Phonological Changes
Consonants:
- Old Berlean to Middle Berlean
- Aspirated stops /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/ spirantized as /f, θ, x/
- Voiced stops /b, d, g/ spirantized as /v, ð, ɣ/ in intervocalic position or when preceded by a liquid and followed by a vowel
- Affricates /tsʰ, ts, dz/ spirantized as /sʰ, s, z/
- /ŋ/ merged with /m/ in syllable-final position
- /ŋ/ merged with /g~ɣ/ elsewhere
- Middle Berlean to Modern Berlean
- Voiceless fricatives /f, θ, s, x/ voiced as /v, ð, z, ɣ/ in intervocalic position or when preceded by a liquid and followed by a vowel
- Voiceless stops /p, t, k/ voiced as /b, d, g/ in intervocalic position or when preceded by a liquid and followed by a vowel
- Aspirated /sʰ/ reanalyzed as /s/ without intervocalic voicing
- Contemporary Developments
- /d/ merged with /l/
- Through the dropping of word-final /ɚ/, voiced fricatives /v, ð, z, ɣ/ that then appear word-final are devoiced to /f, θ, s, x/
- Glottal neutralization /p, k/ → /ʔ/ of syllable-final voiceless stops when followed by another consonant
- (see Berlean Phonology for more information)
Vowels:
- Old Berlean to Middle Berlean:
- Diphthongization of long vowels /aː, iː, uː/ as /aə, iə, uə/
- Merging of long /əː/ with short /ə/
- Lowering of of high short vowels /i, u/ and addition of onglides resulting in realization as /je, wo/
- Middle Berlean to Modern Berlean:
- Rhoticization of /ə/ as /ɚ/
- Rhotic spreading or ‘harmony’ (see Berlean Phonology)
- Diphthongs /iə, uə/ reanalyzed as onglide with rhotic vowel /jɚ, wɚ/
- Low vowel /a/ raised as /(j)e/ and /(w)o/ when preceded by a glide
- Contemporary Developments:
- Dropping of rhoticism of /jɚ/ in final syllable when preceded by another rhotic vowel
- Dropping of word-final /ɚ/ and /a/
- Realization of /l/ as a syllabic consonant in certain environments (see Berlean Phonology)
Approximate Mapping of Phonemes from OB to Modern Berlean
| Old Berlean | Modern Berlean |
| /m/ | /m/ |
| (/ŋ/ /_#) | |
| /r/ | /l/ |
| /pʰ/ | /f/ |
| /v/ | |
| /b/ | |
| /b/ | |
| /p/ | |
| /p/ | |
| /tʰ/ | /θ/ |
| /ð/ | |
| /d/ | |
| /d~l/ | |
| /t/ | |
| /t/ | |
| /tsʰ/ | /s/ |
| /ts/ | |
| /s/ | |
| /z/ | |
| /dz/ | |
| /kʰ/ | /x/ |
| /ɣ/ | |
| /g/ | |
| /ŋ/ | |
| /g/ | |
| /k/ | |
| /k/ |
| Old Berlean | Modern Berlean |
| /a/ | /a/ |
| /i/ | /je/ |
| /ja/ | |
| /u/ | /wo/ |
| /wa/ | |
| /ə/ | /r/ |
| /əə/ | |
| /aa/ | /ar/ |
| /jə/ | /jir/ |
| /jaa/ | |
| /ii/ | |
| /wə/ | /wur/ |
| /waa/ | |
| /uu/ |
Syntactic Changes
Changes in Word-Order and Morphosyntactic Alignment
Originally, Old Berlean had V-final word order with ergative-absolutive morphosyntactic alignment. The language went through a huge shift, first in Old Berlean with transitive clauses, and later in Middle Berlean with intransitive clauses and adjuncts. This developed into Modern Berlean, a language with polar opposite parameters: V-initial word order and nominative-accusative morphosyntactic alignment. Compare the following sentences from Old Berlean and Modern Berlean:
Old Berlean
- krən khiim si-laa dzjaŋ
- (child house inside.LOC be)
- “The child is inside the house.”
- krən-iis braas phaadə
- (child.ERG cooked-rice eat)
- “The child is eating rice.”
- krən khiim si-laa braas phaadə
- (child.ERG house inside.LOC cooked-rice eat)
- “The child is eating rice in the house.”
Modern Berlean
- niem klrn zie khirm sielar
- (be child LOC house inside)
- “The child is inside the house.”
- farth klrn na blars
- (eat child ACC cooked-rice)
- “The child is eating rice.”
- farth klrn na blars zie khirm sielar
- (eat child ACC cooked-rice LOC house inside)
- “The child is eating rice inside the house.”
Old Berlean had a focus construction using a nominalizer particle. The nominalized phrase was restricted to transitive verbs and subjects (or agents) without ergative marking.
- krən phaadə na braas ʔil
- (child eat NMLZ cooked-rice COP)
- “It is rice that the child is eating.”
The focus construction became normalized and the copula was dropped, resulting in a reanalysis of the nominalizer particle as an accusative marker.
- krən phaadə na braas
- (child eat ACC cooked-rice)
- “The child is eating rice.”
The development of a VP shell allowed for adjuncts to be placed after the verb. Multiple adjuncts could be placed in pre-verbal position; however, only one adjunct was allowed in post-verbal position; this is still the case in Modern Berlean. In the case of transitive phrases, they could only occur in post-verbal position after the object.
- krən dzjaŋ khiim-laa
- (child be house.LOC)
- The child is at the house.
- krən hiivak tsjaŋ ka-lii khiim-laa
- (child today actually go.PFV house.LOC)
- The child actually went home today.
- krən khiim si-laa phaadə na braas
- (child house inside.LOC eat ACC cooked-rice)
- “The child is eating rice inside the house.”
- krən phaadə na braas khiim si-laa
- (child eat ACC rice house inside.LOC)
- “The child is eating rice inside the house.”
Lastly, the verb was raised to pre-subject position, resulting in the word-order observed in Modern Berlean. This change, however, took place after the development of the modern genitive and locative case markers, which will be discussed in the following section.