View source for Old Zoki

{{Infobox language
|image = 
|name = Old Zoki
|nativename = Zoki
|pronunciation = 'zoːki
|region = Myanmar
|states = 
|setting = 
|speakers = 
|fam1 = Rttirrian
|fam2 = [[Proto-North-Rttirrian|North Rttirrian]]
|script = [[w:Latin script|Latin]] (unofficially), [[w:Burmese script|Burmese]]
}}

'''Old Zoki''' (English: /ˈzoʊki/, Old Zoki: ['zoːki], [[w:Burmese language|Burmese]]: [zo˥ki˩]) is the reconstructed common ancestor of [[Zoki]] and a few closely related languages spoken in [[w:Myanmar|Myanmar]], spoken by the Zoki people and other groups around the 15th century CE. It is part of the [[w:Proto-North-Rttirrian|North Rttirrian]] branch of the Rttirrian family of languages, and a direct descendant of [[Proto-North-Rttirrian]].

Old Zoki was probably not written, but as modern Zoki is written in the [[w:Burmese script|Burmese]] abugida, linguistic texts and other materials featuring reconstructed Old Zoki typically use this abugida as well. However, because of the recency with which it was spoken, the language's phonology, vocabulary, and grammar are known with a fairly high degree of confidence.

The language had nominative-accusative alignment and largely analytic morphology, as part of the [[w:Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area|Southeast Asian sprachbund]]. However, it is better known for its root-and-pattern inflectional system reminiscent of those of the [[w:Semitic languages|Semitic languages]]; this system allowed biconsonantal and triconsonantal roots to be expressed as nouns or adjectives as well as gerunds and several types of verbs. Phonologically, it distinguished six vowels (in both short and long versions) and 23 consonants.