Ancient Lathian

Ancient Lathian
Λάθικαα Láthikā
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|ˈlatʰikaː]]
Created by	–
Era	Mid to Late 1st Millennium BCE
Language family	Indo-European Nesic Eastern Nesic Ancient Lathian
Early form	Archaic Lathian
Language codes
ISO 639-1	lt
ISO 639-2	lt
ISO 639-3	ltk

Ancient Lathian is the form of Lathian used during the period of time spanning from about the 7th century to the 2nd century BCE in ancient Lathia and other parts of the ancient world. It was predated in the late 2nd millennium and early 1st millennium BCE by Archaic Lathian. It would be later replaced by Gergalic Lathian in the late 1st millennium BCE.

Background

External history

After several attempts, and later deletions, I managed to create my first a posteriori conlang based on Proto-Indo-European. Originally, Lathian was meant to be a substrate language for a Romance conlang I was also working on, but in the end I decided to go ahead only with Lathian, and creating a modern Lathian conlang at some point in the future.

Internal history

Ancient Lathian was the language of the ancient Lathians, an Indo-European people that settled on the island of Lathia in the Mediterranean Sea, between modern day Libya and Greece. It is set in the distant past, beginning in the mid 1st millennium BCE. Before then, an earlier form called Archaic Lathian had been spoken not only in Lathia but also in other parts of the Mediterranean, such as Malta, Sicily, and northern Africa, as part of the Lathian Empire.

After losing a number of its colonies to Greece and Carthage, Lathia and its remaining colonies fell into a period of cultural and economic deterioration, also known as the Lathian Dark Ages, in which the once united kingdom had become a collection of warring city-states. During this time, Greek colonies were also established on the eastern coast of Lathia. After a number of years, however, Lathia managed to regain economic stability, unite its city-states, and take over the Greek colonies on its coasts. Shortly after, a new period of prosperity began in the mid 1st millennium BCE, known as Classical Lathia. During this time, trade with other Mediterranean civilizations, especially Greece, increased.

One of the most important innovations in the development of the Lathian language came from the Greeks: the Lathian Alphabet. Lathians borrowed the Greek alphabet and modified it to suit their language. Before this, Lathian had been written with a system called the Lathic Syllabary. During the dark ages, Archaic Lathian underwent numerous changes, and by the 6th century BCE a new form of Lathian, written with a new alphabet, had emerged.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n	ɲ̩
Plosive	Voiceless	p	t			k
	Voiced	b	d			g
	Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ
Fricative	Voiceless			s	ʃ		h
	Voiced			z	ʒ
Trill or Tap				r
Approximant	Central				j	w
	Lateral			l	ʎ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Open		ä äː

Phonetic Notes

• /t/, /d/, and /tʰ/ are denti-alveolar.
• /l/ and /n/ become homorganic to following obstruents.
• /r/ is prototypically an alveolar tap /ɾ/. It becomes an alveolar trill /r/ word-initially. In the syllable-final position, either a trill or tap could occur with no semantic difference.
• /s/ and /ʃ/ become voiced before voiced consonants.

Phonotactics

• Any vowel may end a word, as well as any nasal, liquid, or fricative. If a stop ended a word in PIE, it was dropped in Ancient Lathian (or maybe as far back as Proto-Nesic).
• /h/ may not be in the coda position. Syllable-final /h/ was dropped off in Ancient Lathian and the previous vowel was subsequently lengthened.

Orthography

Alphabet

Ancient Lathian was written with an adapted version of the Greek Alphabet, which began to appear around the 7th century BCE.

Letter	Name	IPA
Αα	Άλφα	/ä/
Ββ	Βεέτα	/b/
Γγ	Γάμμα	/g/
Δδ	Δέλτα	/d/
Εε	Έφσιλον	/e/
Ζζ	Ζεέτα	/z/
Ηη	ηεέτα	/h/
Θθ	Θεέτα	/tʰ/
Ιι	Ιοότα	/i/
Κκ	Κάππα	/k/
Λλ	Λάμβδα	/l/
Μμ	Μυυ	/m/
Νν	Νυυ	/n/
Οο	Όμικρον	/o/
Ππ	Πιι	/p/
Ρρ	Ροο	/r/
Σσς	Σίγμα	/s/
Ττ	Ταυ	/t/
Υυ	Ύφσιλον	/u/
Φφ	Φιι	/pʰ/
Χχ	Χιι	/kʰ/

Diagraphs

There following diagraphs are used in Ancient Lathian:

Diagraph	IPA
αα	/äː/
εε	/eː/
ιι	/iː/
οο	/oː/
υυ	/uː/
ζζ	/ʒ/
λλ	/ʎ/
νν	/ɲ/
σσ	/ʃ/

Any other doubled consonant indicates germination.

