Suwáá/Classical

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

Phonology

Consonants

Identical to Modern Sjowaázh

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/

Nasal vowels

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
Close	iñ /ĩ/	iiñ /ĩː/	oñ /õ/	ooñ /õː/
Open	eñ /ɛ̃/	eeñ /ɛ̃ː/	añ /ɑ̃/	aañ /ɑ̃ː/

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 – word order was relatively free and affixes used both long and short syllables.

Number marking for nouns existed but was optional.

More fusional and less agglutinative than Modern Sjowaázh?