Vėtuhapamarėska

Old Pomorian language
(Vėtuhapamarėska gålba)
Pronunciation	[/ˈʋeː.tʊ.ɦɑ.pɑ.ˈma:.reː.skɑ/]
Created by	Raistas
Setting	Parallel World
Language family	Indo-European Old Pomorian language
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Balto-Slavic Early Proto-Slavic

The Old Pomorian (Vėtuhapamarėska gålba in Pomorian) is a Balto-Slavic language which is a direct ancestor of modern Pomorian. It's own ancestor could possibly be Proto-Balto-Slavic itself, but because the language shares many common sound changes and vocabulary with Proto-Slavic most scholars agree that the Pomorian language descends from a dialect of Early Proto-Slavic.

Usually Old Pomorian refers to a period from the VIIth to the late XIIIth centuries. During it Old Pomorian was spoken on a large territory of Northern Poland and South-Western Prussia.

The area marked in green represents Pomorian majority on the territory in the XIIth-XIIIth centuries

Homeland and migration

The history of Old Pomorian starts in the VIIth century during the Migration Period. Back then Pomorians lived in Polesie which is now the territory of South-Western Belarus and Eastern Poland. The ancestors of modern Pomorian people were also Baltic tribes, particularly Baltic Prussians.

The exact route of migration is not clear, however it is when a contact with Prussians started, so Pomorians probably headed north first (approximately Vth-VIth centuries) and then they moved to the west, where their current land is. Many Prussian loanwords entered the language during this time. The separation of Western and Eastern branches happened right after the migration had finnished with later mixing between them and creating other dialects.

Phonology

Here the Pomorian phonology of the XII century is represented. Some specific sound changes have not occured yet making the language more similar to its Baltic neighbours than to closer Slavic relatives.

Consonants

The consonant inventory was a bit smaller. Palatalization of velars only began in the Eastern dialect, and many other palatals were still sequences of dentals and "j" sound.

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Palato-alveolar	Velar
Nasal		m	n̪
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪		k
	voiced	b	d̪		g
Affricate	voiceless			(t͡ɕ)
	voiced			(d͡ʑ)
Fricative	voiceless		s̪	(ɕ)	x
	voiced		z̪
Trill			r
Approximant		w	l	j

Note:

• /t͡ɕ/ and /d͡ʑ/ sounds appeared as allophones before front vowels at that time only in Eastern dialect, while in Western one they probably stayed as /kʲ/ and /gʲ/ respectively, while the /ɕ/ sound was in every dialect (but has a different outcome in each group).

Vowels

The system of vowels was symmetric in Old Pomorian meaning that all the vowels could be either long or short. During this period the language completely lacked the /o/ sound, typical in modern Pomorian, but it appeared near the end of the XIII century, then turning into /uo/ in Western dialect and later in the rest except Eastern and South-Eastern where it preserved as /oː/

Long vowels Front Back Close i: u: Open-mid ɛ:~æ: Open ɑː

Short vowels Front Back Close i u Open-mid ɛ~æ Open ɑ

Notes:

• /ɑ/ and its long counterpart /ɑː/ could possibly be central rather than back. However it is disputed.
• It is not known, whether Old Pomorian had nasal vowels or they were sequences of an oral vowel and a nasal consonant. Even nowadays in modern Western dialects nasal vowels do not appear after stops.

Diphthongs

	i	u	l	m	n	r
e	ei	jau	el	em	en	er
ē	ēi	(jāu)	ēl	ēm	ēn	ēr
a	ai	au	al	am	an	ar
ā	āi	āu	āl	ām	ān	ār
i			il	im	in	ir
u			ul	um	un	ur

Notes:

• All diphthongs could be either descending (with an acute intonation) and long or ascending (with a circumflex intonation) and short.
• The jāu diphthong is not directly attested.
• Phonetically speaking sequences of a vowel and an approximant were not real diphthongs, but they also were descending or ascending and took part in ablaut.

Prosody

Old Pomorian was a pitch-accented language. Little can be found out about its stress from the few attestations but it is generally considered to be very similar to modern Pomorian. There were also two different types of accent - acute and circumflex, but it is not accepted whether acute was the falling and circumflex - the rising accent. According to the newest data and the research of extinct southern dialects there could actually be three distinct accents, all of which having long or short variation