Proto-Hick

Proto-Hick is a hypothetical reconstructed language that represents the ancestral language of the Hickic languages.

The current state of its reconstruction is highly speculative, as most concrete evidence derive from Early Hick, with some attempts to reconcile lexical items from Northern Apgarian Languages and dialects. There are plans to document more Seneran dialects to increase the robustness of the reconstruction. There may be some evidence that Sanerian languages and dialects may be related to Hickic, but more research is needed to confirm this.

Proto-Hick Phonology

Overview

Proto-Hick shows a simpler phonological system than Early Hick, with strict (C)CV(C) syllable structure and obligatory onsets (filled by glottal stop if no other consonant).

Segmental Inventory

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stops	p b		t d	k g	ʔ
Fricatives		θ	s		h x
Nasals	m		n
Liquids			l r
Glides	w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Phonotactics

Syllable Structure

Basic Pattern: (C)CV(C)
- Initial C required (ʔ if no other consonant)
- No complex onsets or codas
- null coda in the final syllable
```
Syllables:
   @consonant&[*glottal]? @consonant @vowel? @consonant?
```
Examples:
- *ʔahi “water”
- *muru “night”
- *telu “place”
- *ʔimru “evil”

Stress Pattern

Fixed initial stress on word initial glottal stop
Penultimate stress on all other environments
No vowel reduction
All vowel qualities preserved in all positions

Phonological Processes

Obligatory Onset:
- Ø → ʔ / #_V
- Examples:
  - *ahi → *ʔahi “water”
  - *imru → *ʔimru “group, party”
Final Vowel Repair:
- If final vowel was lost, or borrowed word had no final vowel, repair strategy follows vowel harmony with the last vowel:
  - C# > CV[i]# / _V[e,i]C# (After /i/ or /e/: repair with -i)
  - C# > CV[u]# / _V[u,o,a]C# (After /u/, /o/, or /a/: repair with -u)
- Examples:
  - *sip → *sipi
  - *pen → *peni
  - *kat → *katu
  - *mok → *moku
  - *tup → *tupu

Sound Changes from Proto-Hick to Early Hick

The staged sound-change model is implemented in early-hick.lsc. The prose below is a descriptive guide to that file, not a separate source of rules. When the prose and Lexurgy disagree, treat the Lexurgy file as the current testable model and update the prose.

Chronological Stages

Stage 0: Proto-Hick

Stage 0 defines the starting phonology and repairs:

strict syllable shape with simple onsets and codas;
obligatory initial onset repair with ʔ-;
final vowel repair for clipped or borrowed forms;
glottal-stop plus consonant repair;
double-letter cleanup;
inherited penultimate stress.

Stage 1: Proto-Maritime Hick

Stage 1 models the shared island and straits layer:

liquids weaken or delete near h;
liquid clusters simplify;
compounds may delete a weak vowel at the second element boundary;
compounds may delete nasals or liquids at the compound boundary;
sacred ha- shifts toward th-/thə- patterns;
voiced glottals devoice in initial weak positions;
stress shifts toward the initial syllable.

Stage 2: Proto-Seneran Hick

Stage 2 models the Seneran branch after settlement began:

unstressed vowels reduce, with initial-cluster exceptions;
final vowel repair is turned off;
vowels front in stressed initial syllables after fricative onsets;
final high and mid vowels centralize.

Stage 3: Pre-Hick

Stage 3 allows Early-Hick-like syllables and performs the main pre-Early-Hick repairs:

final w vocalizes;
eu repairs to schwa;
nuclei are inserted where initial clusters would otherwise be stranded;
initial h- and ʔ- delete before many vowels;
the animacy marker hi- reduces to glottal forms;
dental fricative clusters form;
hiatus and weak consonants are repaired by vowel coalescence;
initial h- before consonants repairs to ʔ-;
coda liquid/nasal clusters simplify;
complex final clusters may metathesize;
first-syllable syncope applies in restricted environments;
back vowels may delete after velar stops before nasals.

Stage 4: Early Hick

Stage 4 handles the final Early Hick surface repairs:

voiced glottals devoice before vowels;
cluster-resolution rules reshape CərC, rəC, CəC-r, and final schwa clusters;
final schwa can transpose and color to a or e in restricted environments;
final weak vowels reduce or delete;
romanization maps ʔ to apostrophe and θ to th.

