Hirathic

Hirathic (hirathis [χiˈɾaθis] or vepos hirathōn [ˈvɛpɔs ˈχiˈɾaθɔːn]) is the name of the Indo-European language spoken in antiquity around the Mediterranean basin. A centum language, it is believed by some to be closely related to Greek, by some to Armenian and by yet others to Albanian.

Hirathic
ΧΙΡΑΘΙΣ hirathis
Pronunciation	[[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

Name

The Hirathic noun hirathis can be translated as “that which is tall; that which is grown; that which is cultivated; that which is refined”. It is a nominal of the root hir- “to grow; raise; make high”.

The similarly sounding auto-ethnonym of its speakers hirathēi (also hiratēi) is directly related to hirathis and means something akin to “the tall ones; the refined ones”.

Other names for the language include hirathōn “of the high ones”, vepos “speech”, a combination of both, and vepos nim “our speech”.

Background

External history

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.

Internal history

dev. IE > Balk~Med~Anat? dispers. insul~mount? båda? exp. doric syn aeol++. thrac,illyr,dac, loanvortes(?) paleo-balkan, periph. centum dial. ~

Notes on transcription

Transcribing Hirathic to the Latin alphabet is usually straightforward as Hirathic uses an older variant of the Greek alphabet. The only problem to this is the treatment of Χ, χ. The most common way to write this sound /χ/ is <h> (e.g., Hirathic), though an older method, using <kh>, is still encountered in some publications (cf. the common use of 'ph', 'th' for letters φ and θ respectively.) Some incorrectly use <x> because of its graphical similarity, <x> represents the consonant cluster /ks/ in all widespread systems.

• Ϝ, ϝ is transcribed as <v> and not <w>.
• ύ is transcribed as <ū> or <y> depending on author preference except where it stands for an accented /u/ where it is written <ú>
• φ, θ; <ph>,
• the long vowels η ω are transcribed as <ē>, <ō>

TODO romanization in writing system

Phonology

Consonants

TODO

Hirathic consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Labial–velar
Nasal	m		n			(ŋ)	(ŋʷ)
Plosive	p  b	t  d				k  ɡ	kʷ  ɡʷ
Fricative	ɸ  (β)	θ  (ð)	s	z		h  (ɣ)	hʷ
Trill			r
Approximant					j		w
Lateral			l

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

Grammar

Main article: Hirathic grammar

Hirathic is a highly inflected language TODO

Nouns

	singular	dual	plural
nominative
vocative
accusative
genitive
ablative
dative
instrumental
locative

Writing system

Hirathic natively used an archaic variant of the Greek alphabet. In modern times, the Hirathic variant of the Greek alphabet is often replaced with the standardised Ancient Greek alphabet for reasons of typesetting convenience.

IPA

a

b

g

d

ɛ

v

ɛː

θ

i

k

l

m

n

ɔ

p

r~ɾ

s

t

y

pʰ

χ

ps

ɔː

Hirathic

Modern

Α α

Β β

Γ γ

Δ δ

Ε ε

Ϝ ϝ

Η η

Θ θ

Ι ι

Κ κ

Λ λ

Μ μ

Ν ν

Ο ο

Π π

Ρ ρ

Σ σ ς

Τ τ

Υ υ

Φ φ

Χ χ

Ψ ψ

Ω ω

Changes from Indo-European

Main article: Hirathic/Proto-Hirathic

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. The Hirathic substrate language does not appear to be related to any known language and is usually considered an isolate.

Some examples:

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 (local deity),

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!