Middle Tshyak

Known natively as chaek (gram. tsyháek), anachronistically as chaek caep (gram. tsyháek tsyáep).

Sound Change

The following changes are already present, but are relevant below:

The following changes take place:

At this point verbs take the following inflection:

verbal noun: high tone
agent noun: high tone
patient noun: high tone
antipassive voice: aspirated plosive/voiceless sonorant initial, high tone
passive voice: voiced plosive initial, high or mid or low tone
reflexive voice: rhotic medial, high or or mid low tone
reciprocal voice: mid or low tone
causative voice: mid or low tone
resultative: high tone

Note that not all verbs behave this way, particularly verbs that had prefixes as part of their stems.

Verbs that had no codas on their stems or had stems ending in /ɻ/, /l/, or /h/ take the following inflection. in order of priority:

past: -t
subjunctive: -ɻ (also -ʂ in stems ending in /p t/, and -h in stems ending in /h/)
jussive: -c
du. ergative: -q
du. absolutive: -t
2nd absolutive or ergative: -k or -q* (only if no stem coda, otherwise retain stem end consonant and suppress breathiness or vowel length) (* if followed by 1st excl. absolutive or ergative or inverse)
1st excl. absolutive or ergative: -m (only if no stem coda, otherwise retain stem end consonant and suppress breathiness or vowel length)
1st incl. absolutive or ergative: -p
pl. absolutive: -j (also -ɕ in stems ending in /p t/, -c in stems ending in /k/, -ɲ in stems ending in /m n ŋ/, -j but no vowel lengthening in stems ending in /ɻ/, and -ʎ in stems ending in /l/)
pl. ergative: -h
inverse: "breathy" vowel and tone (only if no stem coda, otherwise retain stem end consonant and suppress breathiness or vowel length).

Phoneme Inventory and Allowed Onsets

This results in the following phoneme inventory:

Syllables have the maximal structure (C)(C)CV(C) but most syllables have one to two consonants in the onset.

Syllables can have one of four tones, low, mid, high, and mid-rising.

The following phonemes can be found in onsets:

voiced nasals: m n ɲ ŋ
voiceless nasals: m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊
unaspirated voiced stops: b d ɟ g
unaspirated voiceless stops: p t c k q ʔ
aspirated voiced stops: bʰ dʰ ɟʰ gʰ
aspirated voiceless stops: pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ qʰ
unaspirated voiced affricates; dz dʐ dʑ dɮ
unaspirated voiceless affricates: ts tʂ tɕ tɬ
aspirated voiced affricates: dzʰ dʐʰ dʑʰ dɮʰ
aspirated voiceless affricates: tsʰ tʂʰ tɕʰ tɬʰ
voiced fricatives: ʐ ʑ ɮ ʁ
voiceless fricatives: ʍ s ʂ ɕ ɬ ç h
voiced liquids: ɻ l ʎ
voiceless liquids: ɻ̥
semivowels: w j

The following clusters can be found in onsets:

ʍɻ sɻ ɕɻ çɻ
mɻ m̥ɻ
ml m̥l
bɻ bʰɻ pɻ pʰɻ
bl bʰl pl pʰl
bj bʰj pj pʰj
bʐ bʰʐ pʂ pʰʂ
bʑ bʰʑ pɕ pʰɕ
bʑɻ bʰʑɻ pɕɻ pʰɕɻ
bɮ bʰɮ pɬ pʰɬ
nɻ n̥ɻ
nl n̥l
dɻ dʰɻ tɻ tʰɻ
dzɻ dzʰɻ tsɻ tsʰɻ
dʑɻ dʑʰɻ tɕɻ tɕʰɻ
ɲɻ ɲ̊ɻ
ɲl ɲ̊l
ɟɻ ɟʰɻ cɻ cʰɻ
ɟl ɟʰl cl cʰl
ŋɻ ŋ̊ɻ
ŋl ŋ̊l
gɻ gʰɻ kɻ kʰɻ
gl gʰl kl kʰl
gj gʰj kj kʰj
ʁɻ qɻ qʰɻ
ʁl ql qʰl

There are the following "non-breathy"* short monophthongs:
a ɛ œ e ø i y ɒ ɔ o u

and the following "non-breathy"* long monophthongs:
aː ɛː œː eː øː iː yː ɒː ɔː oː uː

and the following "breathy"* diphthongs (and one monophthong):
ɐ ɛə œə eə øə ɪə ʏə ɒə ɔə oə ʊə

* They really are not distinguished by breathiness, as breathiness was lost historically.

"Non-breathy" syllables have either mid, high, or mid-rising tone; mid-rising tone is found where mid tone was originally but there was a coda stop /p t k/; however, syllables gained extra coda plosives through the reduction of following syllables, allowing syllables ending in plosives to have mid tone as well.

"Breathy" syllables have low or high tone; low tone in "breathy" syllables correspond to mid tone in non-breathy syllables. It should be noted that there is no equivalent to mid-rising tone in breathy syllables, since breathy syllables originally had coda /h/. However, due to sound change there are now syllables ending in /h/ which did not originally have coda /h/ (and indeed original coda /h/ was lost entirely aside from its imparting breathiness on vowels, and through that causing the generation of centralized vowels and modifying tone).

Long vowels arose from the elision of original coda /ɻ l/; however, these consonants can still arise, after short vowels, due to vowels in following syllables turning them into onsets, and then later getting elided, leaving them as codas again. These can also be found before various consonants, due to following syllables losing their nuclei and codas and leaving their onsets as new codas for the preceding syllable.

There are the following codas:
m n ɲ ŋ p t c k q ʂ ɕ h ɻ l ʎ w j

Traditional Orthography

Middle Tshyak has a "grammarian" orthography meant for rendering the spoken language precisely. However, it is not what is commonly used for writing it, by that portion of the population which is literate.

Rather, an orthography based on that of Old Tshyak is used, which is essentially Old Tshyak spelling but with all syllables after the root syllable removed, except that if the Old Tshyak version of the word had the form prefixes-initial-medials-vowel-initial-medials-vowel... and when reduced to one syllable is not the same as the equivalent (if it existed) Old Tshyak word of the form prefixes-initial-medials-vowel-final if it could have existed, they are written as prefixes-initial-medials-vowel-initial-medials-a, representing that the final consonant of the Middle Tshyak syllable originally belonged to a second syllable.

At the same time, some mergers are present, such as:

Old Tshyak ry being written as y
Old Tshyak hry, hly, sly, s'ry, and s'ly all being written as hy
Old Tshyak sl and s'l being written as hl
Old Tshyak s'r being written as hr
Old Tshyak sw and s'w being written as hw
Old Tshyak sy and sry being written as sh before front vowels and a (which is written ae)
Old Tshyak zy and zry being written as zh before front vowels and a (which is written ae)
Old Tshyak sy and sry being written as sy before back vowels.
Old Tshyak zy and zry being written as zy before back vowels.
Old Tshyak mh being written as sm
Old Tshyak mhw being written as sm
Old Tshyak mhy being written as sngy
Old Tshyak mr being written as ndr (ignoring following w or y)
Old Tshyak mhr being written as ntr (ignoring following w or y)
Old Tshyak my and ny being written ngy before front vowels and a (which is written ae)
Old Tshyak my being written ny before back vowels
Old Tshyak m'b being written as mb (ignoring following r, l, w, or y)
Old Tshyak md being written as nd (ignoring following w or y)
Old Tshyak mdz beng written as ndz (ignoring following w or y)
Old Tshyak mdr being written as ndr (ignoring following w, or y)
Old Tshyak mj being written as nj
Old Tshyak mgy being written as n'gy
Old Tshyak mg being written as n'g (ignoring following r, l, w, or y)
Old Tshyak sp and sph being written as ph (ignoring following r, l, w, or y)
Old Tshyak st and sth being written as th (ignoring following w or y)
Old Tshyak sts and stsh being written as tsh (ignoring following w or y)
Old Tshyak str and sthr being written as thr (ignoring following w, or y)
Old Tshyak sc and sch being written as ch
Old Tshyak sky and skhy being written as khy
Old Tshyak sk and skh being written as kh (ignoring following r, l, w, or y)
Old Tshyak ndy, ndzy, and ndry all being written nj before front vowels and a (which is written ae)
Old Tshyak dy, dzy, and dry all being written j before front vowels and a (which is written ae)
Old Tshyak ty, tsy, and try all being written c before front vowels and a (which is written ae)
Old Tshyak thy, tshy, and thry all being written ch before front vowels and a (which is written ae)
Old Tshyak ndy, ndzy, and ndry all being written ndzy before back vowels.
Old Tshyak dy, dzy, and dry all being written dzy before back vowels.
Old Tshyak ty, tsy, and try all being written tsy before back vowels.
Old Tshyak thy, tshy, and thry all being written tshy before back vowels.
Old Tshyak n'gry being written n'g before front vowels
Old Tshyak gry being written g before front vowels
Old Tshyak kry being written k before front vowels
Old Tshyak khry being written kh before front vowels
Old Tshyak prefix b, d, and g being written as g except before onset r, l, w, or y
Old Tshyak prefix p, t, k, and ' being written as ' except before onset r, l, w, or y
Old Tshyak prefix b, g, p, and k being attached to the root before onset r or l
Old Tshyak prefix d, g, t, and k being attached to the root before onset w
Old Tshyak prefix b, d, p, and t being attached to the root before onset y
Old Tshyak prefix b, d, and g being omitted before a voiced obstruent initial or another obstruent voiced prefix
Old Tshyak prefix p, t, k, and ' being omitted before a voiceless initial or another voiceless prefix

"Grammarian" Orthography

voiced nasals: m n ɲ ŋ m n ny ng
voiceless nasals: m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊ hm hn hny hng
unaspirated voiced stops: b d ɟ g b d j g
unaspirated voiceless stops: p t c k q ʔ p t c k q ∅
aspirated voiced stops: bʰ dʰ ɟʰ gʰ bh dh jh gh
aspirated voiceless stops: pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ qʰ ph th ch kh qh
unaspirated voiced affricates; dz dʐ dʑ dɮ dz dzr dzy dl
unaspirated voiceless affricates: ts tʂ tɕ tɬ ts tsr tsy tl
aspirated voiced affricates: dzʰ dʐʰ dʑʰ dɮʰ dzh dzrh dzyh dlh
aspirated voiceless affricates: tsʰ tʂʰ tɕʰ tɬʰ tsh tsrh tsyh tlh
voiced fricatives: ʐ ʑ ɮ ʁ zr zy zl x (note that /ʐ ʑ ɮ/ only occur after /b bʰ/)
voiceless fricatives: ʍ s ʂ ɕ ɬ ç h hw s sr sy hl hy h
voiced liquids: ɻ l ʎ r l ly
voiceless liquids: ɻ̥ hr
semivowels: w j w y

(Disambiguation, particularly of /tsɻ/ versus /tʂ/, is carried out via apostrophes.)

For high tone:

a ɛ œ e ø i y ɒ ɔ o u á áe éo é óe í úi óa áo ó ú

aː ɛː œː eː øː iː yː ɒː ɔː oː uː áa áee éoo ée óee íi úii óaa áoo óo úu

ɐ ɛə œə eə øə ɪə ʏə ɒə ɔə oə ʊə â âe êo ê ôe î ûi ôa âo ô û

or without diacritics:

a ɛ œ e ø i y ɒ ɔ o u a(C): ae(C): eo(C): e(C): oe(C): i(C): ui(C): oa(C): ao(C): o(C): u(C):

aː ɛː œː eː øː iː yː ɒː ɔː oː uː aa(C): aee(C): eoo(C): ee(C): oee(C): ii(C): uii(C): oaa(C): aoo(C): oo(C): uu(C):

ɐ ɛə œə eə øə ɪə ʏə ɒə ɔə oə ʊə a(C):h ae(C):h eo(C):h e(C):h oe(C):h i(C):h ui(C):h oa(C):h ao(C):h o(C):h u(C):h

For mid tone without coda plosives:

a ɛ œ e ø i y ɒ ɔ o u a ae eo e oe i ui oa ao o u

For mid tone:

aː ɛː œː eː øː iː yː ɒː ɔː oː uː aa aee eoo ee oee ii uii oaa aoo oo uu

For mid tone with coda plosives:

a ɛ œ e ø i y ɒ ɔ o u ā āe ēo ē ōe ī ūi ōa āo ō ū

or without diacritics:

a ɛ œ e ø i y ɒ ɔ o u a(C)* ae(C)* eo(C)* e(C)* oe(C)* i(C)* ui(C)* oa(C)* ao(C)* o(C)* u(C)*

For mid-rising tone:

a ɛ œ e ø i y ɒ ɔ o u a ae eo e oe i ui oa ao o u

For low tone:

ɐ ɛə œə eə øə ɪə ʏə ɒə ɔə oə ʊə à àe èo è òe ì ùi òa ào ò ù

or without diacritics:

ɐ ɛə œə eə øə ɪə ʏə ɒə ɔə oə ʊə a(C)'h ae(C)'h eo(C)'h e(C)'h oe(C)'h i(C)'h ui(C)'h oa(C)'h ao(C)'h o(C)'h u(C)'h

There are the following codas:
m n ɲ ŋ p t c k ʂ ɕ h ɻ l ʎ w j m n ny ng p t c k sr sy h r l ly w y

Syntactic or Morphological Changes

Middle 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 tha (gram. thá) "do" (pfv.) (from Old Tshyak stha) as a compound verb, with tha (gram. thá) 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 thae (gram. tháe) "do" (ipfv.) (from Old Tshyak sthae) as a compound verb, with thae (gram. tháe) 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.