Ordering Rules

Stage 0 repairs create pronounceable Proto-Hick inputs.
Stage 1 compound and sacred-term changes precede Seneran-specific vowel changes.
Stage 2 vowel reduction and final-vowel centralization precede Pre-Hick glottal and hiatus repairs.
Stage 3 vowel coalescence is turned off before Stage 4 surface cluster repairs.
Stage 4 produces the romanized Early Hick form.

Special Cases

Sacred/ritual terms resist reduction
Maritime terms maintain second element weight
Recent compounds may preserve full weight
Morphological boundaries may preserve weight
Borrowed or later repaired forms may follow source-specific Early Hick repair rules, such as Sindarin repair or Quenya repair, instead of the inherited Stage 0-4 chain.

Exceptions

Stress-related preservation:
- Stressed syllables maintain [a]
- Sacred/formal terms resist reduction
- Recent compounds preserve original forms
Compound-specific preservation:
- Three-element compounds follow special rules
- Maritime terminology preserves more archaic forms

Reconstructed Features

Animacy Marking

Initial *h Development a. Animacy marker *hi-:
- *hi- > ʔi- / #_?i (before /ʔi/)
- *hi-C > ʔi-C[+voiced] / #_V (before /C/)
- *hi- > ʔ- (elsewhere)
- Examples:
  - *hi-mer > imer “soul”
  - *hi-al > ʔal “person”

Sacred/Ritual Marker

It’s unknown how or why there seems to be a ritual marker in Proto-Hick, but it seems that many Early Hick words derive from a special ha- prefix with no known lexical source. Many terms used in the ritual/sacred register seem to derive from this prefix.

In Early Hick, the prefix is lost, but it is preserved in words starting with the dental fricative:

*ha > θi / _C
*ha- > θ- (th-)
Examples:
- *halu > θal “holy”
- *haru > θar “ritual”

Dental Fricative Development
1. Before non-high vowels - fusion path:
  - Vt.hV > t.hV > thV > θV Examples:
  - *et.hal > *t.hal > *thal > θal “that”
  - *ut.har > *t.har > *thar > θar “there”
2. Before high vowels - aspiration path:
  - Vt.hH > t.hH > thH > tʰH > tH (where H = high vowel, aspiration non-contrastive) Examples:
  - *et.his > *t.his > *this > tis “here”
  - *ut.hir > *t.hir > *thir > tir “person”
Final Onset Devoicing In words with 3 syllables or more, the final onset is devoiced, except when preceded by a sonorant.
- CV# > C[-voiced]V# / σσσ*, C[-sonorant]*
Final Vowel Loss (Pre-Early Hick)
- Loss may have been motivated by the change of stress patterns from Proto-Hick and Early Hick. It could have been driven by language contact as well.
  1. Final *u is lost:
    - u > u̥ > ∅ / _#
    - Examples:
      *thralu → thral "sacred" *malu → mal "pool" *toru → tor "height"
  2. Final *-a undergoes reduction:
    - *-a > ə / _C#
    - *-a > ∅ / _# Examples:
      *mela → məl → mel "definite" *kara → kərə → ker "flow"
  3. Final _-i follows similar pattern to _-u:
    - *-i > ∅ / _# Examples:
      *mari → mar "red" *keli → kel "sky"
Note: These changes occurred in stages:
- Final vowel reduction in unstressed syllables
- Schwa deletion word-finally
- Complete loss of final high vowels
Vowel Coalescence (Pre-Early Hick)
- *ahi → *aʱi → ai “water” (through breathy voice intermediate)
- *grau → gra “grey”
Note: The breathy voice stage (*aʱi) may be significant for understanding dialectal developments, though direct evidence is limited to Early Hick.
Compound-Specific Changes (branch-level compound cleanup, provisional)
- Syncope in compounds:
  - *CVCV-VCV → CCV-VCV
  - *stenu-alu → stenal → snal
  - *menu-alu → menal → mnal
- /r/ dissimilation in compounds:
  - r…r → ∅…r / in compounds
  - *staru-garu → stargar → sargar
  - *maru-ris → marris → maris
Early Hick Compound Formation Patterns
- Regular compounding with no changes:
  - mur-mer → murmer “night-bird”
  - mur-kel → murkel “night sky”
  - kur-tin → kurtin “bronze”
- Liquid/Nasal Deletion in Early Hick compounds:
  - thral-gral → thragral “sacred earth”
  - bram-mal → bramal “tidal pool”
  - val-mal → vamal “spirit pool”
- Tri-element Compound Simplification (Early Hick innovation):
  - tor-mur-mer → tomur “great owl”
  - thur-mur-mer → thurmur “dusk owl”
  - li-mur-mer → limur “small owl”
Initial Cluster Simplification
1. *sC > ’C / #_ Examples:
  - *skel > ’kel “opening”
  - *ster > ’ter “flow”
2. Medial clusters resyllabified:
  - *is-kel > [is.kel] “out-sky”
  - *as-ter > [as.ter] “up-flow”
Other Initial Fricative Loss
*ʃC > sC / #_
- *ʃkel > skel > ’kel “cave”
- *ʃter > ster > ’ter “stream”
*x > h / #_
- *xalu > halu > al “rock”
- *xiru > hiru > ir “iron”
Final Vowel Loss

