Pabappa, literally "simple baby language", is a member of the Bloppabop language family
that originated in the woodlands east of Nieipi around 15000 BC.
It is spoken primarily by bloppabops, a race of diminutive humans that originated as a breed of an earlier human race called the vuhau,
but were specialized for use as pets for a race of birds called the cilai.
Having lost most of their instinct for civilization, they generally cannot live independently
of a more intelligent race, be that an animal race or a human one;
however, they can live in large nearly-wild expanses of nature
and be safe from predators because their most
basic instincts were not eliminated during the breeding.
In 10000 BC, the North still just had only two races: Bloppabops and Manni (Moonshines). The Moonshines were
those that lived by themselves and the Bloppabops were those that were ruled by birds. The Moonshines were smarter
than the Bloppabops, but poorer because without the birds there was a lot that they could not do. Thus they lived in
cold, landlocked areas of the North where the birds were not interested in living. In 10000 BC, the Teppalans appeared
on the mainland, having come over from the islands of the Nieipian Sea. They were the former livestock breed of
the humans, which the birds had eaten for 40000 years, but now they had been phased out of that role and were to
become workers like the Bloppabops. Since the Teppalans were superior to the Bloppabops, the birds wanted to phase
out the Bloppabops, but the Teppalans would not allow this. And the Teppalans soon began to prove themselves to be
very powerful, so the birds began to change their mind about which race of humans they favored. Soon the Teppalans
began to form societies in which they functioned as independent residents, although they still subjected themselves to
military rule by the birds. Eventually, the birds began to lose control over the Teppalans, and the Teppalans formed
nations. The Teppalans freed the Bloppabops from the birds and took over control of the Bloppabop societies. They
protected the Bloppabops from harm, and the Bloppabops served to some extent as a means to discourage war between
different tribes of Teppalans. However, after many millenia, the Teppalans had grown to the point where they had
eaten up most of the territory that had formerly been populated only by Bloppabops, and they were forced to relocate
all Bloppabops to the city of Baeba which was being built in a small notch a bit north of the much larger Sun River Valley.
Baeba was a new city with only a few Bloppabops as aborigines, and these aborigines moved outside the city without
objections. Then the Teppalans relocated the entire Bloppabop population of Europe to this new city, and promised the
Bloppabops that they would be protected from harm there by the taller, stronger Teppalans, who even when they were at
war with each other usually respected the innocence of the Bloppabops. Over time, the Bloppabops proved themselves
able to build an independent nation of their own, and were granted recognition and more land by the Teppalan tribes
although the Teppalans were still seen as the military guardians of Baeba. As time passed, the Bloppabops invited
geographically distant members of their race to move to Baeba. These other Bloppabops tended to be more robust than
the Northern ones had been, and they were considered attractive and reproduced more often, so with many millenia the
Bloppabops became on average almost as tall as the more gracile tribes of Teppalans, and because they had more muscle
they were sometimes actually stronger. Also, whereas previously the Bloppabops had been seen as just smaller, more
childlike versions of the Teppalans, now they had adopted Andanese racial characteristics and became to be seen as a
different race, the Baeban race. However, the Teppalans themselves had also begun to move to Baeba, and married with
some of the taller Bloppabops, and so the Baebans had quite a variety of appearances merging in with the standard
Teppalans on one end and with the still-wild Andanese Bloppabops on the other. The Andanese Bloppabops had introduced a
new language, Amadean, to Baeba, but Pabappa was still official since it was far more likely to be intelligible to
Teppalans, who had also merged with Bloppabops to some extent during the 12000 years and adopted many loanwords into
their Teppalan languages. Also, Pabappa itself was used as a creole language by some Teppalan tribes because it had
been spread over a very large area as the Bloppabops were moved across Camia to Baeba.
Pabappa and Moonshine share Izda Mir as an ancestor. Izda Mir was spoken around 10000 BC by a society in transition from ferality to civilization, and composed of both bloppabops and the wilder, yet more intelligent lavet race of humans. The lavets controlled the society for 6000 years and expanded over territory whose only aboriginal human population was bloppabop. As they grew, they pushed the aboriginal bloppabop languages into extinction and replaced them all with Proto-Bloppabop, the ancestor of Pabappa and many similar languages. They also established Moonshine in these territories but because the bloppabops could not speak it it soon died out.
The amount of lexical similarity between Pabappa and the closely related Moonshine is very low. The reasons for this are as follows:
1.) The two languages actually split apart 12,000 years ago rather than 4000 as would be implied by history.
