This protolanguage is inspired by Proto-Yokuts.
Consonants: m, mˀ, n, nˀ, ŋ, ŋˀ, p, pʰ, pʼ, t, tʰ, tʼ, ʈ, ʈʰ, ʈʼ, k, kʰ, kʼ, ʔ, ts, tsʼ, tɕ, tɕʼ, s, ʂ, ɕ, x, h, r, rˀ, l, lˀ, j, jˀ, w, wˀ
Vowels: a, aː, e, eː, i, iː, ɨ, ɨː, o, oː, u, uː
Syllables: CV(C)
Stress: penultimate syllable
Writing system: ???
Synthesis: ???
Word order: ???
Adjectives: ???
Adpositions: ???
Noun cases: ???
Grammatical number: ???
Grammatical Gender: ???
Noun classes: ???
Verb classes: ???
Tenses: ???
Aspects: ???
Moods: ???
Interjections: ???
Copula(s): ???
Conjunctions: ???
Valency-changers: ???
Contractions: ???
Negation: ???
Double negation: ???
Question marking: ???
Yes/no questions: ???
Augmentatives and/or Diminutives: ???
Comparatives and similar: ???
Demonstratives: ???
Articles: ???
Persons: ???
Dependency: ???
Obviation: ???
Polypersonal agreement: ???
Finiteness: ???
Polarity: ???
Emphasis: ???
Frequency: ???
Nominalization: ???
Ergativity: ???
Clusivity: ???
Number system: maybe base-6?
Sets of number words: ???
I need to look into everything documented about the protolanguage's grammar and figure out how to handle tenses and/or aspects, among other grammatical features. And what is talked about on Wikipedia about Yokut grammar is sadly lacking and needs more information. If there are any academic articles I should know about, let me know so I may modify the grammatical feats to stand out from the original language.
I might give a descendant a retroflex harmony system.
That's debated though, and there might be other ideas I could utilize for my homage to the Yokut languages. Like I said, I'd like to figure out the syntax and grammar, whatever ways there are. And I'm hoping that Josh Rudder of NativLang will talk about the Yokut dialects someday. I actually told my family about Marie Wilcox a while back, and they actually decided to preserve the dying dialect of Wukchumni. That's a story for another time. I oughta tell Josh about it, and maybe he could include it in such a video.
