Morphological Typology

Morphological Typology of the Protolanguages

Different morphological types emerge from the known macrofamily protolanguages. For example, the highly polysynthetic Proto-Dené-SinoCaucasian is the ancestor of the isolating Chinese languages, and of the polysynthetic North Caucasian languages.

Agglutination and fusion are forms of inflection; agglutination is one-dimensional while fusion is multidimensional. Languages with a high frequency of inflection are called “synthetic languages”. Languages with so much inflection that it’s difficult to distinguish an inflected word from a sentence are called polysynthetic languages.

Finnish is an example of an agglutinating synthetic language while Sanskrit is an example of a fusional synthetic language. In this paradigm, English would be an analytical language with fusional elements.

Proto-Dené-Sino-Caucasian was a highly polysynthetic language employing both agglutination and fusion, which used both prefixes and suffixes. The noun class system included masculine, feminine, animate and inanimate. Among its descendants are analytical languages like Chinese, polysynthetic inflectional languages like the NW and NE Caucasian languages, and the agglutinative inflectional tongues Basque, Burushaski and Navajo.

Its vast phonological system of 50 consonants included three series of sibilant-affricate and resonant combinations, as well as lateral affricates / dl, tl and tl’/ plus an uvular series /ʁ ɢ x, χ/. The presence of ejectives is a feature it had in common with Amerind and Afro-Asiatic. Another possible correspondence is the distinction between inclusive and exclusive “we.”

The verbal system accommodated up to four prefix positions before the root. Prefixes indicated categories like aspect, tense, mode, valence, and pronominal agents and/or patients.

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The Proto-Amerind language was polysynthetic, using both prefixes and suffixes. The noun could take a series of suffixes and prefixes to indicate diminutive, demonstrative, kinship, age, reciprocal and more. Also, a gender ablaut and age-differential Ablaut system. Four-vowel systems (lacking the /u/) occur frequently). Proto-Amerind had glottalized consonants. Well-known Amerind languages with ejectives include Cochabamba Quechua, Yucatec Mayan and Navajo. Implosive glottal consonants are found in nine Native American languages. Two-thirds of the languages with glottalized resonants are in the Americas. Inclusive vs Exclusive “we” has a high incidence.

Proto-Eurasiatic was an inflectional agglutinating language that used ablaut and preferred suffixes to prefixes. Among its descendants are fusional inflectional languages like Proto-Indo-European, Latin and Sanskrit, agglutinating inflectional languages like Finnish and Turkish, and analytical languages with elements of fusional inflection, like English.

Proto-Afroasiatic was a fusional inflectional language that used ablaut, prefixes, infixes and suffixes. Among its descendants are the modern Arabic dialects that are analytic with inflectional elements of both a fusional and agglutinating nature. Grammatical gender (he/she) is inherent in the protolanguage. One of the most notable features of Afro-Asiatic phonology is the system of triads in the stops and affricates; each series is composed of three contrasting members: (a) voiceless (aspirated), (b) voiced, and (c) glottalized (ejectives called “emphatics” in Semitic grammar). According to Ehret the system included 40 consonants:

b, c, c', d, dl, dz, f, g, gw, y, yw, h, 1}, j, k, kW, k', kW', 1, t, m, n, Jl, tJ, tJw, p, p', r, s, s', s, t, t', tl', ts, w, x, xw, y, z, ?, £.

Proto-Nilo-Saharan was a fusional inflectional language that used both prefixes and suffixes. Among its descendants are analytical languages like Central Sudanic and inflectional agglutinating languages like Nilotic and Nubian. According to Ehret, the protolanguage had 44 consonants, and 6 or 7 vowels. Nilo-Saharan languages are tonal with complex vowel systems; some use tones to mark inflections like case, aspect and person. Although the north-western group displays analytical elements and agglutination, they retain the core characteristics of the inflectional type, especially root-internal vowel change. The verb frequently involves extensive marking for features like person, voice, number, tense, aspect, or voice, where consonant mutation often accompanies such morphological processes. In general, Nilo-Saharan has suffixes than prefixes but declensional and derivational prefixes show greater resistance against phonetic erosion or merger with lexical roots than the suffixes.

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Proto-Niger-Congo was an inflectional agglutinating language. Among its descendants are inflectional agglutinating languages like the Ntu Group and isolating languages like those of the Kwa and Benue branches. Proto-Ntu has been reconstructed with a small set of 11 consonants and seven vowels: *p *t *c *k *b *d *g *j *m *ɲ; *i *ɪ *e *a *o *ʊ *u; plus High- and Low tones.

Consonant inventories expand substantially, especially in the Southern African groups that borrowed clicks and other consonants from the Khoesan languages. Zulu has 50 consonant phonemes, Xhosa 66 and SeSotho 39. Advanced Tongue Root vowel harmony is prevalent. In the root structure written (N)CV(V), (N) represents the nasal in combinations like /mb, nd, nt; ɲj, ɲc ŋg, ŋk/.

One of the most important morphological features of the Ntu Group is the system of nominal classes, of which the proto-language probably had 23. Each of the classes has a pronoun, prefix and a set of concords to integrate adverbs, adjectives and verbs. The verbal stem has a set of prefixes and sometimes an inflected ending. Closed syllables are avoided. Word order is overwhelmingly SVO.

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