Phrygian (Semitic)

Phrygian
ƞpɛ́ucɑı préxai
Pronunciation	[ˈprɛksɛː]
Created by	Vrianne
Date	2024
Setting	Alt-History Europe
Native to	Phrygia
Ethnicity	Phrygian
Language family	Afroasiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Phrygian
Early forms	Afro-Asiatic Proto-Semitic Proto-Phrygian Old-Phrygian Classical Phrygian Smyrna Dialect
Standard form	Standard Phrygian (--)
Official status
Official language in	Phrygia
Recognised minority language in	Eretna

Phrygian (endonym: ʌɛmɑ́ү ƞpɛ́ucɑı, Lechán préxai, [lɛˈxaŋ ˈprɛksɛː]), also known as Prexian, is a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. It is spoken mostly in the Principality of Smyrna, and in north- and southwestern Eretna, concentrated in the western half of Anatolia. The standardized form of Phrygian is mainly based on the metropolitan Smyrna Dialect (ɜíoɛr ᴇɯɛppɑ́, sjíuet Emerrá). The name Phrygian is a misnomer, as the classical Phrygian language, which used to be spoken very near to where the Semitic Phrygian tribes initially settled, is an Indo-European language closely related to Greek.

Classical Phrygian still survives as the liturgical language of the Church of Smyrna, one of the Greek Orthodox Churches.

Phonology

Standard Phrygian has 26 consonant phonemes and 11 vowel phonemes. Some coronal phonemes contrast between plain and velarized consonants.

Standard Phrygian Consonants

		Labial	Coronal		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			Plain	Velarized
Nasal		m	n[1]
Polsive	Voiceless	p	t	tˠ(ː)[2] tˠː[4]	c	k(ː)[2]
	Voiced	b(ː)[3]	d(ː)[3]		ɟ ~ ɡ(ː)[3] [5]
Affricate	Voiceless		t͡ʃ
	Voiced		d͡ʒ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	s ʃ	sˠ ʃˠ		x	h
	Voiced		z			ɣ
Trill/Tap			r
Approximant			l	ɫ(ː)[2]	j

Standard Phrygian Consonants

		Front		Back
		Short	Long	Short	Long
Close		i	iː	u	uː
Mid		e[6] ɛ	ɛː	ɔ	ɔː
Open		a aː[7]

1. apart from when before velar consonants, /n/ has the allophone [ŋ] in coda positions following a back vowel or /a/.
2. /tˠ k ɫ/ may be unconditionally geminated by depending on speaker such that they do not contrast with /tˠː kː ɫː/.
3. /b d ɡ/ may be unconditionally geminated by older speakers such that they do not contrast with /bː dː ɡː/.
4. the phonemic contrast between /tˠ(ː)/ (spelled ⟨b⟩) and /tˠː/ (spelled ⟨r̃⟩) has largely disappeared among younger speakers, merging both into either /tˠ/ or /tˠː/. Older speakers who still retain the distinction always pronounce /tˠ(ː)/ ⟨b⟩ as [tˠ] and /tˠː/ ⟨r̃⟩ as [tˠː].
5. /ɡ/ is allophonically pronounced as [ɟ] near front vowels.
6. /e/ is realized as [e̝~ɪ].
7. /a aː/ are realized as [ɑ ɑː] near velarized consonants.

Orthography

Phrygian uses its own script, aptly named the Phrygian script (ɑ́ʌɛƞƞɛɜ ƞpɛ́ucɑıɜ, áleppesj préxaisj). The Phrygian script is an an alphabetic writing system developed specifically for the Phrygian language during the Classical Phrygian period mainly from the Greek script, which it supplanted. It also utilizes some letters of Aramaic origin to represent sounds not present in the base Greek alphabet, such as classical /ħ/ ⟨n⟩, /ʕ/ ⟨v⟩, /sˤ/ ⟨ր⟩, and /ʃˤ/ ⟨ɭ⟩. Though ever since its creation, multiple sounds have merged, leaving many redundant etymological letters such as /x/ ⟨x m n⟩, /ɣ/ ⟨ɼ v⟩, and /tˠ/ ⟨r̃ b⟩.

Phrygian Alphabet

Grapheme	Sound (IPA)	Source	Romanization	Grapheme	Sound (IPA)	Source	Romanization
ᴀ, ɑ	/a/	Greek α	a	ᴏ, o	/ɔ/, /f/[2]	Greek ο	o, f
ʙ, ɓ	/f/	Greek β	f	ᴘ, p	/r/	Greek ρ	r
ʙ̰, ɓ̰	/b/		b	ᴄ, c	/s/	Greek ϲ	s
г, ɼ	/ɣ/, /◌ː/[1]	Greek γ	gh	ᴛ, r	/t/	Greek τ	t
г̰, ɼ̃	/ɡ/		g	ᴛ̰, r̃	/tˠ/		ț, țț
s, s	/d͡ʒ/	Greek δ	dj	ƞ, ƞ	/p/	Greek φ	p
s̰, s̃	/d/		d	x, x	/x/	Greek χ	ch
ᴇ, ɛ	/ɛ/	Greek ε	e	ꝏ, ꝏ	/u/	Greek ω	u
ч, ɥ	/z/	Greek ζ	z	m, m	/x/	Aramaic 𐡄	ch
ɋ, q	/t͡ʃ/	Greek θ	tj	n, n		Aramaic 𐡇
ɪ, ı	/i/, /j/[2]	Greek ι	i	ь, b	/tˠ/	Aramaic 𐡈	ț
u, u	/c/	Greek κ	k	ⱻ, ɜ	/ʃ/	Aramaic 𐡎	sj
ṵ, ũ	/k/		q	ᴠ, v	/ɣ/, /◌ː/[1]	Aramaic 𐡏	gh
ʌ, ʌ	/l/	Greek λ	l	ր, ր	/sˠ/	Aramaic 𐡑	ș
ᴡ, ɯ	/m/	Greek μ	m	ʟ, ɭ	/ʃˠ/	Aramaic 𐡋	șj
ʏ, ү	/n/	Greek ν	n	◌̔[3]	/h/	Greek ◌̔	h

Phrygian Alphabet digraphs

Grapheme	Sound (IPA)	Source	Romanization
ᴀı, ɑı[4]	/ɛː/	Greek αι	ai
ᴀo, ɑo	/ɔː/	Innovated during Classical Phrygian	au
ᴇı, ɛı[4]	/e/	Greek ει	ei
oı, oı[4]	/u/	Greek ου	ou, oi
ʟɭ, ɭɭ	/ɫ/	Innovated during Classical Phrygian	l̦, l̦l̦

1. When in coda position, ɼ, v, and ◌̔ are dropped with compensatory vowel lengthening, such as in ƞɛ́pɛɼ /ˈpɛrɛː/, ɥɛ́pev /ˈzɛrɛː/, and ἕqɛ‛ /ˈhɛt͡ʃɛː/.
2. ɪ and o consonantally are /j/ /f/, such as in ıɛ́pɛu /ˈjɛrɛk/ and ɜɛʌoɑ́p /ʃɛlˈfar/
3. When /h/ precedes a vowel, it is written as a diacritic above the vowel, otherwise it is written on its own. Both forms can be seen in pἕɛ‛ /ˈrɛhɛː/.
4. In order to distinguish /aj/ /ɛj/ /oj/ from /ɛː/ /e/ /u/, diaereses are usedː ɑï, ɛï, oï.