Naeng/Classical: Difference between revisions

|name = Classical Wiobian

|pronunciation= /wyːøbəm muːts/

'''Classical Wiobian''' or '''Ancient Wiobian''' is the oldest attested form of [[Wiobian]], used as a spoken language until 400 v.C.

Classical Wiobian features a system of 24 consonants (comparable to [[Themsarian]], with 22 consonants).

|+ '''Late Classical Wiobian consonants'''

In early Classical Wiobian /h/ and /x/ were allophones in free variation.

The gemination sign, transcribed as '''c''', is often used in early classical texts. It acts like the Japanese ''sokuon'' symbol: ''wecl'' /welː/ 'slide! (2nd person singular)'. By late Classical Wiobian most gemination signs fell into disuse and were replaced with double letters. '''c''' only survived as part of the graphemes '''-ck''' for long k, and '''ch''' [x], which must have been in complementary distribution with '''h''' [h] by that time, in view of the fact that ''Nuß-Duom&Eik'' lists [h] and [x] as distinct sounds.

Vowel length was not directly marked on the vowel. In Early Classical Wiobian each vowel had an independent length. This changed in Late Classical Wiobian when vowels before single consonants were lengthened and vowels before two consonants were shortened, so that the orthographic final came to determine vowel length. Thus, ''Tumm''  'bird' and ''trum'' 'flat' are respectively pronounced in Early Classical Wiobian /tuːmː/ and /trum/, which in Late Classical Wiobian became /tumː/ and /truːm/. Glottal stop finals were also deleted to trigger compensatory lengthening of the vowel, and final [-h] also disappeared, which is why open long vowels are written with an ''-h'' after the vowel.

|+ '''Classical Wiobian vowels'''

Classical Wiobian inflected nouns with endings. Case/number and personal endings were eventually elided or turned into tone distinctions. Writers were nevertheless expected to write all case and personal endings, until the 1811 v.C. re-standardization of the orthography abolished personal endings as well as most number/case endings.

Nouns have two genders, animate and inanimate. Nouns of each gender take their respective verb endings and pronouns in Classical Wiobian.

Classical Wiobian has many morphological ways of forming plurals, some of which may be combined.

In Classical Wiobian, nouns are also inflected in 5 cases:

*Dative: indirect object, some adverbial expressions, possessor after Classical Wiobian

In Classical Wiobian, to form the comparative one attaches the semi-serial verb ''&kloh'' ('cross') to the predicative form of the adjective. (The same applies to verbs.) The standard of comparison is in the accusative. The superlative is identical to the comparative.

Classical Wiobian forms the negative comparative by using the adverb ''quäs hioleng'' after the finite verb. The standard of comparison is in the dative.

The citation form is the present stem, which is also the short 2nd person singular imperative in Classical Wiobian.  

Jussive endings are only found in Classical Wiobian.

In Classical Wiobian, the verb is also inflected for person.

Constituents are arranged in V2 order in both Classical Wiobian and most modern topolects (with more variation allowed in classical poetry). Noun modifiers (adjectives and possessors) almost always precede the modified noun.

For negation, Classical Wiobian uses a negative verb ''mei'' (present), ''quek'' (preterite), ''Quah'' (verbal noun) + the verbal noun in the dative case: