Taking a break from verbs to start work on the first daughter, Old Quomonak (kʷomonak- I reserve the right to change the name later on, since I'm not sure what this will mean), which will be the ancestor of the language of my main conculture. We'll start with some sound changes, and then move onto nouns and then eventually verbs, which I expect to be a bit of a clusterfuck, but hopefully analogy will present some solutions to straighten it all out.

The calendar of my main conculture starts at year 0, which represents the mythical founding of its mother city (somewhat like the founding of Rome). The current year is 2673, and the proto-language is thought to date to around -3000.

Pre-Quomonakian Changes, c.-3000 to c.-2500

Many of these changes can be found in other branches as well.

1.  Initial glide-vowel reduction

The weak vowels /e ɨ/ merge with a preceding glide into the vocalic version of that glide when word-initial. Schematically:

we wɨ -> o / #_
ye yɨ -> i / #_

So, *weyɨ̄ *yente -> owi īte.

2. Loss of *ʔ

The glottal stop *ʔ is lost before a vowel:

ʔ -> Ø / _V

Examples include *nɨʔo -> niyo and *ʔočīča -> ohceyahca.

3. Merger of *r and *l.

r -> l / _

Common to almost all branches of the Nahtak family. Example: *k'ōri -> kōli.

4a. Vowel lowering before coda *h.

Before coda /h/, the vowel /i/ lowers to /e/ (whether short or long), and /ɨ e o/ lower to /a/, again, whether short or long.

i -> e / _h[C#]
ɨ, e, o -> a / _h[C#]

Example: *kʷēh -> kʷē. (This doesn't look like lowering, but there's an intermediate step *kʷā.)

4b. Merger of coda *h and *ʔ.

*h becomes *ʔ when a coda. Even though neither *h nor *ʔ survived in coda position to the extant language, effects on surrounding consonants and vowels make it clear that this (or something similar) must have occured. Examples aren't going to illustrate the point very well, so I'll just move on.

5. Backing of *i.

*i becomes /ɨ/ when preceded by a velar or labiovelar, that is, one of /k k' kʷ kʷ' ŋ w/.

Example: *mɨkʷik -> mohkʷoh.

6. Loss of *h.

*h is lost in all positions, everywhere.

h -> Ø / _

Pre-Quomonakian Changes Cont., c.-2500 to c. -2000.

Past this point we start to see differentiation of the Quomonakian branch.

7a. Palatalization of alveolar sibilants.

*s *c *c' change to *š *č *č' when followed by *i.

s -> š / _[i ī]
c -> č / _[i ī]
c' -> č' / _[i ī]

7b. Debuccalization of *s.

Remaining *s changes to *h in all positions.

s -> h / _

8a. Simplification of affricates.

*c changes to *s, while *c' and *č change to *c. *č' becomes *č. Schematically:

c -> s / _
c', č -> c / _
č' -> č / _

8b. Palatalization of *t

*t and *t' become *č before *i. This must have occurred after change 7a, since we see č as the modern reflex, not **c.

t, t' -> č / _[i ī]

9. Loss of *θ

*θ becomes /s/ intervocalically and /t/ otherwise.

θ -> s / V_V
θ -> t / otherwise

10. Initial spirantization of stops.

*p *t *k *kʷ become *ɸ *θ *h *w when word-initial and followed by a short vowel.

p -> ɸ / #_V[+short]
t -> θ / #_V[+short]
k -> h / #_V[+short]
kʷ -> w / #_V[+short]

11. Final vowel shortening.

Long vowels become short when word-final.

V: -> V / _#

Pre-Quomonakian to Proto-Quomonakian, c. -2000 to c. -1000

The Quomonakian branch comes into its own. I am considering breaking off a closely-related sister branch (think Baltic to Slavic or Indic to Iranian) somewhere in the middle here.

12. Insertion of /h/ before internal stops and affricates.

An epenthetic /h/ is inserted before intervocalic *p *t *c *č *k *kʷ.

Ø -> h / V_C[+stop/affricate]V

13. Loss of coda *ʔ.

Coda *ʔ, which by now is the only instance of *ʔ, is deleted.

ʔ -> Ø / _

14. Ejectives merge with plain stops.

Remaining ejectives merge into their plain counterparts:

C' -> C / _

15. Palatalization of *k *kʷ

Yet another palatalization rule- here, *k becomes *c, and *kʷ becomes *k, before *i.

k kʷ -> c k / _[i ī]

16a. Shortening of homoorganic vowels.

A long vowel, followed in the next syllable by the same vowel (whether short or long), is shortened. So, *īkʷi -> *ikʷi, and *ōpō -> *opō, but *āpi does not change.

V₁: -> V₁ / _$V₁

16b. Shortening of long vowels between long syllables.

A long vowel, if both the preceding and following syllables contain long vowels, is shortened. This remains a conditioned rule in the language.

V: -> V / V:$_$V:

17. Long Vowel Raising

Long vowels, except *ɨ̄ *ō, raise, with *ī breaking:

ā -> ē / _
ē -> ī / _
ī -> ya / #_
ī -> eya / otherwise

18. Merger of *ɨ

*ɨ merges into *o after labials, and into *a otherwise.

ɨ ɨ̄ -> o ō / [p m w kʷ]_
ɨ ɨ̄ -> a ā / otherwise

19a. Loss of glides before similar vowels

*w is lost before the back vowels *a *o, and *y before the front vowels *e *i:

w -> Ø / _[a ā o ō]
y -> Ø / _[e ē i ī]

19b. Glide reinsertion

Quomonak doesn't like vowel hiatuses, so new glides pretty much immediately get reinserted into the language:

Ø -> w / B_V
Ø -> y / F_V

Proto-Quomonak to Old Quomonak, c. -1000 to c. 300

By this point we're dealing with a branch at about the scale of Italic or Celtic, and changes from here on in detail the more recent development of Old Quomonak itself.

20. *h deletion in double clusters

When a coda *h is followed by a syllable with another coda *h, it gets deleted.

h -> Ø / _CVh[C#]

21. *ŋ mergers

*ŋ merges with *m or *n depending on the following vowel:

*ŋ -> m / _B
*ŋ -> n / _F

22. *ł dentalization

*ł merges with those instances of /θ/ that have developed, generally from initial spirantization.

ł -> θ / _

22a. Coda *k spirantization

*k becomes /h/ in coda:

k -> h / _C, _#

22b. Coda *t to /k/ change

Coda *t becomes /k/ in a chain shift from the preceding change.

t -> k / _C, _#

22c. Coda glide mergers

The coda glides *y *w...oh boy. These merge and often change the preceding vowel in a variety of ways. They're too complicated to list in prose, so I'll just present the changes schematically.

Fy -> ī / _C, _#
iw, ew -> yo / #_[C#]
īw, ēw -> īyo, ēyo / _[C#]
ay, oy -> wi / #_[C#]
ay, oy -> awi, owi / _[C#]
āy, ōy -> āwi, ōwi / _[C#]
Bw -> ō / _C, _#

22d. Loss of nasals in coda with lengthening.

Coda nasals delete, lengthening preceding vowels:

VN -> V: / _C, _#

22e. Approximation of coda *š *l

*š *l become /y w/ in coda:

š -> y / _C, _#
l -> w / _C, _#

22f. Dissimilation of *hh.

Double *h isn't allowed, so new examples of *hh become *hk.

h -> k / h_

23a. Loss of initial *w.

Initial *w is lost.

w -> Ø / #_

23b. Approximation of *ɸ.

*ɸ becomes *w in all positions, likely in a chain shift (since it's basically only found initially.)

ɸ -> w / _