V# > ∅ / _#
Extremely regular:
- *thralu → thral “sacred”
- *malu → mal “pool”
- *toru → tor “height”
- *wadu → wad “path”
- *nesu → nes “fish”

Proto-Hick Features

Animacy Marking

Proto-Hick *hi- prefix
- Marked animate/personified entities
- Two development paths:
  - a. *hi- > i- / _i (before high vowels)
  - b. *hi- > ʔ- (elsewhere)
Examples of *hi- > i-:
- *hi-mer > imer “soul, living breath”
- *hi-mur > imur “evil force”
- *hi-skel > iskel “window” (personified sky-opening)
Examples of *hi- > ʔ-:
- *hi-al > ʔal “person”
- *hi-ok > ʔok “keeper, guardian”
- *hi-er > ʔer “doer, actor”
Contrast with non-animate forms:
- *mer > mer “breath” (physical)
- *mur > mur “darkness” (abstract)
- *skel > skel “opening” (physical)

Relative Chronology

Pre-Early Hick
- Final vowel loss (*-u > ∅)
- Vowel coalescence (*ahi > ai)
Early Hick Period
- Productive compound formation
- Development of compound-specific sound changes
- Innovation of tri-element compound simplification

Morphological Evolution

The following morphology notes preserve older reconstruction hypotheses. They should be checked against the staged Lexurgy model and the working hypothesis that most Early Hick case morphology is later than Proto-Hick proper.

Compound Formation Patterns
- Element + Element preserved from Proto-Hick
- New patterns developed:
  - Descriptor + Element
  - Location + Base
Grammatical Categories
- Development of branch-specific case marking
- Development of new aspectual markers

Verbalizer Development

Proto-Hick Stage:
- *heru “do, make, act” (full lexical verb)
- Used in compounds to indicate action/process
Early grammaticalization stage:
- *heru becomes postverbal particle marking action
- *ter heru “flow-do” > “to flow”
- *ward heru “guide-do” > “to guide”
Later pre-Early-Hick stage:
- Unstressed position leads to reduction:
- *heru > *her (final vowel loss)
- *ter her, *ward her
Early Hick:
- Initial /h/ > /ʔ/ in unstressed position:
- *her > -’er
- Examples:
  - ter-’er “to flow” < *ter her
  - ward-’er “to guide” < *ward her
  - thral-’er “to be sacred” < *thral her
Semantic Development:
- Original concrete meaning “do/make”
- Grammaticalized to general verbalizer
- Creates both active and stative verbs depending on base

Semantic Shifts

Core Vocabulary
- *thralu “sacred” → thral “sacred; day”
- *kelu “sky” kel “sky; blue”
- *duha-wesu “meat-enclosure” → duwes “food, nourishment”
- Sound changes:
  - Compound reduction
  - Loss of the medial h
  - Vowel coalescence across the compound boundary
  - Final vowel loss
- Related forms:
  - *duha “meat”
  - *wesu “cover, enclose; enclosed space”
Extended Meanings
- *toru “height” → tor- augmentative prefix
- *muru “night” → base for owl terminology

