Arcél -4000

From Almeopedia

At this time, seven to eight thousand years ago, Arcél was largely covered in forest, giving way to grassy plains and tundra along the southern coast. The human inhabitants were hunter/gatherers (though in the north people would scatter seeds to encourage the growth of stands of useful plants).

The stippled pattern is associated in this atlas with hunting/gathering, and is intended to suggest the very low population density this lifestyle supports— ranging from 10 people per km² along the resource-rich northern coast, to 1 per 15 km² in the unforgiving highlands of Mnese.

The colored areas suggest, correctly, that humans at this time left the mountains to elcari, múrtani, and rifters. However, blank plains were not actually uninhabited; it’s simply that we cannot be certain who was living where. The colored areas show our best guess at the homelands of the major language families of Arcél. Let’s run through them, moving clockwise round the map from the upper left.

family	color	type	order	affixes	locations
Linaic	pink	agg	SOV	w+	Ayalampa
Beic	purple	iso	SVO		Belesao, Łeisau, Mauraŋ, Mɔłɔsɔu
Minče	pink	agg, iso	SOV	w+	Rimasača
Kereminthic	green	agg, fus	VEA	+w+	Ȟamsan, Ȟaibalai, Kereminth
Kemic	cyan	agg	EAV	w+	Gleŋ+, Ȟsanda+, Ȟlum+, Ȟatiŋga, Ȟtana, Qapalya
Eidnani	dark gray	fus	SOV	+w	Eidnan, Trund
Mnesean	yellow	fus	EVA	infixes	Sumë+, Nyuam+, Mnese, Smë
Uyseʔic	blue	iso	SOV		Uytai, Krwŋ+, Nyandai, Phetai, Siad βo, Ťrim+, Hlüim
Dnetic	brown	poly	VSO	+w+	Nšiwejig+, Ōkmisan, Žiwdonag
Itsenic	orange	poly	TC	+w+	Nlatak+, Itsičiʔli+, Wasanmadbi
Kleʔmet’	dark gray	poly	TC	w+	Kle?met’

The typological information is given for very rough comparisons and only notes overall tendencies. E/A refer to ergative/absolutive; TC means topic/comment. w+ means that the family is (chiefly) suffixing, +w that it is prefixing, and +w+ that it’s both.

Linaic and Minče are related; the combined family is called Linaminče. It’s probably distantly related to Beic as well.

Kereminthic, as the name implies, has its homeland in Kereminth, and today sprawls across the Inner Sea, Neinuoi, and the Island Sea. (The major languages of Neinuoi, however, belong to the Neinuoian language family.) At this time, however, Kereminthic peoples were restricted to Kereminth.

The northeast of the continent was inhabited by Kemic peoples; these languages are distantly related to Kereminthic, perhaps due to an earlier wave of settlement.

Despite being separated by 4000 km and being very different typologically, Eidnani and Kleʔmet’ are parts of a single family, Eidnani-Kleʔmet’. However this separation came about, it’s been long-term; cognates make up only 40% of the core vocabulary (but they’re quite solid). Though migration is possible, it’s generally assumed that the family once covered much of southern Arcél and was displaced by other families.

Smë, in the Mnesean family, is noted for having the most elaborate gender system on Almea— it has over 40 of them.

There have been many attempts to connect the families of Fananak— Dnetic, Kleʔmet', and Itsenic. They share a good deal of vocabulary; but this is almost certainly due to shared culture and long-term close interaction. There’s a very weak case for relating Dnetic to Kleʔmet’ (though it’s hurt rather than helped by taking Eidnani into account), and a rather better case for linking Itsenic with Dnetic.

Not shown here is Lenani-Littoral, a language family originating in Ereláe; it was brought by the Jaešeni colonists, and is now widely spoken throughout Fananak.

The dominant families of present-day Arcél are of course Beic and Uyseʔic; within these the dominant languages are Lé and Uyseʔ. However, neither sphere has ever been politically united, and the different nations retain their own languages. In the atlas and commentary, names are given in the local language.

Pahsau, Łeisau, Mauraŋ, Mɔłɔsɔu are Pâlsàɔ, Łisàɔ, Mǎoráŋ, Mɔlɔsàɔ in Lé.
Nyandai, Čwam, Pheʔ, Siad βo, Ťrim are Nyantai, Tsuam, Phet, Sleʔ Pho, Themtai in Uyseʔ.