Lahob languages: Difference between revisions

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Proto-Lahob had probably four genders: how they were called is not known, but they mostly pattern with the ending sound: *-s nouns were the first class, *-m nouns the second, *-n nouns the third, and *-r, vowel nouns, and consonant ones (though often analyzable as *-ə) the last one. Each class had its own way of being pluralized: *-i for the s-class, *-je for the m-class, *-î for the n-class, and *-e for the r-class.<br/>

The PLB genders are easily seen in many current-day Lahob languages, despite only Chlouvānem, Tundra Pwaɬasd, and Forest Pwaɬasd retaining a decent amount of nominal inflection:

* Chlouvānem, as expected, reflects them all clearly: the PLB s-class as the ~~dragon~~ nouns, the m-class as ~~lotus~~ m-ending ~~nouns~~ (with -ye or -e plurals), the n-class as ~~lotus~~ n-ending ~~nouns~~ (with unmarked ~~plurals~~), and vowel or h-nouns ~~are the parrot nouns that~~ represent the r-class (PLB *r consistently became Chl. h word-finally).

* Chlouvānem, as expected, reflects them all clearly: the PLB s-class is continued as the s-nouns, the m-class as m-ending ones (with -ye or -e plurals), the n-class as n-ending ones (with unmarked direct and vocative plural, but otherwise identical to m-ending ones), and vowel or h-nouns represent the r-class (PLB *r consistently became Chl. h word-finally).

* The Pwaɬasd-Ngos languages merged the r- and s-classes as a single r-class (also including vowel nouns) and merged the m- and n- classes as a single nasal one.

* The Central Lahobic languages, as well as Šlokhowdeš, do not distinguish gender anymore, but there are many plurals that show traces of this system (even though the original m-class ending, *-je, became generalized as the main plural ending in all of these languages, e.g. Łaȟ. ''von'', ''voni'' “hand, hands” < Proto-Central-Lahobic *ðɔn, *ðɔn-ye, but in PLB it was *dʱān-o, *dʱān-o-e — c.f. Chlouvānem ''dhāna'', ''dhānai'' and Tundra Pwaɬasd ''tuněr'', ''tunuy'' (< Proto-Pwaɬasd-Ngos *tʰoon-ʀ, *tʰoon-oj)), like Łaȟ. ''žonk'', ''žonke'' “man, men” (c.f. Tundra Pw. ''děɬkěr'', ''děɬkuy'' — note that Chl. changed this to an m-class noun for unknown reasons so it has ''dralkam'', ''dralkye'' instead of the expected *dralkė, *dralkai).

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 Proto-Lahob had probably four genders: how they were called is not known, but they mostly pattern with the ending sound: *-s nouns were the first class, *-m nouns the second, *-n nouns the third, and *-r, vowel nouns, and consonant ones (though often analyzable as *-ə) the last one. Each class had its own way of being pluralized: *-i for the s-class, *-je for the m-class, *-î for the n-class, and *-e for the r-class.<br/>
 The PLB genders are easily seen in many current-day Lahob languages, despite only Chlouvānem, Tundra Pwaɬasd, and Forest Pwaɬasd retaining a decent amount of nominal inflection:
-* Chlouvānem, as expected, reflects them all clearly: the PLB s-class as the dragon nouns, the m-class as lotus m-ending nouns (with -ye or -e plurals), the n-class as lotus n-ending nouns (with unmarked plurals), and vowel or h-nouns are the parrot nouns that represent the r-class (PLB *r consistently became Chl. h word-finally).
+* Chlouvānem, as expected, reflects them all clearly: the PLB s-class is continued as the s-nouns, the m-class as m-ending ones (with -ye or -e plurals), the n-class as n-ending ones (with unmarked direct and vocative plural, but otherwise identical to m-ending ones), and vowel or h-nouns represent the r-class (PLB *r consistently became Chl. h word-finally).
 * The Pwaɬasd-Ngos languages merged the r- and s-classes as a single r-class (also including vowel nouns) and merged the m- and n- classes as a single nasal one.
 * The Central Lahobic languages, as well as Šlokhowdeš, do not distinguish gender anymore, but there are many plurals that show traces of this system (even though the original m-class ending, *-je, became generalized as the main plural ending in all of these languages, e.g. Łaȟ. ''von'', ''voni'' “hand, hands” < Proto-Central-Lahobic *ðɔn, *ðɔn-ye, but in PLB it was *dʱān-o, *dʱān-o-e — c.f. Chlouvānem ''dhāna'', ''dhānai'' and Tundra Pwaɬasd ''tuněr'', ''tunuy'' (< Proto-Pwaɬasd-Ngos *tʰoon-ʀ, *tʰoon-oj)), like Łaȟ. ''žonk'', ''žonke'' “man, men” (c.f. Tundra Pw. ''děɬkěr'', ''děɬkuy'' — note that Chl. changed this to an m-class noun for unknown reasons so it has ''dralkam'', ''dralkye'' instead of the expected *dralkė, *dralkai).