Old Rulhilli

Note: the Devanagari is just a placeholder.

Old Rulhilli
रुधिरदि
Pronunciation	[ɾuˈd̪ʱiɾɐd̪i]
Created by	Dillon Hartwig
Date	2021
Setting	northern Bangladesh
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Old Rulhilli
Early form	Old Chinese
Writing system	Devanagari

Old Rulhilli /rulˈhɪli/ (Old Rulhilli: रुधिरदि [ɾuˈd̪ʱiɾɐd̪i]) was a Sinitic language spoken near northern Bangladesh, and the ancestor of Rulhilli.

Etymology

Rulhilli is from रुल्हिळ्ळि, from Old Rulhilli रुधिरदि, from Sanskrit रुधिरायानद्याः referring to the Brahmaputra river.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

	Labial		Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar
Nasal	m		n		ɳ		ɲ		ŋ
Stop	p pʰ	b bʱ	t tʰ	d dʱ	ʈ ʈʰ	ɖ ɖʱ	t͡ɕ t͡ɕʰ	d͡ʑ d͡ʑʱ	k kʰ	g gʱ
Fricative			s		ʂ		ɕ			ɦ
Approximant	ʋ		l				j
Tap			ɾ

• /ɳ, l/ only occur in loanwords.
• /s/ is realized as [h] word-finally.

Vowels

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iː ĩ ĩː	u uː ũ ũː
Mid	e	o
Low	ɐ ɐ̃	ɑː ɑ̃ː

Diphthongs

ɐi aːi

ɐu ɑːu

Syllabic consonants

r̩ r̩ː

n̩ n̩ː

• /n̩/ assimilates in place of articulation to following consonant.

Prosody

Old Rulhilli stress falls on the last heavy (containing a long vowel or coda) syllable, or last syllable if there are no heavy syllables.

Phonotactics

Old Rulhilli maximal syllables are CCVC.

Syntax

Constituent order

Old Rulhilli word order is predominantly SOV but flexible.