Proto Caron

Proto Caron Language
Family	Caron-Qhalqon Languages
Spoken in:	Western North Keskus
Minority speakers in:	none known
Native speakers:	500,000

see also: Proto Caron Swadesh list
The Proto Caron language (PC) is a mutually intelligible mix of dialects, spoken by the Caron, with the main differences occurring between the two islands and the mainland, with each landmass speaking mostly the same dialect. The mainland dialects, in particular, have a tendency to turn plosives into fricatives intervocaly. The language is a mainly prefixing OVS language, with a (C)V(V)(C) syllable structure.

Phonomes

Nasals: m n (/m n/)
Stops: p b t d c g q (/p b t d k g ʔ/)
Fricatives: f v s z (/f v s z/)
Other: l r (/l ɾ/)

Vowels: a e i o u (/a e i o u/)

Note that nasals match the position of any stops of other nasals that follow them (except for the glottal stop, which can only appear intervocally.)

Doubled consonants are geminates, and act as the initial to the second syllable they are in.

Vowels become lax in open syllables, including when followed by geminates, as follows: a becomes [ə], e becomes [ɛ], i becomes [ɪ], o becomes [ɔ], u becomes [ʊ]. This only occurs to the second vowel in a diphthong.

• an [an] central
  
• map [map] clothing
  
• anmap [ə.'mːap] dress

The Caron language has the following diphthongs:

• ae [ae]
• ai [ai]
• ao [ao]
• ea [ea]
• ia [ia]
• io [jo]
• ou [ou]
• ua [wa]
• ue [we]
• ui [wi]

Dialects

There are only 2 major dialects, Insular Caron and Mainland Caron, with the main distinction being that Mainland Caron fricatizes non-nasal stops intervocally.

For example, with the word Bacar, the name for the mainland, and daoqon, or shaman.

• (Insular) Bacar [bak.'aɾ]
  
• (Mainland) Bachar [bax.'aɾ]
  
• (Insular) Daoqon [daɔ.'ʔon]
  
• (Mainland) Daohon [daɔ.'hon]

In theis article, all words are spelled according to the Insular pronunciation, and ignore minor dialects.

Word Order

Proto-Caron is primarily prefixing with an OVS word order.

• Boc pun et.
  
• rock hold 3
  
• He holds the rock.

Note that Proto-Caron has 3 verb uses: (1) intransitive, (2) transitive, and (3) reflexive. However, out of these 3 usages, only with class 2 is the usage consistent with the name, as there are some verbs that can take objects when in class 1, and both class 1 and class 2 verbs can be reflexive, while not all class 3 verbs strictly are reflexive. In these cases, word order changes so that the verb remains recognizable as being used according to its class.

Class 1 verb usage with objects places the object after the subject:

• Pun et boc.
  
• feel 3 rock
  
• He feels the rock.

Similarly, class 1 or 2 verb reflexive usage places the reflexive pronoun after the subject. Class two verb usage retains an object in the normal position, even if it is only the dummy pronoun cu.

• Pun caret zigcaret.
  
• feel PLR-3 REF-PLR-3
  
• They feel each other.

• Cu pun caret zigcaret.
  
• 4 hold PLR-3 REF-PLR-3
  
• They hold each other.

Normal reflexive verb usage has the reflexive pronoun in the normal location, and it matches the subject pronoun (which can be dropped as it is now understood.)

• Zigcaret pun (caret).
  
• REF-PLR-3 pleasure
  
• They pleasure each other.
  
• They pleasure themselves.

Verbs

Mood	Meaning	Example	Translation
∅	indicative	Cu danas et.	He is creating something.
ca	permissive	Cu cadanas et.	He is allowed to create something.
cu	necessitive	Cu cudanas et.	He needs to create something.
fa	generic	Cu fadanas et.	He generally creates something.
gu	inferential	Cu gudanas et.	He is creating something. (But I don't know for sure) I think he is creating something.
li	conditional	Cu lidanas et lug...	He would create something if...
mu	optative	Cu mudanas et.	I want him to create something.
ni	desirative	Cu nidanas et.	He wants to create something.
nu	potential	Cu nudanas et.	He might create something.
zi	abilitative	Cu zidanas et.	He can create something.

Some moods, like the abilitative and the potential, can be stacked.