Verse:Irta
Apple PIE (name tentative) is an alternate history of IE and nearby cultural regions. The premise is "different diachronic evolutions of English, Hebrew, Māori and a few other languages". Some other languages like French and Arabic are a bit more different from our timeline.
The proto-branch of English in this universe is the set in the same place as our Hurrian and Urartian; conversely, Germanic becomes a non-IE language family.
Latin
A tonal language like Greek and Sanskrit
Modern Greek
Written in a version of Linear B, roughly Syllabics + katakana inspired
a lot more ways to write /i/ depending on PIE etymon? maybe *i and *iH can use different glyphs?
Hypergreek
Some sound splits conditioned by PIE etymon which are merged in Proto-Greek but do not affect intelligibility for a Modern Greek speaker
Mitanni
Weirdest interpretation of Mitanni cuneiform
English
Most in-universe English dialects don't merge some PIE sounds, like *ei and *ī, which are merged in Proto-Germanic. Otherwise they sound a lot like English accents from our timeline.
Hyperenglish
an English accent with lots of non-Germanic sound splits as well as General American sound mergers
LOT ~ THOUGHT, but PIE ey !~ PIE ī
Hebrew
Paleo-Hebrew in this universe distinguishes most consonants of Proto-Semitic, unlike in our timeline. This is reflected in some in-universe Hebrew accents which preserve distinctions like צׁ (tsadi w/ right dot) /ts̠/ vs צׂ (tsadi w/ left dot) /ts/, cognate with Arabic emphatic S/Z and D.
The closest Hebrew accent in-universe to our Modern Hebrew preserves the distinction between PSem *x and PSem *H as well.
Proto-Central Semitic also keeps Proto-Semitic emphatics as ejectives instead of turning them into unaspirated pharyngealized stops as in our timeline.
In-universe Tiberian Hebrew keeps the ejectives, and has the following sound changes from PSem:
- gh, x > Skellan l, Skellan ll
- ś/s þ s > Basque z, Basque s, š (written as shin left dot, shin middle dot, shin right dot)
- z ð > voiced Basque z, voiced Basque s
- ś' þ' s' > Basque tz, Basque ts, Basque ts (but ejectives)
In-universe Tiberian Hebrew also distinguishes
- cholam from Proto-Semitic *u = /o/
- cholam from Proto-Semitic *ā = /u/ (/uə/ in some other reading traditions)
- Proto-Semitic *ū = Swedish u (/u/ in some other reading traditions)
Some accents like Hyper-Israeli Hebrew merges the first two, some merge the second two, and others, such as Ăn Yidiș Hebrew, keep all three distinct.
Māori
Proto-Austronesian in Apple PIE has the same urheimat as in our timeline but a very different phonology and morphology; its phonology is small like Finnish and its morphology is Altaic-ish; its evolution into Māori as we know it, a VSO language, is analogous to PIE's evolution into Irish.
Conlangs
Hyperfrench
French through Proto-Slavic -> Russian sound changes (nasal vowels get denasalized etc.)
r -> h consistently; a four way stop distinction as in Hindi
A Romance language
A language actually named after a cognate of "Latin" spoken in Latium; it has a roughly Catalan/Romanian/Occitan aesthetic
Galoyseg
Quasi-Time Traveler Celtic with a Yiddish touch