View source for Verse:Jarthe/Indo-Iranian languages


==Mitanni==

As in our timeline, there are two extant branches of Indo-Iranian but instead of Sanskrit and Indic there's a fictional branch inspired by a weird reading of cuneiform Mitanni. It was spoken in the ancient Arab world, and later in Ethiopia and Eritrea as a classical language.

Mitanni was heavily influenced by [[Ancient Cubrite]].

*no RUKI
*Grassmann's law is absent; the stops bh dh ĵh ǰh gh are pronounced as /v ð ʑ z ɣ/
*ĉ -> normative tɕ (in actuality ɕ), č -> ts
*Cr clusters get epenthesized or metathesized
*syllabic nasals become a vowel /ə/ distinct from /a/; syllabic r is pronounced /əɾ/
*there's no /l/ and no retroflexes
*ai āi au āu are retained

===Examples===

Piryamazðā ~ Priyamedhā

Suvanðu ~ Subandhu

Twaisaratʰa ~ Tveṣaratha

śarwas əɣzitam ~ śravaḥ akṣitaṃ (thorn clusters can be voiced!)

===Morphology===

Mitanni uses prepositions, like [[Ancient Cubrite]], rather than postpositions. Many of them are cognate with Latin, Greek or Slavic prepositions.

<!-- ==Sanskrit==

Sanskrit in Lõis, unlike in our timeline, is most often written with the Latin alphabet. Its orthography was standardized in the second century AD. Older texts (like the Vedas) use a deeper orthography for Sanskrit, including j̈ for /h/, vowel and semivowel letters used interchangeably (reflecting Sievers' law) and vowel letters <e> and <o> besides <a>. Popular Lõisian English transcriptions like <Jimoleyos> for the Himālayas reflect this more ancient Sanskrit orthography. The modern orthography is used in Sanskrit texts on astronomy like the Súryasidḋánta.

Modern India in Lõis is mostly Heleasic and Mixolydian, with English, Persian and [[Khuamnisht]] spoken by small diaspora populations. A revived form of Sanskrit is used in some Hindu communities.

===Vowels===
ᴀ ᴀ́ i í u ú ꞃ ꞃ́ l ᴀi ᴀ́i ᴀu ᴀ́u

===Consonants===
p ṗ b ḃ m ꞇ ꞇ̇ d ḋ n żꞇ żꞇ̇ żd żḋ ꞃ̇n ç ç̇ j j̈ ņ c ċ ᵹ ᵹ̇ y ꞃ l v ş ꞃ̇ꞅ ꞅ h

/ʂʈ/ is written ꞃ̇ꞅꞇ or şꞇ depending on etymology. 

Anusvāra and visarga are written ṁ and ꞅ̇.

The interpunct (·) is used to separate nouns in compounds.

===Dialectology===

Lõisians use the name "Indic" (Sáinḋavaṁ in Sanskrit) rather than "Sanskrit" to refer to the spoken language.

Lõisian scholars call Vedic Sanskrit "Old Indic" (Puráṙna·sáinḋavaṁ), and unlike in our timeline, more conservative (i.e. less Prakrit-like) dialects were spoken in the first few centuries AD as vernacular languages. The situation was a bit like Arabic dialects in our timeline, with Classical Sanskrit (identical to our timeline) serving as a bridge between the different native dialects.

Most dialects have some innovations traceable to Vedic Sanskrit, like the use of retroflex lateral flaps /ɭ ɭʰ/ for <żd żḋ> (termed "thick D" by phoneticians). Extreme northwestern Sanskrit, though, uses dental fricatives /ð ðʰ/, deriving from a Vedic dialect that used /ɭ͢d̪ ɭ͢d̪ʰ/. /r/ is pronounced as a uvular fricative or trill in some Southern dialects.

The main Prakrits in Lõis are Pali, Gandhari and a variant of Sauraseni, which gave rise to the modern Indic languages in Lõis. They are considered separate languages. In addition, there is a Sanskrit-Greek creole language spoken in Heleasia.

===Sample text===

From the Rgvaida (in the ancient orthography):

Agnimíżdei purouhitoṁ iojņosio deiuoṁ rtuijaṁ j̈outóroṁ rotnoḋétamoṁ -->

==Avestan==

Same as in our timeline

==Middle Persian==

One Middle Persian dialect in Lõis has a retroflex glissando liquid /ɭ͢d̪/ from PIIr *rd, instead of /l/ as in other dialects: ''vaḷd-i-ḷdāḷd'' "red rose". Naušahri descends from this dialect, and ḷd reflexes as /ð/: ''vađ đođ'' /vað ðoð/.

Late Middle Persian in Lõis has different phonological innovations from Modern Persian in our timeline, like most words reflex w as v.

==Persian dialects==
===Naušahri===
The most commonly spoken descendant of Middle Persian in Lõis, Naušahri (from ''Nəušahr'' meaning Newton), is part of the Levantine sprachbund and is an official language of Newton. It's most commonly written in the Latin, Avestan and Hebrew alphabets.

Phonology: a ā i ī u ū ē ō ai au -> a o ɛ i ø u e øy e øy

Plurals usually are formed with the ending -o (from Middle Persian -ān, from Old Persian -ānām), but loanwords as in our timeline can be pluralized as in the source languages. Archaic dialects use -on instead. The most common source of loanwords is An Bhlaoighne, followed by Avestan, Greek, Cubrite and English.

The verbal system of Naušahri is similar to our timeline's Tajik. It uses the auxiliary ''stodan'' (to stand) for the present progressive, unlike other Levantine sprachbund languages.

Naušahri is strictly SVO, unlike our timeline's Persian (but it may be OSV for emphasis), and got rid of grammatical case; the accusative case ending ''-ro'' shifted to a topicalization suffix.

The particle ''e'' is used with noun-noun compounds but not with adjectives modifying nouns: ''šår buzurg'' (big city) but ''gurbe-ye daust-e man'' (my friend's cat).