2.) During the first 8000 years of this history, as the languages diverged, words that were similar in meaning and sound in both languages were often synchronized so that they would be exactly the same. This caused the words to be perceived as belonging exclusively to one of the two languages, which caused them often to be ultimately dropped from one when the two languages separated.
3.) A very large number of loanwords were borrowed into proto-Pabappa after the separation. Many of these were words for concepts that did not exist at the time of separation.
At the end of a syllable, ɣ disappeared and changed the previous vowel to a high tone. It also voiced the following consonant. No new consonants arose from this change, but some voiced ones now became less restricted in their distribution.
The bilabial approximant w changed to v before a vowel.
Then l became w in all positions although it retained a rhotic allophone.
Sequences of two vowels in which the first vowel was i or u became rising diphthongs. Then all clusters of a consonant followed by a semivowel came to be pronounced as coarticulated single consonants. Thus bua became bʷa, bia became bʲa, and so on.
The voiced labialized fricatives vʷ zʷ ɣʷ coalesced as w between vowels.
The voiced palatalized fricatives vʲ zʲ ɣʲ coalesced as j between vowels.
The voiced fricative v changed to w between vowels.
The voiced labialized stops bʷ dʷ ǯʷ gʷ changed to b between vowels.
The voiced palatalized stops bʲ dʲ ǯʲ gʲ changed to ǯ between vowels.
The voiced stops b d ǯ g (including ones created by the previous two rules) changed to β ð ž ɣ between vowels.
The voiced fricatives ð z ɣ became silent between vowels and occasionally in initial position (due to compounding).
βʷ changed to w.
žʲ became ž.
Thus the language now had the consonants p b m f v w β t d n s z ð č ǯ š ž j k g h ɣ r and the vowels a i u ā ī ū e, the last of which was a schwa. Of the consonants, all but w β ð č ǯ š ž j could be palatalized or labialized. In final position, p m s w j could occur, although p m were pronounced as glottals.
The voiced fricative r changed to β in all positions. ʔ changed to p.
The clusters pm pn pŋ pβ pv pð pz pž pɣ pb pd pg all changed to p.
The clusters pmʷ pnʷ pŋʷ all changed to pʷ. pβʷ pvʷ pðʷ pzʷ pžʷ pɣʷ pbʷ pdʷ pgʷ changed to pb.
The clusters pmʲ pnʲ pŋʲ all changed to pʲ. pβʲ pvʲ pðʲ pzʲ pžʲ pɣʲ pbʲ pdʲ pgʲ changed to pž.
The clusters sm sn sŋ sβ sv sð sz sž sɣ sb sd sg all changed to s.
The clusters smʷ snʷ sŋʷ all changed to sʷ. sβʷ svʷ sðʷ szʷ sžʷ sɣʷ sbʷ sdʷ sgʷ changed to sb.
The clusters smʲ snʲ sŋʲ all changed to sʲ. sβʲ svʲ sðʲ szʲ sžʲ sɣʲ sbʲ sdʲ sgʲ changed to sž.
The velar fricatives h ɣ were fronted to š ž unconditionally. šʲ žʲ became š ž.
The voiced stops bʷ dʷ ǯʷ gʷ changed to b.
The voiced stops bʲ dʲ ǯʲ gʲ changed to ǯ.
The voiced stops b d ǯ g changed to p t č k.
The voiced fricatives z ð changed to s β. (ð had been revived due to loanwords.)
The voiced fricatives v vʷ zʷ žʷ changed to β.
The voiced fricatives vʲ zʲ žʲ changed to ž.
βʷ changed to w.
žʲ became ž.
β changed to b.
The postalveolar affricate č was softened to š unconditionally.
Newly created vowel sequences beginning with i or u collapsed into rising diphthongs, thus creating a new series of palatalized and labialized consonants.
The labialized consonants bʷ žʷ changed to b unconditionally.
The palatalized consonants bʲ žʲ changed to ž unconditionally.
Under the influence of the neighboring Andanese language, tones were eliminated without any effects. Thus the language had the consonants p m f b w t n s k ŋ š ž j and the vowels a i u ə, the last of which was a schwa. Of the consonants, all except b w ž j could be followed by a semivowel w or j, when occurring at the beginning of a syllable. At the end of a syllable, only p m w s j could occur. This stage of the language is referred to as Bābākiam, "city language".
The long vowels ī ū became ʲi ʷu in all positions.
Between two consonants in a monosyllabic word, the diphthongs au ai eu ei changed to e o e o. But in longer words, or when a consonant cluster was adjacent, a b was inserted and the individual vowels were retained. And in word-final position they remained as diphthongs.