Directional System Development

Illative (-las)
- Productive Early Hick -las most likely comes from a branch-specific grammaticalized allomorph, probably *lahesu > las, meaning inward movement, reception, or entry into a state
- This is related to the *lawesu “consume, take in” family, but the older *lawes > *laes > -las path is too simple for the current reconstruction
- The *-laes / *-aes layer is better treated as Proto-Maritime or early exploratory fossil material, especially in hydronyms such as Bramaes > Brams
- Productive Early Hick lexicalizations use -las:
  - bel-las “mouth-ILL” > bellas “taste (reception)”
  - pir-las “ear-ILL” > pirlas “hearing”
  - tag-las “hand-ILL” > taglas “take, receive”
Ellative (-imris)
- From older bound material around *ʔimer-isu / *ʔimerisu “released breath, outward breath/spirit”
- Regular development gives imeris, then high-frequency bound morphology reduces imeris > imris
- Shows parallel grammaticalization:
  - Breath/spirit expression > source and emergence marker
- Preserved in forms like:
  - imerlas “inspiration” (soul-inward)
  - imerimris “expression” (soul-outward)
Example Usage
- materok rismaterlas kethes “the boatman (goes) into the reed boat”
- materok rismaterimris kethes “the boatman (goes) out from the reed boat”

Negation System Development

Proto-Hick Stage:
- *muru “darkness, absence” (full lexical word)
- Used in compounds to indicate lack/absence
Early grammaticalization stage:
- *muru becomes preverbal particle marking negation
- *muru teru “not flow” (lit. “absence flow”)
Late Proto-Hick:
- Unstressed position leads to reduction:
- *muru > *mu (liquid deletion in unstressed position)
Early Hick:
- Further reduction in unstressed prefix position:
- *mu- > mo-
- Examples:
  - mo-thral “non-sacred” < *mur thral
  - mo-ter “not flowing” < *mur ter
  - mo-ward “misdirect” < *mur ward
Semantic Development:
- Original *mur retained independently as “darkness”
- mo- grammaticalized as general negator
- Metaphorical extension: darkness → absence → negation

Proto-Hick Case System

Original Spatial/Directional Cases

Basic Lative Cases:
- *-isu (locative) “at, in”
- *-ethe (ablative) “from, away”
- *-uma (allative) “to, towards”
Early Compounds with *ula (stative verb):
- *ula-isu “exists-at”
- *ula-ethe “exists-from”
- *ula-uma “exists-towards”
Development Path:
1. Early grammaticalization stage:
  - Spatial postpositions and particles begin to specialize
  - *ula as independent verb
2. Later pre-Early-Hick stage:
  - *ula begins grammaticalizing in possessive constructions
  - Still takes case markings as a verb
  - Spatial cases begin shift to demonstrative use
3. Early Hick:
  - *ula > -ul (possession marker)
  - Original case meanings blur
  - -isu,-ethe, -uma specialize as demonstratives
  - New branch-specific spatial markers emerge (-las, -imris, etc.), while fossil Maritime -aes remains in older names and coastal/exploratory material
Examples:
- *telu-isu “at place” > telisu “here”
- *telu-ethe “from place” > telethe “there”
- *telu-uma “towards place” > teluma “yonder”

Sample Proto-Hick Resconstructions

Proto-Hick *muruhilisu

Etymology: Compound of *muru “night” + *hi-lisu “see” (animate prefix + “eye”)
Development:
- *muruhilisu > *murhilisu (syncope)
- *murlisu (compound reduction)
- mulis (Early Hick, final vowel loss)
Semantic Development:
- Literal: “night-seeing”
- Extended: “dream, vision”
- Related forms:
  - *muru “night”
  - *hi-lisu “to see” (animate)
  - *lisu “eye” (physical organ)

Proto-Hick Definite Article

Proto-Hick had a definite article *mela, likely derived from an earlier demonstrative or deictic marker. Its usage patterns suggest it was still in the process of grammaticalizing from a demonstrative to a true definite article.

Basic Forms:
- *mela (animate/proximal)
- *mel (reduced form in compounds)
Usage:
- Post-nominal position
- Often used with topical or previously mentioned referents
- Shows agreement with animacy in early stages
Examples:
- *telu mela “the place” (inanimate)
- *kalu mela “the person” (animate)
- *mel-toru “the height” (in compounds)
Development in Early Hick:
- Splits into two distinct morphemes:
  - Definite article: *mel > -el through cliticization to the noun
  - Ergative case: *mel > =mel > =el > -el through clitic erosion, rebracketing, and analogy
- Position shifts from post-nominal to pre-nominal
- Animacy distinction lost

