Proto-Nebulonic language

The Proto-Nebulonic language is the hypothetical, unattested ancestor language of the Nebulonic language. The reconstruction is very incomplete.

Consonants
Plosives can be fit into a three-by-three grid: This grid is important to consonant gradation, which will be explained below.

Allophony
After ejectives, the vowels /i/ and /u/ are realized as [e] and [o], respectively.

Before /l/ and /r/, voiceless, non-ejective stops are realized as aspirated.

Consonant gradation is allophonic in Proto-Nebulonic (see below).

Stress
Proto-Nebulonic stress was trochaic; the first syllable of a word received primary stress, the next would receive no stress, and the third would receive secondary stress. From there, there would be alternation between no stress and secondary stress. As the language changed, unstressed vowels were syncopated under certain circumstances; this is characteristic of the Late Proto- and Old Nebulonic period.

Consonant gradation
Consonant gradation was allophonic in Proto-Nebulonic, becoming phonemic during the change to Late Proto-Nebulonic (after the vocalic allophony became phonemic). Consonant gradation means that plosives become one step "softer" under certain circumstances. Ejectives become pronounced as their voiceless, non-ejective counterpart (/pʼ/ > [p]); voiceless, non-ejective plosives become their voiced counterpart (/p/ > [b]), and voiced plosives delete (/b/ > [Ø]).

Consonant gradation typically occurs word-finally if the final syllable does not receive stress (primary or secondary; see above). It may also occur at the beginning of a non-initial syllable in the plosive element of a plosive-liquid consonant cluster.

Phonotactics
Roots were primarily made up of (C)V(C) syllables (usually one or two), with few consonant clusters and no diphthongs. The only existing consonant clusters were voiceless plosive + liquid or /s/ + voiceless plosive; the consonant clusters of Old and Modern Nebulonic are often the result of Late Proto- and Early Old Nebulonic syncope.

Particles, used for derivation and inflection, have a (C)V(C) structure and may only be one syllable long.

Morphology
Proto-Nebulonic was an agglutinative language.

Number
Nouns are declined for two numbers (singular and plural). The number endings go after the noun and all derivational suffixes, and they go before the case ending.

Case
Nouns declined for relatively few cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, partitive); other relations were expressed through postpositions attached directly onto the end of the noun, much like Sajem Tan's "pseudo-cases". In Old and Modern Nebulonic, these are true postpositions.

Pronouns
Pronouns behaved much like nouns: they declined for the same four cases and two numbers. They do not show any gender, unlike Sajem Tan.

Verbs
Proto-Nebulonic had a rich system of auxiliary verbs. These mostly became proper verbs that take dependent clauses in Old and Modern Nebulonic; however, the aspect particles of Late Proto-Nebulonic (for example, *te, which marks the perfective aspect) derive from auxiliary verbs, and these survive in Old and Modern Nebulonic as the onsets of the tense-aspect particles (for example, the ‹tj› in Old Nebulonic tjon).

Lexicon
Following is a list of Proto-Nebulonic words:
 * ˈuk-jug "fog" (< *uk- "beneath; lower" + *jug "cloud") > PmN *ˈukju (/g/ lost due to consonant gradation) > ON úkju > MN úcu "fog"
 * ˈdi.u-ˌon "nation (family-COLL)" > LPN *ˈdi.u.on > ON djo͡u̯n (/i/ > /j/ / _V; metathesis of /uo/ to /o͡u̯/) > MN zon "nation"