Introduction
At first glance, the Ancestral consonant system seems breathtakingly complex, with an unheard of number of complex consonants. Indeed, I have come to believe that the consonant system of pre-Ancestral (the original form of Ancestral) was an “open” system whose fundamental purpose (subject only to the limits of the human vocal system) was to symbolize in sound every meaningful aspect of the Ancestral world.
Appearances can be deceiving, and the Ancestral consonant system was far less complicated than I originally thought. By the time Ancestral became a written language, its speakers had organized it into ten distinct places of articulation and ten distinct manners of articulation, the intersection of which was the unique sound (or, more properly, the absence of sound) we know as the glottal stop. Each of these individual places and manners was realized as a simple consonant with two possible realizations, yielding a large but very neat consonant inventory of forty-one sounds (the forty-first “sound” being the glottal stop itself).
Of course, I have no way of knowing precisely how these sounds were pronounced. My evidence is limited to the native name of each consonant and its development in Ancestral’s daughter languages.
The Ancestral Places Of Articulation
My tentative reconstruction of Ancestral’s places of articulation is as follows:
- labial > p
- labial voiced > b
- dental > t
- dental voiced > d
- retroflex > c
- radical > +
- retroflex voiced > j
- velar > k
- velar voiced > g
- uvular > q
- uvular voiced > v
It is unclear to me if the only contrast between *p and *b, for example, was one of voice; in fact, the evidence suggests there was also a meaningful difference in place.
Note that the radical place of articulation corresponded to the plosive manner of articulation. This faithfully reflects the Ancestral notion that the glottal stop is the locus of consonant creation.
The Ancestral Manners of Articulation
My tentative reconstruction of Ancestral’s manners of articulation is as follows:
- whisper > h
- whistle > y
- shibilant > x
- sibilant > s
- falsetto > f
- plosive > +
- creak > z
- trill > r
- lateral > l
- sonorant > w
- nasal > n
I am even less certain of the pronunciation of the manners of articulation. The Ancestral names of these sounds suggest that each had an “h-like” quality.
As above, note that the plosive manner of articulation corresponded to the radical place of articulation.
The Romanization of Ancestral
The speakers of Ancestral created two distinct writing systems, one pictographic and the other alphabetic. The former was used for “artistic” purposes (including the telling of stories), and the latter was used for “practical” purposes (including the teaching of children).
In creating a system of romanization, my goals were threefold. First, I wished to make good use of as many standard English letters as possible. Second, in my choice of these letters, I wished to suggest the approximate pronunciation of each sound wherever possible. Third, I wanted to capture the representational nature of the Ancestral alphabet, which beautifully expresses the place and manner of each consonant.
After a fair bit of trial and error, it dawned on me that, after mapping the five English vowel letters to the five Ancestral vowels, I could use ten of the remaining twenty-one letters to represent the places of articulation and ten more to represent the manners of articulation. It was then a simple matter to combine these two sets of letters into four-hundred pairs (or digraphs), each of which represents one of Ancestral’s four-hundred complex consonants.
I’m quite pleased with the result. The odd man out in my scheme is the letter “m”, which I suppose I could have used to represent the glottal stop (at the cost of considerable confusion). Instead I chose to use the “+” symbol because of its resemblance to the actual Ancestral symbol.
The Ancestral Simple Consonant System
As described above, Ancestral’s places and manners of articulation can be organized into four series, like so:
- the glottalized stop series < place of articulation and glottal stop
- the glottalized radical series < manner of articulation and glottal stop
- the plain stop series < glottal stop and place of articulation
- the plain radical series < glottal stop and manner of articulation
I romanize these four series of simple consonants in the following way (placing each digraph in a vocalic context, in keeping with Ancestral custom):
- ap+a ab+a at+a ad+a ac+a aj+a ak+a ag+a aq+a av+a
- ah+a ay+a ax+a as+a af+a az+a ar+a al+a aw+a an+a
- a+pa a+ba a+ta a+da a+ca a+ja a+ka a+ga a+qa a+va
- a+ha a+ya a+xa a+sa a+fa a+za a+ra a+la a+wa a+na
The Ancestral Complex Consonant System
The Ancestral speaker combined every place with every manner, every manner with every place, every place with every place, and every manner with every manner to create, in effect, an “Ancestral Phonemic Alphabet” composed of four hundred complex consonants. My tentative reconstruction of the Ancestral complex consonant inventory suggests that it can be organized into the following forty series of ten complex consonants each:
- the geminate fricative series < place of articulation + h
- the palatalized stop series < place of articulation + y
- the shibilant affricate series < place of articulation + x
- the sibilant affricate series < place of articulation + s
- the stop and high tone series < place of articulation + f
- the stop and low tone series < place of articulation + z
- the trilled affricate series < place of articulation + r
- the clicked affricate series < place of articulation + l
- the labialized stop series < place of articulation + w
- the geminate nasal series < place of articulation + n
- the prewhispered stop series < h + place of articulation
- the prepalatalized stop series < y + place of articulation
- the prehushed stop series < x + place of articulation
- the prehissed stop series < s + place of articulation
- the high tone and stop series < f + place of articulation
- the low tone and stop series < z + place of articulation
- the pretrilled stop series < r + place of articulation
- the prelilled stop series < l + place of articulation
- the prelabialized stop series < w + place of articulation
- the prenasalized stop series < n + place of articulation
I romanize these forty series of complex consonants in the following way (placing each digraph in a vocalic context, in keeping with Ancestral custom):
- apha abha atha adha acha ajha akha agha aqha avha
- apya abya atya adya acya ajya akya agya aqya avya
- apxa abxa atxa adxa acxa ajxa akxa agxa aqxa avxa
- apsa absa atsa adsa acsa ajsa aksa agsa aqsa avsa
- appá abbá attá addá accá ajjá akká aggá aqqá avvá
- appà abbà attà addà accà ajjà akkà aggà aqqà avvà
- apra abra atra adra acra ajra akra agra aqra avra
- apla abla atla adla acla ajla akla agla aqla avla
- apwa abwa atwa adwa acwa ajwa akwa agwa aqwa agwa
- apna abna atna adna acna ajna akna agna aqna avna
- ahpa ahba ahta ahda ahca ahja ahka ahga ahqa ahva
- aypa ayba ayta ayda ayca ayja ayka ayga ayqa ayva
- axpa axba axta axda axca axja axka axga axqa axva
- aspa asba asta asda asca asja aska asga asqa asva
- áppa ábba átta ádda ácca ájja ákka ágga áqqa ávva
- àppa àbba àtta àdda àcca àjja àkka àgga àqqa àvva
- arpa arba arta arda arca arja arka arga arqa arva
- alpa alba alta alda alca alja alka alga alqa alva
- awpa awba awta awda awca awja awka awga awqa awva
- anpa anba anta anda anca anja anka anga anqa anva
The Ancestral Consonant Chart
