Hirathic

Hirathic
ΧΙΡΑΘΙΣ hirathis
Pronunciation	[[w:Help:IPA|χiˈɾaθis]]
Created by	–
Native speakers	- (2013)
Language family	Indo-European (unclassified) (?) Hirathic
Language codes
ISO 639-1	hi
ISO 639-2	hi
ISO 639-3	qhi

Background

Hirathic is my latest attempt at making an a posteriori language based on Proto-Indo-European. It is primarily inspired by developments found in the Greek and Albanian branches of the Indo-European language family. It also serves as yet another opportunity for me to delve into Indo-European linguistics. Hirathic has furthermore a set of words from an in-universe pre-Indo-European language termed the Hirathic substrate language which is basically my excuse to plop in words here and there without having to take them from a PIE root.

Unlike Dhannuá which was originally envisioned as a plausible modern Indo-European-descended language, I aim for Hirathic to be more like Old Norse, Sanskrit, Old Latin, Ancient Greek, that is, a language of epic cants and myths that is no longer spoken.

Name

Hirathic's English name derives from the autoglottonym hirathis~khirathis which is believed to be a derivation of PIE *gʰreH- 'to grow' with a suffix *-tis 'abstract', thus meaning 'that which is grown', 'that which is cultivated', and by extension 'that which is refined'. Related is the auto-ethnonym hirathēi 'the high ones'.

Other names for the language include hirathōn 'of the high ones', vepos 'speech', a combination of both (as seen in the Smyrna cave inscription ϜΕΠΟΣΧΙ(Ρ)ΑΘ(Ω)Ν), vepos nim 'our speech'.

Linguistic classification

Hirathic is a centum language which bears similarity to Greek in its development of the inherited voiced plosive series of Proto-Indo-European. It is believed to share some innovations with early Albanian though whether or not this points to a common origin is still hotly debated.

Phonology

Vowels

TODO

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i y u (ɪ) (ɪ̈) (e) e̞ o̞ a
Near‑close
Close‑mid
Mid
Open‑mid
Near‑open
Open

Loans

A specific subset of the lexicon contains a substantial amount of loanwords from an unidentified substrate language, primarily in marine, religious and warfare contexts. This language has been called the Hirathic substrate language.

Some examples (Brightraven 2013):

χαφταψ χaphtaps 'warlord', from xaphdáph of the same meaning.

δαϝοτυς davotus 'priest of a particular god', from dáwátus 'lighter of the flame'

φεθαχς phethax 'axe-bearer, bodyguard', from fexa 'axe'

nωθη nōthē 'the Ocean', from nōthē of the same meaning.

θηθυψ thēthups 'temple', from sēdhuf of the same meaning.

ϝυχοτυς vuχotus 'orator', from wuhkotus 'who makes speech'.

ϝυναχς vunax 'poet', from wuhnako 'who has speech as a profession', from wuhko + infix -na- 'profession'

νωναθηι nōnathēi 'fisherman' from nōnathē 'who has the sea as a profession', from nōthē + infix -na- 'profession'

Language sample

Hymn to Vukhodava,

Hirathic (Greek): θη θανες εθι τυ φρατηρ η ϝατε ϝυναχωι δε θυγον ορεχων

Hirathic: thē thānes ethi tu phratēr ē vāte vunakhōi de thugon orekhōn

English: O wind of poet, how thou art the brother of thought and yoke of kings!

Adapted from Beowulf,

Hirathic (Greek): θη ϝη περθενων ην δαθηδιτε τύθωρεχων νωρεν εχίλευμος δε θη τοι χαφταφωι βελτων μιμων

Hirathic (Latin): thē vē perthenōn ēn dathēdite, tūthōrekhōn nōren ekhíleumos, de thē toi khaphtaphōi beltōn mimōn

English: How we of the spear-danes in yesterdays, of people-kings' glory heard, and how those warlords courage took!