Proto Ta-Rai

Proto Ta-Rai is the proto-language of the Ta-Rai Language Family. It was a language spoken around 3000 years before present, throughout the continent of Myarolan. Descendants of the language include Proto-Taquu (later splitting into the Dahtashé language and Doñaxi) and Taré (including the Taré language).

## Phonology

### Phoneme Inventory

Vowel Inventory
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### Phonotactics

The syllable structure of Proto-Ta-Rai is fairly limited. The maximum syllable size is CCVVCC, however coda consonants are uncommon and coda clusters even more so.

The syllable onset can contain any one consonant except /ŋ/, or contain a cluster with the first consonant one of /p, t, k, t͡ʃ, t͡s, m/ and the second consonant one of /n, s, j, l, w/. The onset cluster /mw/ reduces to /m/; thus, in effect, onset /mw/ is disallowed.

The syllable nucleus may contain one or two vowel phonemes. In the case of two different vowels, they form **diphthongs** (/ia, io, ai, ao, oi, oa/), in the case of the same vowel, they form **long vowels** (/iː, aː, oː/).

The syllable coda can contain one or two consonants. The first (or only) consonant can be one of /n, s, j, l/, while the second can be one of /n, s, l/. Geminate consonant codas are disallowed - thus the complete set of possible codas is: /ŋ, n, s, j, l/ and /ns, jn, js, jl, ln, ls/.

### Allophony

The alveolar flap /ɾ/ is pronounced [d] at the beginning of a word, and [ɾ] elsewhere: e.g. rai [dai] vs torai [toɾai].

### Prosody

Stress is non-contrastive, however words tend to be stressed on the first non-inflectional syllable, or on the first syllable of the final root in compound words.

* rai (person) [ˈdai]
* ghaki (head) [ˈɣaki]

* i-rai (GEN-person) [iˈɾai]
* i-ghaki (GEN-head) [iˈɣaki]
* rai-na (man: person-male) [daiˈna]
* nyao-moa-tsito (shark: animal-sea-tooth) [ɲao.moaˈt͡sito]

## Vocabulary

There are a limited number of root words in the language, generally nouns and verbs, which are compounded together to create other words. These are joined together in a head-initial (or more-'intrinsic'-first) format, meaning certain roots are very common word-initially.

### Noun Roots

Some common noun roots are as follows. Note that all these roots are words themselves as well.

* rai-: person
	+ e.g. rai-tsoin (person-to.hunt): hunter
	+ e.g. rai-pari (person-to.be.tall): tall person
* ta-: people, nation, tribe, group
* togho-: spirit
* nyao-: animal
* ashi-: force
* chai-: plant
* koo-ghi-: landscape

In addition to these roots, there are a number of 'associated roots' which denote things *related to*, but not identified as one of the category. These forms all end in o-, and are *not* words themselves.

* rao-: something intrinsic to humans; especially social phenomena
	+ e.g. rao-twaa (human-two): marriage
* to-: something to do with group or tribe dynamics; especially cultural phenomena
	+ e.g. to-ghaki (people-head): tribe chief
	+ Note that *toghaki* would refer to the *position* of 'chief' or the authority it exerts, while *rai-toghaki* (person-chief) would refer specifically to the person occupying the position.
* tao-: spiritual phenomena (that aren't analysed as spirits themselves)
	+ e.g. tao-ghaki (spirit-head): consciousness, thought, "the spiritual phenomenon/process associated with the head"
* nyo-: something intrinsic to all animals; especially biological phenomena. Sometimes uses *rao-* instead when referring to humans, but not always.
	+ e.g. nyo-raiirai (animal-child): infancy, childhood
* asho-: something related to a force; often simply used for entities which move but are not considered to move by themselves
	+ e.g. asho-iori (force-corpse): body (when alive)

There are also a number of derivational roots which are not linked to actual words

* ki-: forms the action noun/gerund from a verb. The verb may be followed by a complement and may be conjugated
	+ ki-lawi (GER-know): knowing, knowledge
	+ The verb cannot be followed by a subject: this uses mi ki- instead

### Verb Roots

Some common verb roots are as follows, these roots are all verbs themselves.

* ras-: to speak - used for verbs involving (vocalised) verbal communication
* sia-: to go - used for verbs involving movement. Note that movement can *exist* without this verb root; but this verb root emphasises the movement.
	+ e.g. pori: to leave; sia-pori: to leave (and go somewhere else), to go away
* rin-: to stay - used for verbs involving physical states (sitting, standing, lying down, squatting, etc)
* mi-: to see, to sense - used for verbs involving the senses

There are also a limited number of *suffixed* verb roots. These roots are never stressed and are not words themselves.

* -nya: to have the colour of
	+ e.g. toi-nya (sky-colour): to be light blue, sky blue