ā changed to aba in all positions.
At the beginning of a syllable and after p m, the semivowels w and j shifted to r and l respectively. At the end of a syllable, no shift took place, but the orthography was changed as if it had.
The voiced postalveolar fricative ž changed to the palatal approximant j in all positions.
The consonant šʲ became ś, a voiceless palatal approximant. fʷ became a voiceless rounded labial approximant.
The velar stops k ŋ changed to the labials p m in final position.
The medial clusters pt mt pn mn shifted to tt nt tn nn. Then pk mk sk pŋ mŋ sŋ became pt mpt št pn mn šn. ms mš became mps mpš.
The cluster sf changed to ff.
The labialized consonants sʷ tʷ nʷ shifted to ps pʷ mʷ in word-initial position, and ps pt bʷ medially.
The new clusters lw rw ww merged as w.
The consonant clusters mʷ mr ml ŋʷ shifted to bʷ br bl gʷ unconditionally.
Meanwhile šʷ changed to pš.
In initial position before a vowel, the voiceless labial fricative f changed to w. This shift did not affect fʲ.
After a labialized consonant (except w), the schwa vowel y changed to u.
Labialized consonants lost their labialization when they occurred before u. (But later they were re-introduced through compounding.)
The sequences ow and uw changed to o and u respectively.
The vowels i and u changed to e and o in closed syllables.
The vowel y in closed syllables changed to either i or u depending on the other vowel in the root. The default choice was u, unless it followed a w. i was chosen only when it followed a w or was in a word in which an i or e was in an adjacent syllable and that was the only other vowel in the word.
The sequences wu wo changed to wi we.
Then, s and p disappeared before nasals and sporadically in stem-final position due to back-formation from plurals (e.g. pe "island" from pena, earlier pes, pesna).
Unaccented i changed to e unless the accented syllable of the word contained an i.
Then unaccented y changed to i unless the syllable ended in a labial or the accented syllable of the word contained a y.
Then unaccented u changed to y except when the syllable ended in a labial or the accented syllable also contained a u.
Before a vowel, unaccented y and yb changed to u.
Before a vowel, unaccented a and ab changed to i ("the karaoke shift").
Next, i changed to y if the next syllable had u.
The palatalized consonants pʲ mʲ sʲ lʲ rʲ, which had been created mostly by rule 21, changed to f v ś j b before a vowel.
Simultaneously, syllable-final r in most words changed to b.
The palatal approximants ś j changed to š ž in all positions. fʷ became w.
In words not affected by the previous shift (mostly due to grammatical analogy), syllable-final ar and yr shifted to o and er and ir shifted to u.
In unstressed syllables before a nasal, the sequences el il merged as i and or ur merged as u.
Unstressed ol and ul became e before a consonant or at the end of a word.
i and y shifted to u before a labial in a closed syllable.
ŋ was denasalized to g in all positions.
The palatalized velar consonants kʲ gʲ became the postalveolar affricates tš dž. In some dialects, including the one that produced Pabappa, this shift did not occur before back vowels, and instead the consonants were reduced to plain velars.
The labialized velar consonants kʷ gʷ pʷ bʷ were decomposed to the clusters kw gw pw bw.
The remaining palatalized consonants became labiodental fricatives: fʲ and tʲ merged as f, and nʲ changed to v. pf became ff.
Medial vowels in trisyllabic words disappeared if the resulting consonant cluster was acceptable ("the Debra shift").
š before a nasal changed to ž and the nasal changed into a voiced stop. At this time, the new sound d was spelled with the letter v.
The voiced velar stop g was fronted to dž unless it occurred in a cluster after another consonant and before a o u.
The clusters šb and bš were devoiced to šp and pš respectively.
The clusters žp and pž became žb and bž respectively.
In wholly unstressed syllables, except when preceded by a, the clusters rl and lr changed to al and ar respectively, and raised the preceding vowel.
The inherited vowel y had lowered and weakened to a schwa in most positions. Now the diphthong al went to ae (except often before s) and yl to e. ae was pronounced in some dialects as ai or a, with the a pronunciation winning out in all but a few words.
The labiodental fricatives f v came to be pronounced as the dentals ṣ ẓ in all positions, but there was no change in the spelling.
Thus standard Ižda Mir had the consonants p b m w f v t n s l r š ž k g and the vowels a e i o u y, the last of which was a schwa. At the beginning of a syllable, all of the consonants as well as the clusters pl pr pw ps pš bl br bw tš dž kw gw were allowed. At the end of a syllable, all consonants were allowed, but were restricted based on the consonant that followed. At the end of a word, p m s l r f v š ž b were allowed.