Due to the loss of antipassive marking snja (gram. dzyhá) (pfv.) / snju (gram. dzyhú) (ipfv.) "benefactive (antipassive)" is palced before the main verb in a serial verb construction to indicate antipassive voice. Note that for verbs that still distinguish antipassive voice, the main verb is also marked as having antipassive voice.

Due to loss of verb agreement, nyo (gram. nyoe), short for nyok (gram. nyoek) "be many, be much", is used to mark plurality of the ergative argument of transitive verbs and the absolutive argument of intransitive verbs by being placed before the main verb (and before any inverse marker) except when the plurality of the argument in question is already apparent.

Due to loss of verb agreement, le (gram. le) / leta (gram. lēt) / ley (gram. ley), 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 loss of verb agreement, full pronouns are used for the 1st and 2nd persons in addition to the 3rd person.

Due to the loss of verb inverse marking, phae (gram. pháe), short for phraet (gram. phsráet) "be other", is used to mark inverse on verbs by being placed before the main verb (after verbs marking subjunctive or jussive mood).

Due to the loss of verb tense marking, hla (gram. hlá), from Old Tshyak shlaw "be before" (antipassive), is used to mark past tense on verbs by being placed before the main verb (after any inverse maker).

Due to the loss of subjunctive marking, wir (gram. wuir) for non-past and wit (gram. wuit) for past is placed before the main verb, originating from a subjunctive modal verb could marked for non-past or non-past, with the main verb marking only its object.

Due to the loss of jussive marking, smey (gram. hméy) (pfv.) / smoy (gram. hmóy) (ipfv.), derived from Old Tshyak mhey (pfv.) / mhoy (ipfv.) "be allowed" respectively, is placed before the main verb, with the main verb only marking its object.

Due to the loss of causative marking on resultative verbs, thre (gram. tsrhé) (pfv.) / thri (gram. tsrhí) (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.

Due to the loss of reflexive marking, lop (gram. lop) "self" is placed after the verb in question.

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

Due to the loss of agent nominalization marking, priy (gram. psríy) (pfv.) / pruy (gram. psrúy) (ipfv.), from Old Tshyak p'riy (pfv.) / p'ruy (ipfv.) "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, tha (gram. thá) (pfv.) / thae (gram. tháe) (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 loss in number of distinctive syllables and multiple stems merging when different inflectional endings are taken into account, compounding increases. Nominal compounding often takes the form it did in Old Tshyak, but oftentimes the sources of different compounded elements are themselves compounded when used by themselves, so nominal compounding can no longer be considered simply the stringing of nouns. Verbal compounding is new in Middle Tshyak, and is based on intransitive verbs with adverbial meanings being placed before the main verb.

Adverbs and adverbial intransitive serial verbs typically get placed before the main verb rather than after. The negative adverb ngya (gram. nya) typically gets placed first before any verbs.

Adverbs and adverbial intransitive serial verbs can modify other, typically transitive, serial verbs, being placed before them.

The transitive serial verb sray (gram. sráy) "be greater than" is typically placed after adverbial intransitive serial verbs to qualify them, and in this case the adverbial intransitive serial verbs so qualified are placed after the main verb.

Verbal Complex

The above changes result in the following verbal complex structure:

* 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. té), which now serves as a non-egophoric direct evidential. In turn, zhe (gram. sye) without te (gram. té) has come to be an egophoric evidential. Otherwise te (gram té) is lost, being replaced by the use of klah (gram. kyâ).

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

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

egophoric: zhe (gram. sye)
deductive: ka (gram. ká)
reportative: hao (gram. háo)
assumption: yae (gram. yae)
direct: te (gram. té)
question: ha (gram. há)

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 leta (gram. lēt) "dual" or ley (gram. ley) "plural". The main exception to this is the first person inclusive pronouns, which are reduced to de (gram. te) and then combined with leta (gram. lēt) or ley (gram. ley). Note that the singular pronouns are not marked with leta (gram. lēt) or ley (gram. ley). Also, the third person pronouns in the dual and plural gain an animacy distinction, where animate referents take leta (gram. lēt) or ley (gram. ley) but inanimate referents do not.

This results in the following system:

1st sg. may (gram. may)
1st du. excl. may leta (gram. may lēt)
1st du. incl. de leta (gram. te lēt)
1st pl. excl. may ley (gram. may ley)
1st pl. incl. de ley (gram. te ley)
2nd sg. ning (gram. ning)
2nd du. ning leta (gram. ning lēt)
2nd pl. ning ley (gram. ning ley)
3rd sg./inan. yo (gram. yoe)
3rd du. anim. yo leta (gram. yoe lēt)
3rd pl. anim. yo ley (gram. yoe ley)

Nouns

Verbs

Adverbs

Numbers

Registers

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