mejat'' || – || ''meja'' || ''mia''
+| ''*biryet'' || ''bëryet'', ''ryit'' || ''bërkyet'' || ''rit'' || ''mejat'' || – || ''meja'' || ''mia''
 |-
 ! 9
@@ Line 345: / Line 345: @@
 ===Syllable structure===
-The typical Proto-Meskangela root syllable consisted of the following structural elements: an onset consisting of a root initial consonant '''C<sub>i</sub>''', optionally followed by a liquid '''L''' or semivowel glide '''G''' (either "j" or "w"); and a vocalic nucleus consisting minimally of a simple vowel '''V''', followed by a ﬁnal consonant '''C<sub>f</sub>'''. The semivowels could also occur postvocalically, forming falling diphthongs in  "-w"  and "-j", thus belonging to the inventory of '''C<sub>f</sub>'''. Unlike word roots, prefixes and suffixes followed a different pattern, consisting of a single consonant followed by a vowel '''PV<sub>p</sub>''' or '''SV<sub>s</sub>''' (in case of prefixes and suffixes respectively). Only root vowels could carry vowel length (:) and tone ('''t'''), the latter being a consonantal feature at the Proto-Meskangela stage. There was no contrast between zero-initial  *VC  and glottal-initial  *ʔVC, in such cases the second variant is reconstructed with '''C<sub>i</sub>''' being an obligatory element. of the root syllable. Two non-syllabic sufﬁxes are reconstructible for Proto-Meskangela, *-s and *-n. When added they could have resulted in a forbidden postvocalic sequence of two consonants ( e.g. -C<sub>f</sub>s or C<sub>f</sub>n). For these specific instances the suffixes are instead reconstructed as '''ə<sub>s</sub>S''' with "ə" being a short semi-syllabic element that disappeared in Classical Meskangela and later dialects. In other cases, where a single ﬁnal consonant suffix is expected, a "hollow" consonant is reconstructed (which in some cases gives rise to tone H<sub>t</sub>, or disappear without a trace H<sub>0</sub>), as in  *rjaH<sub>0</sub>ən  “to laugh”. In Classical Meskangela the suffix became phonetically identical the C<sub>f</sub>, becoming a part of the root ( e.g. ''gësata'' ← ''*gVsaH<sub>0</sub>t-ʔa''  “he/she kills”. Thus a potential fully inflected word consists of the following elements:
+The typical Proto-Meskangela root syllable consisted of the following structural elements: an onset consisting of a root initial consonant '''C<sub>i</sub>''', optionally followed by a liquid '''L''' or semivowel glide '''G''' (either "j" or "w"); and a vocalic nucleus consisting minimally of a simple vowel '''V''', followed by a ﬁnal consonant '''C<sub>f</sub>'''. The semivowels could also occur postvocalically, forming falling diphthongs in  "-w"  and "-j", thus belonging to the inventory of '''C<sub>f</sub>'''. Unlike word roots, prefixes and suffixes followed a different pattern, consisting of a single consonant followed by a vowel '''PV<sub>p</sub>''' or '''SV<sub>s</sub>''' (in case of prefixes and suffixes respectively). Only root vowels could carry vowel length (:) and tone ('''t'''), the latter being a consonantal feature at the Proto-Meskangela stage. There was no contrast between zero-initial  *VC  and glottal-initial  *ʔVC, in such cases the second variant is reconstructed with '''C<sub>i</sub>''' being an obligatory element. of the root syllable. Two non-syllabic sufﬁxes are reconstructible for Proto-Meskangela, *-s and *-n. When added they could have resulted in a forbidden postvocalic sequence of two consonants ( e.g. -C<sub>f</sub>s or C<sub>f</sub>n). For these specific instances the suffixes are instead reconstructed as '''ə<sub>s</sub>S''' with "ə" being a short semi-syllabic element that disappeared in Classical Meskangela and later dialects. In other cases, where a single ﬁnal consonant suffix is expected, a "hollow" consonant is reconstructed (which in some cases gives rise to tone H<sub>t</sub>, or disappear without a trace H<sub>0</sub>), as in  *rjaH<sub>0</sub>ən  “to laugh”. In Classical Meskangela the suffix became phonetically identical the C<sub>f</sub>, becoming a part of the root ( e.g. ''gësata'' ← ''*gasaH<sub>0</sub>-tV-ʔa''  “he/she kills”. Thus a potential fully inflected word consists of the following elements:
 : {|
 |PV<sub>p</sub>—C<sub>i</sub>—L—G—V(:)—C<sub>f</sub>/H<sub>0/t</sub>—SV<sub>s</sub>—(ə<sub>s</sub>S)
@@ Line 354: / Line 354: @@
 |}
 Later dialects generally follow the model above, modifying some individual elements, such as adding more permissible clusters, or merging the clusters into single consonants, thus retaining all the elements only nominally. This is especially true for the Southern dialects, most of which became fairly analytic and lost most of their suffixes and prefixes in the process, as well as tone and contrastive vowel length.
 ==Grammar==
 In this subsection only the grammar of Classical Meskangela is discussed, considering the amount of variation among different dialect groups and uncertainty of the Old Meskangela morphological structure. Classical Meskangela as well as most of its dialects are [[w:Agglutinative language|agglutinative]] or weakly [[w:Fusional language|fusional]], the individual morphological elements are not easily segmentable, due in large part to the presence of [[w:Portmanteau|portmanteaux]] morphemes and [[w:Allomorph|allomorphy]].
@@ Line 530: / Line 531: @@
 [[w:Evidentiality|Evidentiality]] in Classical Meskangela is an optional category that indicates evidence for a statement. This category is indicated with evidential particles, or copulas. The unmarked verb is assertive – representing a simple fact or general truth. The corresponding copula is ''ré'', the negative copula is ''mīn/mīd'', likely from ''*ma-rijan'' “being absent”.
-A similar copula ''uré'' and its negative counterpart ''mórid'' are basic locative copulas that mark possession (''maroŋ uréŋ'' “I have a cat”) or location (''tau uréŋi'' “we are here”).
+A similar copula ''uré'' and its negative counterpart ''mórid'' are basic locative copulas that mark possession (''marwaŋ uréŋ'' “I have a cat”) or location (''tau uréŋi'' “we are here”).
 The postverbal particle ''lak'' is testimonial, it represents witnessed, first-hand experience. It also acts a locative copula with the meaning “there is”. Its negative form ''milak'' has only a locative meaning.
@@ Line 867: / Line 868: @@
 |-
 | <small>2→3.PT<br />''-nta''</small>
-| rowspan="3" | <small>1du;2du.Pat<br />''-es''</small>
+| rowspan="3" | <small>3du;2du.Pat<br />''-es''</small>
 |-
 | <small>1→2.NPT<br />''-nya''</small>
@@ Line 901: / Line 902: @@
 [[Category:Languages]]
+[[Category:Meskangela]]