Alapetek languages

The Alapetek languages are the second-largest language family on Laraniem, native to northeastern mainland Laraniem, where it comprises most of the area's native languages. There are two main attested branches of the Alapetek family, Eastern and Western Alapetek, though other smaller, now-extinct branches are proposed to have existed. The most-spoken Alapetek language by far is Koxori, with around 1.95 billion speakers, followed by Ghazvan and Matthuvan. In total, around 14.2% (5.3 billion) of all Laraniemian people speak an Alapetek language as a first language, the second-highest of any language family after the Atrapic languages. There are about 130 living Alapetek languages, most of which are endangered. All Alapetek languages evolved from a single common ancestor, known as Proto-Alapetek, spoken around 4500 years ago. The precise location of its speakers is unknown, but it has been hypothesised to be somewhere along the fertile southern coast of what is now Ghazva. No written evidence emerged of an Alapetek language until long after the mother language had diversified into several other branches, but the text that has been uncovered - notably King Xorolha's Inscription, written in Ancient Koxori and discovered in the City of the Holy Falcon - has proved useful in the reconstruction of Proto-Alapetek.

Branches
The Alapetek family has five main existing branches, alongside two extinct ones that have been attested.

Italics denote unattested or extinct languages.

Proto-language
Proto-Alapetek is the name of the hypothetical, reconstructed mother language of the Alapetek family. It has not been proven to have ever existed, as the branches of the family had expanded long before written records were introduced. Proto-Alapetek as a linguistical concept has existed since at least the 1890s, though no attempts at reconstruction were made until well into the 20th century. The deciphering of the Old Khauanikh and Ancient Eranite writing systems helped to expand the reconstructed part of the language in the 1960s.

Consonants
All Proto-Alapetek consonants have plain and palatalised forms. *cʲ, *ɲʲ, *ɲ̥ʲ and *çʲ may have existed, but are not shown here as they merged with their non-palatalised forms in all daughter languages.

Vowels
Proto-Alapetek vowels are also divided into strong and weak categories:


 * Strong vowels: [i], [y], [ɨ], [u], [e], [o], [œ], [ɑ]
 * Weak vowels: [ʉ], [ø], [ʊ], [ə], [ɛ], [ʌ], [ɔ], [a]

Nouns
Proto-Alapetek nouns decline for seven cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, lative, locative and prepositional. The prepositional is often very similar to the accusative form. A simple ablative can be formed with the prefix *kʲy- with the prepositional case. As well as the six cases, there are four numbers (singular, dual, paucal and plural), two genders (masculine and feminine) and two degrees of animacy (animate and inanimate). Inanimate nouns do not take gendered forms, which is why the inanimate is often compared with a neuter gender. Three example declensions, of the words *pykʲʊ 'man', *xʌl̥əkʲa 'ocean' and *pyl̥ʲɛətʲɛ 'tree':

Verbs
Verbs inflect in Proto-Alapetek for person, number, gender, and activity. Motional, or active, verbs are verbs that convey physical motion or action, e.g. to walk and to see. Non-motional, or inactive, verbs describe abstract or non-physical action, such as to be or to love. Two example conjugations, of the verbs *ɑsʲə 'to stand' and *çɑtʲʊ 'to be':

Personal pronouns
Like nouns, pronouns decline for case, number, gender and animacy as well as person. *ɑrʲə 'that', *ɑrʲəwi 'those two', *ɑrʲəzʲ 'those few' and *ɑrʲətʲ 'those' can be used as third-person pronouns.

Numerals
Proto-Alapetek used a dozenal (base-12) number system. Numerals decline only for gender.