There was a merger between the velars k g and the postalveolars tš dž; the velar pronunciation dominated when an o or u was adjacent, and postalveolar elsewhere. The spelling k g came to be used for both.
Diphthongs of all types were resolved in favor of the first vowel.
Stops occurring before a nasal assimilated fully.
Clusters of two fricatives of differing points of articulation were assimilated in favor of the second consonant.
The cluster žbž simplified to žž.
Clusters of fricatives and stops of dissimilar voicing were resolved in favor of the second consonant. For example žp became šp.
The fricative š changed to h in initial position and s elsewhere.
The fricative ž came to be pronounced z.
The cluster rr was reduced to r.
Pabappa evolved from a dialect of Bloppabop that lacked the vowel ae and the clusters tš dž, having a in place of the former and k g in place of the latter in all words. However, these sounds were pronounced as /tš dž/ before all front vowels, including /a/. Thus the proto-Pabappa dialect of Bloppabop had the consonants p b m w f v t n s l r h z k g and the vowels a e i o u y, the last of which was a schwa. At the beginning of a syllable, all of the consonants as well as the clusters pl pr pw ps pš bl br bw kw gw were allowed. At the end of a syllable, all consonants were allowed, but were restricted based on the consonant that followed. At the end of a word, p m s l r f v z b were allowed. Then the following changes occurred:
Double nasals were reduced to singles.
The vowel ə either disappeared or became i or o (governed by the surrounding phonemes).
The fricative z disappeared in all positions, except in a few words where it remained as d. Meanwhile the fricative v changed to d in all positions, except in a few words where it disappeared. These irregularities are explained by an early irregular stage of the sound change where z and v changed places in a few words.
Unstressed cliticized prefixes were dropped from the language or phonologically incorporated into the following word by dropping the vowel, even when this created a previously forbidden consonant cluster.
The velar stops k g changed to the fricatives š ž in all positions. Before back vowels, they were usually pronounced as velar fricatives.
The fricative f changed to p in initial position and s elsewhere. This stage, reached around 1000 BC, is considered to be the classical stage of Old Pabappa, also called Pespimbesa.
The labiovelar stops kw and gw changed to the bilabial stops p and b in all positions.
The single bilabial stop p became the geminate pp when following a voiceless consonant plus a vowel.
The postalveolar fricatives ž and š became the labiodental fricatives v and f in all positions.
Unstressed initial pu- changed to purp- before a vowel, where -rp- is a hypercorrection of the epenthetic r that had appeared near the earliest stages of the language. pu-p- and pu-w- became w-. pu-b- became pu-br-. pu-t- became pu-d-.
In initial position, the clusters sp st ps coalesced s. sl survived, but only in one native word; the others were all either loans or proper names.
The voiced stops b and d became the voiceless stops p and t in all positions.
Non-labial final consonants were replaced with labials in most words. Final b became p.
Final e disappeared, even after consonant clusters, except in monosyllabic words and some suffixes. This created new consonant clusters in agglutinative forms of words and in compounds. Sporadically, monosyllabic words that had ended in e got a new -sse suffix which caused the original e to be retained; this happened to other monosyllabic vowel-final words too.
Before a nasal, p s t n assimilated completely.
Clusters of a nonlabial stop followed by a labial stop were resolved in favor of the nonlabial one.
In some words, final o and i were lowered to a and e. This is considered to be the classical stage of Middle Pabappa.
The sequence aw changed to o before any nonrounded vowel. ow and uw became o and u.
The clusters tl and ttl both changed to rpl.
The sequence sr became spr. lr became rr. Any other nonlabial consonant before r became labial. Then mr changed to mpr.
Clusters of a nasal followed by any other consonant of differing point of articulation were assimilated in favor of the point of articulation of the second consonant.
ml became mpl.
The voiceless labiodental fricative f changed to w in initial position.
h changed to 0 in all positions.
Initial pw became w.
Intervocalic voiceless stops became voiced. The cluster pl became bl in all positions; pr became b in word-initial position, and br elsewhere.
The geminate stops pp and tt became p and t in all positions. Meanwhile ss became s.
The cluster sp became ss. Most suffixes that had formerly begun with p were now considered to begin with b, but this b was realized as b only after a vowel or a bilabial consonant; elsewhere the consonant disappeared or, in the case of t and d, doubled the preceding consonant. After p, which would normally be omitted, the suffix came to begin with p.
Initial v became f.
The labiodental fricatives f and v became the bilabial stops p and b in all positions.