Diacritics

The only diacritic used in Ancient Lathian is the acute accent (′), which is used to indicate stress. In a diphthong, the accent in placed on the first vowel (ex. άυμερυ; σμεέικρυ). In a long vowel diagraph, the accent is placed on the second vowel (ex. αρθαά).

Grammar

Ancient Lathian grammar, similar to that of other Indo-European languages, is highly inflective, with complex declension and conjugation systems.

Nouns

Lathian nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter); two numbers (singular & plural); and five cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, dative, genitive). There are three declensions for Lathian nouns:

First Declension

The first declension (called the a-stem or alpha declension) comprises the largest class of nouns. It is derived from both PIE athematic a(eh₂)-stems and o-stems. The first part of this declension is comprised mainly of feminine nouns with a long alpha (-αα) at the end of the stem. It also includes a small group of masculine nouns.

Masculine & Feminine -αα stem
Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative/Vocative	-αα	-αας
Accusative	-ααμ	-αας
Dative	-ααι	-ααις
Genitive	-ασς	-ααν

First declension
	Masculine & Feminine: θάλαα (flower; blossom)		Neuter: νιοόμα (soul; spirit)
Case	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative/Vocative	θάλαα	θάλαας	νιοόμα	νιοόμε
Accusative	θάλααμ	θάλαας	νιοόμαμ	νιοόμε
Dative	θάλααι	θάλααις	νιοόμααι	νιοόααις
Genitive	θάλυνς	θάλοον	νιοόμυνς	νιοόμοον

Second Declension

The second declension consists mainly of masculine and neuter nouns ending in -ο and -υ in the nominative singular respectively. It also contains a small group of feminine nouns ending in -ο in the nominative singular.

Second declension
	Masculine & Feminine		Neuter
Case	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative/Vocative	-ο	-οος	-υ	-ε
Accusative	-ομ	-οος	-υμ	-ε
Dative	-οι	-οις	-οι	-οις
Genitive	-υνς	-οον	-υνς	-οον

Second declension
	Masculine & Feminine: δέινο (day)		Neuter: μάχυ (unmarried youth)
Case	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative/Vocative	δέινο	δέινοος	μάχυ	μάχε
Accusative	δέινομ	δέινοος	μάχυμ	μάχε
Dative	δέινοι	δέινοις	μάχοι	μάχοις
Genitive	δέινυνς	δέινοον	μάχυνς	μάχοον

Third Declension

The third declension consists of nouns of all three genders ending in either a consonant or -ε in the nominative singular. A number of nouns from the third declension have irregular oblique stems.

Third declension
	Masculine & Feminine		Neuter
Case	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-ε/-cons.	-εες	-ε/-cons.	-ιε
Vocative	-ε	-εες	-ε	-ιε
Accusative	-εμ	-εες	-εμ	-ιε
Dative	-ει	-εις	-ει	-εις
Genitive	-ονς	-οον	-ονς	-οον

Third declension
	Masculine & Feminine: ρααζ (root)		Neuter: φίλισς (friend)
Case	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ρααζ	ραάδεες	φίλισς	φίλιε
Vocative	ραάδε	ραάδεες	φίλε	φίλιε
Accusative	ραάδεμ	ραάδεες	φίλεμ	φίλιε
Dative	ραάδει	ραάδεις	φίλει	φίλεις
Genitive	ραάδονς	ραάδοον	φίλονς	φίλοον

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are highly irregular. The dual number inherited from PIE and lost in nouns and adjectives has been preserved in pronouns.

Personal pronouns
Case	First person			Second Person			Third person			Reflexive
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative/Vocative	εζοό	ευέ	ευέι	ετύ	ειύ	ειυύ	αυτόm, αυταάf, αυτύn	αυτύιm/f/n	αυτοόςm, αυταάςf, αυτέn	-
Accusative	μεweak, μέζεstrong	νοο, νοόζε	νος, νόζζε	τε, τέζε	υοο, υοόζε	υος, υόζζε	αυτόμm, αυταάμf, αυτύμn	αυτύιm/f/n	αυτοόςm, αυταάςf αυτέn	σε, σέζε
Dative	μοιweak, μόιζεstrong	νοοι, νοόιζε	νοι, νόιζζε	τοι, τόιζε	υοοι, υοόιζε	υοις, υόιζζε	αυτόιμm/f/n	αυτύιμm/f/n	αυτόιςm/f/n	σοι, σόιζε
Genitive	μόιυ*	νοόιυ*	νόσυ*	τόιυ*	υοόιυ*	υόσε*	αυσσόm/f/n	αυτύιμm/f/n	αυσόμm/f/n	σέιυ*

The genitive pronouns marked with an asterisk (*) are declined in the 1st and 2nd declensions to agree in number and case with the thing possessed.