Proto-Cadernian

Consonants
Proto-~ had the three-way contrast between plosives of Proto-??, with this being replaced by a two-way contrast between fricatives, including a constrast between s and z. Proto-?? syllabics were also lost, being replaced by a vowel and consonant combination, or by a simple, non-syllabic consonant in word-initial positions. The voiced and voiceless fricatives were allophones of each other, with voiceless fricatives appearing only in word-initial positions, and voiced fricatives appearing in all other positions.

Vowels
Proto-~ had seven vowels and three long vowels, more than there were in Proto-??, but had lost the distinction between short and medium-length vowels. Vowels still formed an integral part of Proto-~ morphology, with vowels being employed for use in nounal and verbal ablaut.

Nounal
Proto-~ nouns declined for seven cases, which were nominative (used to denote the subject of a verb or the object of a predicate), accusative (used to denote the object of a verb or with certain prepositions), genitive (used to denote a relationship between nouns, such as for possession, in the genitive of the whole or for forming adjectives), dative (used to denote indirect objects), locative (used to denote that something was at or near something else, with certain prepositions or for representing the time at which something took place), lative (used to denote that something was moving towards something else, with certain prepositions denoting movement towards somewhere else and for representing the time until something took place), ablative (used to denote motion away from something, with certain prepositions relating to this function, for representing the time from which something took place and to represent means). Proto-~ nouns also declined for three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter, with gender being an innate quality of every noun. Only a few nouns (generally occupations, people and animals) could take multiple genders. In addition to this, there were two separate noun declensions, marked by their different nominative endings, -o/-a/-e and -oia/-eio. A root could potentially form two separate nouns by using each declension. The Proto-?? dual was lost in Proto-~, being replaced by the plural.