Old Unuvi

Old Unuvi is the oldest form of the Unuvi language, attested in documents from the 84th century.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants	Bilabial	Dental	Velar	Uvular
Plosive	k͡p p ⟨kp p⟩	t̪ t̪̻ ⟨t th⟩	k ⟨k⟩	q ⟨q⟩
Nasal	ŋ͡m m ⟨ngm m⟩	n̪ ⟨n⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩	ɴ ⟨nq⟩
Tap/Flap		ɺ̻ ⟨r⟩
Approximant		l̪ ⟨l⟩	ɰ ⟨w⟩	ʟ̠ ⟨l2⟩

Vowels

Speakers of Old Unuvi associated each point of vowel articulation with a gender. ⟨i⟩ was associated with the green gender, ⟨a⟩ with the foreign gender and ⟨u⟩ with the heavenly gender.

Vowels in Old Unuvi

Vowels	Front	Back
Close	i i: ⟨i ii⟩
Open	ɯ ɯ: ⟨u uu⟩	a a: ⟨a aa⟩

Grammar

Old Unuvi had a complicated grammatical system that made heavy use of its three genders.

Formality

Old Unuvi lacked the complicated formality system that the later evolutions of Unuvi would come to have. The Heavenly gender of Old Unuvi would eventually be co-opted into being the means by which formality was displayed.

Grammatical number

Old Unuvi had a complex grammatical number system where one could attach clitics and conjugate verbs to specify an arbitrary 2ⁿ number of items. In addition, there was a generic plural form that would later be usurped by the octuple clitic.

Pronouns

Old Unuvi had a set of pronouns with marked gender and grammatical person. The language did not mark number on the pronouns, but rather on verbs. Regular suffixes could be attached to pronouns to form their dual, quadruple, octuple, etc. forms.

Pronouns in Old Unuvi

	Green	Foreign	Heavenly
1st Person	ngmiit
2nd Person	kngi	lar
3rd Person (proximate)	ptii	ptaa	ptuu
3rd Person (obviative)	rii	raa	ruu

Correlatives

Adding -kpam to the end of a pronoun created a demonstrative pronoun. First-person pronouns became proximal, second-person pronouns medial, and third-person pronouns distal.

Table of correlatives

		interrogative	demonstrative			quantifier
			proximal	medial	distal	assertive existential1	elective/dubitative existential	universal	negatory	positive alternative
determiner		akpam	ngmiitkpam (G/F/H)	kngikpam (G) larkpam (F/H)	ptiikpam (G) ptaakpam (F) ptuukpam (H)	ruukpam	raakpam	thath	ingmiip	wuullu
pronoun	human					raangmuuth
	nonhuman					raapti
	out of two (dual)
	out of many (plural)
pro-adverb	location	kpama	itaa	kitaa	ptitaa	ruuqaa	raaqaa
	source	kpamari	itaari	kitaari	ptitaari	ruuri	raari
	goal	kpamathi	itaathi	kitaathi	ptitaathi	ruuthi	raathi
	time	kpamatha	itaatha	kitaatha	ptitaatha	ruutha	raatha

¹ The 3rd person obviative heavenly gender pronoun was the base for assertive existential correlatives. One could think of it as "the heavens, far away, are known to exist". ² The 3rd person obviative foreign gender pronoun was the base for elective correlatives. One could think of it as "some foreign thing, far away, which may or may not exist."