Middle Laeh Tshyak

This is a different Tshyak variety from "standard" Middle Tshyak (which is actually the dialect of the capital N'gryat of the kingdom of Khar Snok).

This is known natively as tshyaek (gram. tshyâek) or, when one wants to be specific, tshyaek laeh (gram. tshyâek lâe), anachronically as tshyaek laeh tryaet (gram. tshyâek lâe tsrhyaet).

Sound Change

It underwent the following sound change from Old Tshyak:

• V > V[+breathy] / C[+aspirated]({ɻ l})({w j})_
• C[+aspirated] > C[-aspirated]
• Considering the consonants in a syllable's onset or any prefixes preceding that syllable, syllables gain high tone if there is a voiceless consonant amongst them without any preceding voiced consonant; if not, then they gain low tone.
• C[-voiced] > C[+aspirated] / #_
• a ɔ o u > ɛ œ ø y / Cj_
• a ɛ e i > ɒ œ ø y / Cw_
• a ɛ œ e ø i y > ɑ ʌ ɔ ɤ o ɯ u / _{k ŋ w}$
• a ɔ o u > ɛ œ ø y / _{n t ɻ l}$
• w > ∅ / C_V
• mh nh ŋh > m̥ n̥ ŋ̊
• b p d t dz ts dʐ tʂ dʑ tɕ ɟ c g k > mb mp nd nt ndz nts ɳdʐ ɳtʂ ɲdʑ ɲtɕ ɲɟ ɲc ŋg ŋk / {mə m n ŋ}_[+tonic/+posttonic]
• ɻ l w j z ʐ ʑ ɻ̥ ɬ ʍ ç s ʂ ɕ h > ɳdʐ ndɮ m ɲ ndz ɳdʐ ɲdʑ ɳtʂ ntɬ m̥ ɲcj nts ɳtʂ ɲtɕ m̥ / {mə m n ŋ}_[+tonic/+posttonic]
• mə m n ŋ > ∅ ∅ ∅ ∅ / _C
• bə pə də tə gə kə ʔə > ∅ ∅ ∅ ∅ ∅ ∅ ∅
• sə > ∅ / _{ʍ s ʂ ɕ ɬ ç h z ʐ ʑ}
• ɻə lə > ∅ ∅ / _{ɻ l}
• sə ɻə lə > s ɻ l
• sɻ > ʂ
• sl zl > ɬ ɮ
• V > V[+breathy] / _h$
• h > ∅ / V_$
• a ɛ œ e ø i y ɑ ɒ ʌ ɔ ɤ o ɯ u > ɐ ɛə œə eə øə ɪə ʏə ɑə ɒə ʌə ɔə ɤə oə ɯə ʊə / _[+breathy]
• V[+breathy] > V[-breathy]
• l > ɻ / V_$
• a ɛ œ e ø i y ɒ ɔ o u > a˞ ɛ˞ œ˞ e˞ ø˞ i˞ y˞ ɒ˞ ɔ˞ o˞ u˞ / _ɻ$
• ɐ ɛə œə eə øə ɪə ʏə ɒə ɔə oə ʊə > ɐ˞ ɛɚ œɚ eɚ øɚ ɪɚ ʏɚ ɒɚ ɔɚ oɚ ʊɚ / _ɻ$
• a ɛ œ e ø i y ɑ ɒ ʌ ɔ ɤ o ɯ u > a˞ ɛ˞ œ˞ e˞ ø˞ i˞ y˞ ɑ˞ ɒ˞ ʌ˞ ɔ˞ ɤ˞ o˞ ɯ˞ u˞ / Cɻ_$
• ɐ ɛə œə eə øə ɪə ʏə ɑə ɒə ʌə ɔə ɤə oə ɯə ʊə > ɐ˞ ɛɚ œɚ eɚ øɚ ɪɚ ʏɚ ɑɚ ɒɚ ʌɚ ɔɚ ɤɚ oɚ ɯɚ ʊɚ / Cɻ_$
• ɻ > ∅ / V_$
• ɻ > ∅ / C_V$
• V > Vː / _[+tonic]$
• m n ŋ > ɴ ɴ ɴ / V_$
• p t k > ʔ ʔ ʔ / V_$
• l lj > j j / C_V
• ɻj > ɻ

Phoneme Inventory

Vowel length is allophonic, with vowels in open stressed syllables being lengthened.

"Grammarian" Orthography

Based on the orthography grammarians developed to describe standard Middle Tshyak, some came up with an orthography to describe Middle Laeh Tshyak other than simply adapting the orthography of Literary Tshyak to it. It is as follows

* In coda positions, p and m are used after /a a˞ ɐ ɐ˞/, t and n are used after /ɛ œ e ø i y ɛ˞ œ˞ e˞ ø˞ i˞ y˞ ɛə œə eə øə ɪə ʏə ɛɚ œɚ eɚ øɚ ɪɚ ʏɚ/, and k and ng are used after /ɑ ɒ ʌ ɔ ɤ o ɯ u ɑ˞ ɒ˞ ʌ˞ ɔ˞ ɤ˞ o˞ ɯ˞ u˞ ɑə ɒə ʌə ɔə ɤə oə ɯə ʊə ɑɚ ɒɚ ʌɚ ɔɚ ɤɚ oɚ ɯɚ ʊɚ/.