Proto-Hick *meru

Basic Forms:
- *meru “to nurture, care for” (original meaning)
- *ha-meru “sacred nurture” (sacred compound)
- *meru “bird” (metaphorical extension)
Development Path:
1. Early semantic stage:
  - *meru primary meaning “nurture/care”
  - Used in sacred compounds with *ha-
  - Cultural association with birds as nurturers
2. Later pre-Early-Hick stage:
  - *ha-meru > *θameru (sacred prefix spirantization)
  - *θameru > *θəmeru (unstressed vowel reduction)
  - *meru specializes in bird terminology
3. Early Hick:
  - *θəmeru > thimer “spiritual nurturing, penitence”
  - mer “bird” and “parent” (dual meaning preserved)
  - Rich owl terminology develops
Semantic Development:
- Original: “nurture, care for”
- Sacred: “spiritual nurturing” (*ha-meru > thimer)
- Extended: “bird” (especially nurturing birds)
- Further extended: “parent” (from bird metaphor)
Examples:
- *muru-meru “night-bird” > murmer “owl”
- *toru-muru-meru “great-night-bird” > tomur “great owl”
- *mer-lisu “parent-child” > merlis “offspring”
Cultural Context:
- Birds, especially owls, seen as exemplars of nurturing
- Sacred nurturing preserved in ritual terminology
- Parental nurturing preserved in kinship terms

Proto-Hick Number System

Basic Numbers:
- *su “one”
- *tiru “two”
- *thalu “three”
- *fenu “four”
- *pilu “five”
- *seku “six”
- *pranu “seven”
- *kresu “eight”
- *kethu “hundred”
- *thranu “thousand”
Counting Numbers (with *-inu suffix):
- *su-inu “one (counting)”
- *tir-inu “two (counting)”
- *thal-inu “three (counting)”
- *fen-inu “four (counting)”
- *pil-inu “five (counting)”
- *sek-inu “six (counting)”
- *pran-inu “seven (counting)”
- *kres-inu “eight (counting)”
- *thran-inu “thousand (counting)”

The counting suffix *-inu was used in enumeration contexts. By Early Hick, this distinction was lost, with some numbers preserving the counting form (sin, fen, pran, thran) and others keeping the basic form (tir, thal, pil, sek).

Compound numbers developed in Early Hick:

“nine”: *su-inu-kresu > sinkres “one-eight”
“ten”: *tiru-kresu > tirkres “two-eight”

Known Proto-Hick Roots

Basic Roots

*ahi “water” > Early Hick ai
*gralu “earth, soil” > Early Hick gral
*kelu “sky” > Early Hick kel
*thiru “air, wind” > Early Hick thir
*xalu “rock” > Early Hick al
*garu “stone” > Early Hick gar
*malu “pool” > Early Hick mal
*ranu “stream” > Early Hick ran
*risu “reed” > Early Hick ris
*wudu “wood, tree” > Early Hick wud
*grasu “grass” > Early Hick gras
*sedu “seed” > Early Hick sed
*venu “flower” > Early Hick wen
*wardu “guide” > Early Hick ward
*thralu “sacred” > Early Hick thral
*threnu “watch” > Early Hick thren
*wadu “path” > Early Hick wad
*meru “nurture/bird” > Early Hick mer
*taku “strike” > Early Hick tak
*storu “grow” > Early Hick stor

Numbers

*su “one”
*tiru “two”
*thalu “three”
*fenu “four”
*pilu “five”
*seku “six”
*pranu “seven”
*kresu “eight”
*kethu “hundred”
*thranu “thousand”

Grammatical Elements

*mela “definite marker” > Early Hick -el (ergative)
*heru “do, make” > Early Hick -’er (verbalizer)
*hi- “animate prefix” > Early Hick i-/ʔ-
*ha- “sacred prefix” > Early Hick θ- (th-)

Notes

All Proto-Hick roots show:
- Final vowel (usually *-u)
- (C)CV(C)V structure
- No complex onsets or codas
- Fixed initial stress
Sound changes to Early Hick include:
- Final vowel loss (*-u > ∅)
- Initial fricative loss (*x- > h- > ∅)
- Vowel coalescence (*ahi > ai)
- Compound-specific changes (liquid/nasal deletion)
Semantic domains preserved:
- Natural features
- Sacred/ritual terminology
- Basic actions
- Numbers
- Grammatical markers

Proto-Hick Ablative

lu-