Suwáá/Classical

Classical Sowaár refers to an archaic literary standard of Sowaár, partly based on Late Old Sowaár.

Phonology

Consonants

Identical to Modern Sjowaázh

Syllabic resonants: m mm n nn nr nnr l ll r rr (ḿ ń ĺ ŕ m̀ ǹ l̀ r̀)

Vowels

Oral vowels

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
Close	i /ɪ/	ii /iː/	o /o/	oo /oː/
Open	e /ɛ/	ee /ɛː/	a /ɑ/	aa /ɑː/

Tone

Classical Sjowaázh had three level tones: high (á), mid (a), low (à). Conservative Modern High Sjowaázh has vestiges of the 3-tone system in its intonation.

7 possible pitch accent patterns:

• short: á, a, à
• long: áa, aà, àa, aa

The mid tone and low tone later merged, hence why high tone is the marked tone in High Sjowaazh.

Grammar

Classical Sowaár was optimized for poetic meters (like Marathi) – word order was relatively free and affixes used both long and short syllables. Vowel length was relatively free in affixes (obeying some constraints) and fixed in roots. As a corollary tones were also flexible and there were also fewer (phonemic) tonal distinctions in affixes than in roots. [TODO: rules]

Nouns

Like Modern Sowaár, Classical Sowaár had singular, dual and plural numbers.

Number prefixes for nouns existed but were optional.

Verbs

Verbs had more complex ablaut patterns than in modern Sowaár varieties. Affixes, on the other hand, were less fused with each other than in Modern Sowaár.