In high tone:

In low tone:

Morphological and Syntactic Change

Middle Laeh Tshyak has largely lost verbal aspect marking, with most verbs settling on one form or the other to use, with that form being used in serial verb constructions by default regardless of its original perfectivity, and as a main verb being combined with stha (gram. stâ) "do" (pfv.) (from Old Tshyak stha) as a compound verb, with stha (gram. stâ) taking inflection except for absolutive inflection, which is still taken by the main verb, for using a verb form that was orignally imperfective as perfective, and with sthae (gram. stâe) "do" (ipfv.) (from Old Tshyak sthae) as a compound verb, with sthae (gram. stâe) taking inflection except for absolutive inflection, which is still taken by the main verb, for using a verb form that was originally perfective as imperfective.

As a change that spread through the Tshyak-speaking area, even though Middle Lae Tshyak has not exhibited much loss of number marking, le (gram. le) / lethet (gram. letêt) / leya (gram. leya), originally a demonstrative, is commonly used as a definite article and to indicate number for animate nouns when other verbs that indicate number are not being used with them.

Due to the loss of reciprocal marking, kphraet (gram. prâet) "the other", derived from Old Tshyak pphraet "the other", is placed after the verb in question.

Due to the loss of agent nominalization marking, k'riy (gram. ríy) (pfv.) / k'ruy (gram. rúy) (ipfv.), from Old Tshyak p'riy (pfv.) / p'ruy (pfv.) "one who goes", is placed before the verb in question to agent nominalize it with either perfective or imperfective aspect.

Due to the loss of patient nominalization marking, ktha (gram. tâ) (pfv.) / kthae (gram. tâe) (ipfv.) "do", from Old Tshyak ptha (pfv.) / pthae (ipfv.), is placed before the verb in question to patient nominalize it with either perfective or imperfective aspect.

Due to the loss of causative marking for resultative verbs, stre (gram. stsré) (pfv.) / stri (gram. stsrí) (ipfv.) "make", from Old Tshyak stre (pfv.) / stri (ipfv.) "make", is placed before the main verb when marked as resultative. and becomes the primary inflected verb, with the main verb only marking its object.

Due to the loss of resultative marking in some verbs, hliy (gram. hlíy) (pfv.) / hluy (gram. hlúy) (ipfv.) "become (antipassive)", from Old Tshyak s'liy (pfv.) / s'luy) (ipfv.) "become (antipassive)" may be used to mark antipassive, becoming the primary inflected verb, with the main verb only marking its object.

Verbal Complex

The above changes result in the following verbal complex structure:

• Negative ngya (gram. nya) / prohibitive ter (gram. thér)
• Mirative klah (gram. khyâ)
• Other adverbs and adverbial intransitive verbs
• Agent nominalization k'riy (gram. ríy) (pfv.)* / k'ruy (gram. rúy) (ipfv.)* / patient nominalization ktha (gram. tâ) (pfv.)* / kthae (gram. tâe) (ipfv.)*
• Perfective stha (gram. stâ)* / imperfective sthae (gram. stâe)*
• Causative (for resultative verbs) stre (gram. stsré) (pfv.)* / stri (gram. stsrí) (ipfv.)*
• Resultative (for resultatives that would otherwise lack marking) hliy (gram. hlíy) (pfv.)* / hluy (gram. hlúy) (ipfv.)*
• Main verb
• Reciprocal kphraet (gram. prâet)

* This forms a compound verb with the main verb, taking on all verbal inflection except for patient marking.

Clause-final Particles

The combination of the Old Tshyak direct evidential zhe with the Old Tshyak mirative marker te has been reduced to just te (gram. thé), which now serves as a non-egophoric direct evidential. In turn, zhe (gram. zye) without te (gram. thé) has come to be an egophoric evidential. Otherwise te (gram thé) is lost, being replaced by the use of klah (gram. khyâ).

In turn the Old Tshyak adverb klah "just, a moment ago" started being used to reinforce the mirative meaning of te (gram. thé), and in turn became a new mirative marker klah (gram. khyâ') placed before the main verb.

This has resulted in the following system of clause-final particles, with said particles found in the following order:

Note that these particles come after a clause-final complementizer ra but before the following complement clause. However, for complementized clauses not at the end of a main clause these particles are found at the actual end of the main clause.

Personal Pronouns

The normal personal pronouns' specialized dual and plural forms disappear, and are replaced with the singular pronoun followed by lethet (gram. letêt) "dual" or leya (gram. leya) "plural". The main exception to this is the first person inclusive pronouns, which are reduced to de (gram. de) and then combined with lethet (gram. letêt) or leya (gram. leya). Note that the singular pronouns are not marked with lethet (gram. letêt) or leya (gram. leya). Also, the third person pronouns in the dual and plural gain an animacy distinction, where animate referents take lethet (gram. letêt) or leya (gram. leya) but inanimate referents do not.

This results in the following system:

Registers

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