Classical Elisian

Classical Elisian
Elis
Pronunciation	[/ˈelɪs/]
Created by	–
Native speakers	0 (2013)
Language family	Elic languages Classical Elisian
Early form	Proto-Halisian

This project was created as an attempt to fully flesh out a daughter language derived from Proto-Halisian, the main language family of my world so far. Said proto-language is itself in the early stages, albeit it has appeared in varying forms over the last two or three years.

Classical Elisian was the literary language of Elisian Antiquity, spanning roughly five centuries of activity. Since then it has spawned into several daughter languages, known as the Elic language family. It also remained a liturgical languages in former Elisian states where the old religion is still practiced. During its hayday, Classical Elisian was considered a rich and culturally exquisite language, which was the birth tongue of the elite. The literary language presented here is based on the dialect spoken in and around the Elisian capitol, as it was spoken at the time. The actual spoken language of much of the Classical Elisian most likely differed significantly from the actual spoken language during its final years.

Background

The Classical Elesian language developed from Proto-Halisian during a period of roughly 1000 years, during which a number of significant changes occur. First of all, the palatals merged with their alveolar counterparts, along with an epenthetic 'y' if the preceding syllable contained *'e'; Proto-Halisian *teši became Classical Elisian teys "city." Second of all, fricatives developed through the lenition of the Proto-Halisian aspirated plosive series. After the disappearance of the aspirate series, the weaking and eventually loss of *h proceeded at a more rapid pace. First, only word-initial *h was lost, but only a hundred or so years later the glottal was lost in all positions.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Dental	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n
Plosive	p b		t d		k g
Fricative	f v	θ	s		x
Rhotic			r
Approximant			l	j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y		u
Mid			o
Low		a