Proto-Polaroid language

*"PP" and "Proto-Polaroid" redirect here. For the people, see Proto-Polaroids. For other uses, see PP (disambugation).*

## Proto Polaroid

### Low orderreconstructions

Proto-Unti
Proto-Regallo-Polar
Proto-Slavo-Latonian
Proto-Unti-Pradnu
Proto-Mysian

**Proto-Polaroid** (**PP**) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Polaroid language family. No direct record of the reconstructed language exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Polaroid languages.

Proto-Polaroid is among the proto-languages in which the most work has gone into, and amongst the best understood proto-languages of its age, it was the hot topic of linguistic scientists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with work being devoted to reconstructing PP or one of its daughter languages, as a result several of modern techniques for linguistic reconstruction (such as the comparative method) were developped during this era, in parallel with the research of the Proto-Alveran hypothetical proto-language.

PP was hypothesized to have been spoken as a single language from 3000 BC to 1500 BC during the bronze age, however some attested claims vary by more than a thousand years. According to the triumphing Khlovnu hypothesis, the original homeland of the Proto-Polaroids may have been in the Unti steppe of southwestern Polaris. Furthermore the reconstruction of PP has provided insight into the pastoral culture and patriarchial religion of its speakers.

As speakers of Proto-Polaroid became isolated from one another through the Polaroid migrations, the regional dialects of Proto-Polaroid spoken by the various groups diverged, as each dialect underwent shifts in pronunciation (the Polaroid sound laws), morphology, and vocabulary. Over many centuries, these dialects transformed into the known daughter languages of PP. From there further linguistic divergence led to the evolution of their current descendants, the modern Polaroid languages. Today the descendant languages of PP with the most native speakers are Regallo-Slavonian, Regallo-Gallian, Standard Regallian, Regallo-Živow, Latonian and Ǩamtšak.

PP is believed to have had an elaborate system of morphology that included inflectional suffixes, possibly ablaut, as well as a formality system, though the last is heavily disputed and quite controversial, as some claim it's a completely separate language in and of itself. PP nominals and pronouns had a complex system of declension, and verbs similarly had a complex system of conjugation. The PP phonology, particles, numerals and copulae are also well reconstructed.

Asteriks are used as a conventional mark of reconstructed words, such as \**пасаҏ*, \**веһайаҏ*, or \**шикӱ*; these forms are the reconstructed ancestors of the modern words *sheep*, *horse*, and *wagon* respectively.

## Historical and geographical setting

*Main article: Proto-Polaroid homeland*

Scholars have proposed multiple hypotheses about when, where and by whom PP was spoken. The Khlovnu hypothesis, first put forward in 1963 by Mikhail Khlovnu, has become the most popular of the bunch. It proposes that the original speakers of PP were the Izdij culture associated with the Celestial Cairns on the Unti steppe, northwest of the Unti river. According to the theory they were nomadic pastoralists who domesticated the Prairie Strider, which allowed them to migrate across the continent in wagons and chariots. By the mid 2nd millennium BC, they had expanded throughout the Unti steppe and into southern central Polaris.

## Phonology

*Main article: Proto-Polaroid phonology*

Proto-Polaroid phonology has been reconstructed in some detail. Notable features of the most widely accept yet uncontroversial reconstruction include:

* three seres of stop consonants reconstructed as voiceless, voiced, and aspirated;
* sonorant consonants that could be used syllabically;
* a laryngeal consonant /һ/
* the fricatives /ш/, /ж/, /с/, /з/, /ф/, /в/, /х/, and /ӷ/
* approximant consonants /й/ and /ў/
* affricate stop consonants /ц/, /ч/, and /џ/
* three series of front and back vowels reconstructed as short, long and nasalized.

### Notation

#### Vowels

The vowels in commonly used notation are:

#### Consonants

The corresponding consonants that are commonly used in notation are:

## Morphology

### Root

Proto-Polaroid roots were affix-lacking morphemes that carried the core lexical meaning of a word and were used to derive related words. Proto-Polaroid was most likely a fusional language, in which inflectional morphemes signaled the grammatical relationships between words. This dependence on inflectional morphemes means that roots in PP were rarely used without affixes. A root plus a suffix formed a word stem, and a word stem plus a desinence formed a word.

### Noun

Proto-Polaroid nouns were most likely declined for six cases:

* Nominative: Marks the subject of a verb
* Accusative: Used for the direct object of a transitive verb
* Genitive: Marks a noun as a possessor or partitive
* Dative: Used for the indirect object of a transitive verb, or for movement
* Locative: Expressed location and time
* Instrumental: Marks the instrument, or comitative relationship

Proto-Polaroid is also believed to have at some point developped two grammatical genders:

* Animate
* Inanimate

These genders can be derived from five other subclasses which all marked their own specific traits, however this simplified into this two gender system.

All nominals also distinguished four grammatical numbers:

* Singular
* Dual
* Paucal
* Plural

Unlike gender and person, verbs would not agree with grammatical number in Proto-Polaroid.

### Pronoun

Proto-Polaroid had pronouns in the first, second and third grammatical person, and it featured both interrogative and indefinite pronouns as well.

### Verb

The most basic categorisation of reconstructed Proto-Polaroid verbs is grammatical aspect, in which verbs are classified as:

* Habitual: verbs that depict a habitual or temporal flow
* Progressive: verbs depicting ongoing action
* Perfective: verbs depicting a completed action

Furthermore verbs had three grammatical moods:

* Indicative: indicates that something is a statement of fact
* Imperative: forms commands or requests
* Subjunctive: used to express various states of unreality

Verbs also had three grammatical voices:

* Active: used in a clause whose subject expresses the main verb's agent
* Passive: used in a clause whose subject expresses the main verb's theme or patient
* Causative: used in a clause whose subject causes someone or something to do or to be something

Verbs had three grammatical persons: first, second and third.

Verbs had two grammatical genders: animate and inanimate.

The following table shows a possible reconstruction of PP verb prefixes from Sinjon, a renowned Serlain linguist who has devoted much work to Proto-Polaroid, which largely represents the current consensus among researchers of the Proto-Polaroid language.

 1st Person
 Inanimate
 2nd Person
 Inanimate
 3rd Person
 Inanimate

### Numbers

Proto-Polaroid numerals are usually reconstructed as follows:

### Particle

Proto-Polaroid particles were used almost exclusively as adpositions, but sometimes as adverbs as well.

Reconstructed particles include for example, \**нейчӱде* "toward"; the negator \**не*; the conjunction \**хӱ* "and, or" and others.

## Syntax

While the formality system is heavily debated, many linguists such as Sinjon and Debl agree that Proto-Polaroid had two syntaxes based on formality.

Formal:

* basic SVO word order
* noun before adjective
* possessum before possessor
* prepositions rather than postpositions
* main clauses before relative clauses

Informal:

* basic OSV word order
* adjective before noun
* possessor before possessum
* postpositions rather than prepositions
* main clauses before relative clauses

Furthermore the auxilliary verb always comes after the main verb, no matter the formality.

## See also

* Polaroid sound laws
* List of proto-languages