Proto-Ka language

Proto-Ka (*Nùkos ), also known as Ancient Ka, is the the reconstructed common ancestor of the Ka language family spoken in the Socoan Mesopotamia. It was spoken from around the 10th century BIA to the 2nd century BIA.

Consonants

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! colspan=2 | ! Bilabial ! Alveolar ! Palatal ! Velar ! colspan=2 | Nasal ! rowspan=2 | Plosive ! voiceless ! voiced ! rowspan=2 | Fricative ! voiceless ! voiced ! colspan=2 | Approximant ! colspan=2 | Trill
 * + Consonant phonemes of Proto-Ka
 * m || n || || ŋ*
 * || t || || k
 * b || d* || || ɡ*
 * || s || ||
 * || z || ||
 * || || j || w
 * || r || ||
 * }

* Only occurs rhematic (focus) prothesis.

Vowels

 * }
 * }

Stress
Stress is phonemic, marked in the romanisation with a grave accent.

Grammar
Proto-Ka is an extremely agglutinative language.

Nouns
Nouns in Proto-Ka are declined for topic and focus, case and number.

Topic and focus

 * *-t(o)- — consonantal topic noun root
 * *-z(ù)- — consonantal focus noun root


 * *-o- — vocalic topic noun root
 * *-ù- — vocalic focus noun root

Number
Proto-Ka has four numbers, distinguished in nouns and pronouns: singular, dual, plural and collective.


 * *-∅ — singular
 * *-ez — dual
 * *-uz — plural
 * root reduplication + *-uz — collective

Pronouns
Pronouns in Proto-Ka are formed regularly with topic and focus, person, case and number.

Topic and focus

 * *na- — topic root
 * *ta- — focus root

Person

 * *-u- — first-person root
 * *-i- — second-person root
 * *-∅- — third-person root

Number

 * *-s — singular
 * *-∅ — dual
 * *-z — plural
 * *-wù — collective

Verbs
Verbs are conjugated for tense, aspect and topic and focus. The conjugations differ if the root ends in a consonant or a vowel. Verbs that end in a vowel have the first syllable reduplicated in the continuous aspect.

Passive
The passive is formed with the prefix *mù-. For example:


 * *Kùtosuz zamandèi.— The dogs will kill.
 * *Kùtosuz mùzamandèi. — The dogs will be killed.

Causative
The causative is formed with the prefix *za-.