Language scratchpad/Altlangs/Alternate reconstructions/Proto-Japonic scratchpad/Descendants

This page compares some of the descendant conlangs of Proto-Japonic. So far, three languages are featured here: Namari (namaikotoba), New Kudara (dāračča) and Tanmuran (tammurakotoba). Of the three, Namari is the one I've developed the most. In the Innocence Seekers setting, New Kudara (spoken in Kudara province in Namari) is the only surviving Peninsular Japonic language, while both Namari (spoken in Namari and Likkra) and Tanmuran (spoken on Jeju island in Korea and on Tsushima and Kyushu in Japan) are Insular Japonic languages.

Disclaimer: The entirety of this article's contents is to be considered science fiction. They are not, in any way, verified and accepted reconstructions of real-life proto-languages, even if they are largely based on accepted reconstructions.

Vowels
Namari has by far the most vowels of any Japonic language in the Innocence Seekers setting, with between nine and eleven phonemic vowels depending on dialect (the most in any real-life Japonic language I know of is seven). On the other hand, Tanmuran only has five phonemic vowels (like Japanese), and New Kudara has six. New Kudara also has vowel harmony based on vowel height, with /a/, /e/ and /o/ forming one group and /ə/, /i/ and /u/ forming the other group.

Conjugation
Being Insular Japonic languages, Namari and Tanmuran share a great deal of conjugational forms, while New Kudara, being Peninsular Japonic, is somewhat divergent.

The following compares conjugated forms of *ar- (inanimate existential) between languages:

The following compares conjugated forms of *wor- (animate existential) between languages:

The following compares conjugated forms of *kə- ("to come") between languages:

The following compares conjugated forms of *as- ("to do") between languages:

The following compares conjugated forms of *-n- (negative suffix) between languages:

The regular conjugational classes, beginning with forms of *ankay- ("to rise"), forming the lower vowel-stem class:

Forms of *sunkoy- ("to exceed, to surpass"), forming the upper vowel-stem class:

Forms of *kak- ("to scratch, to write"), forming the k-stem class:

Forms of *əyənk- ("to swim"), forming the g-stem class:

Forms of *pəs- ("to dry"), forming the s-stem class:

Forms of *mat- ("to wait"), forming the t-stem class:

Forms of *sin- ("to die"), forming the n-stem class:

Forms of *warap- ("to laugh"), forming the p-stem class:

Forms of *təmp- ("to fly"), forming the b-stem class:

Forms of *yəm- ("to read"), forming the m-stem class:

Forms of *kir- ("to cut"), forming the r-stem class:

Tense and aspect
For Proto-Japonic, I can confidently reconstruct five aspects, the aorist, the stative, the progressive, the preparative and the experiential, as well as a possible perfect form. In all three languages featured, this perfect evolved into a simple past, and the aspects are retained. All of these forms are based on the participle *-tay.

The reflexes of each different form in the daughter languages are as follows:

I cannot reconstruct a past tense for Proto-Japonic. Classical Japanese had a preterite -si (attributive -ki) separate from the perfect -tari, but it appears that it is unique to Japanese; I cannot find any trace of this preterite in the Ryukyuan languages.

Voice
I reconstruct a causative *-(s)as- and a passive *-(r)aryay-, both of which attach directly to the stem. There reflexes are as follows:

The potential can be considered a voice in Namari, due to its split-ergative nature, and also possesses passive properties in other Japonic languages. However, the three languages featured do feature a potential descended from the same Proto-Japonic form.

Verbal adjectives
Unlike normal verbs, verbal adjectives do not conjugate for aspect or voice. They also have additional forms unique to adjectives:

Only Namari and New Kudara possess comparative forms for adjectives; Tanmuran generally leaves comparatives unmarked. This form is derived from *-ku mə ar-, giving Namari -kumoi and New Kudara -(a)fmoram or -(ə)fmurəm. All three languages have superlative forms for adjectives, but they are derived differently:
 * Namari: from *-ku mə taka-, whence -kumotakakai
 * New Kudara: from *-ku mage-, whence -(a)fmagesam or -(ə)fməgisəm.
 * Tanmuran: from *-ku-tay əpə-, whence -kutōi

Negatives are formed differently from normal verbs, and as usual, they conjugate for "tense":