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), one of the several regional dialects, which collectively descended from Classical Phrygian. 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.

The historical development of Phrygian traces back to Classical Phrygian, which itself emerged from Old Phrygian. 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	u
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 ɛ̔qɛ‛ /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 pɛ̔ɛ‛ /ˈrɛhɛː/.
4. In order to distinguish /aj/ /ɛj/ /oj/ from /ɛː/ /e/ /u/, diaereses are usedː ɑï, ɛï, oï.

Grammar

Phrygian grammar is very similar of that of other Semitic languages, with some main differences being the retention of case declension and complex verb conjugation, and the loss of the construct state.

Like other Semitic languages, Phrygian relies on nonconcatenative morphology, inserting roots of three or more consonants that carry basic meanings into discontinuous patterns for all sorts of grammatical purposes. For example, from the root ◌̔-ƞ-c (h-p-s, "relating to speaking and vocalizing") can be derived:

• ɛ̔ƞcóı hepsú, "it was spoken"
• ɛ̔ƞocɛү héposen, "I must speak"
• ɑ̔ƞɛc hápes, "speaker"
• ɑ̔ƞcɛɜ hápsesj, "loudspeaker"
• ɛ̔ƞɑ́cɛɜ hepásesj, "speech"
• o̔ƞc hops, "word"

Nominals

Nouns

Phrygian nouns preserve a declension system for three cases (nominative, oblique, and vocative), two genders (masculine and feminine), two numbers (singular and plural), and state (definite and indefinite).

Masculine declension

Masculine nouns regularly form their plurals with -óı (-ú) in the nominative case and -í (-í) in the oblique and vocative cases. Their definite article is o̔ʌ (hol) in the nominative case and roʌ (tol) in the oblique case. They also tend to feature stem alteration between numbers:

ıɑoɯ (iaum, "day")

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	(o̔ʌ) ıɑoɯ (hol) iaum	(o̔ʌ) ıoıɯóı (hol) iumú
Oblique	(roʌ) ıɑ́oɯɛ (tol) iáume	(roʌ) ıoıɯí (tol) iumí
Vocative	oɛx ıɑ́oɯɛ fech iáume	oɛ́xoɯ ıoıɯí féchom iumí

ɛɓ̰ (eb, "father")

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	(o̔ʌ) ɛɓ̰ (hol) eb	(o̔ʌ) ɛɓ̰ɑүóı (hol) ebanú
Oblique	(roʌ) ɛ́ɓ̰ɛ (tol) ébe	(roʌ) ɛɓ̰ɑүí (tol) ebaní
Vocative	oɛx ɛ́ɓ̰ɛ fech ébe	oɛ́xoɯ ɛɓ̰ɑүí féchom ebaní

Feminine declension

Feminine nouns often end with -ɛɜ (-esj) in the nominative case and -ɑ́ (-á) in the vocative and regularly form their plurals by replacing them with -ɑ́ɜ (-ásj) in the nominative case and -ɑ́ɜɛ (-ásje) in the oblique and vocative cases. Their definite article is i̔ʌ (hil) in the nominative case and rıʌ (til) in the oblique case. They tend to not feature stem alteration between numbers:

ɛ́mɛɜ (échesj, "sister")

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	(i̔ʌ) ɛ́mɛɜ (hil) échesj	(i̔ʌ) ɛmɑ́ɜ (til) echásj
Oblique	(rıʌ) ɛ́mɜɛ (hil) échsje	(rıʌ) ɛmɑ́ɜɛ (til) echásje
Vocative	oɛx ɛmɑ́ fech echá	oɛxɑ́ɜ ɛmɑ́ɜɛ fechásj echásje

ɜɛүm (sjench, "sun")

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	(i̔ʌ) ɜɛүm (hil) sjench	(i̔ʌ) ɜɛүmɑ́ɜ (hil) sjenchásj
Oblique	(rıʌ) ɜɛ́үmɛ (til) sjénche	(rıʌ) ɜɛүmɑ́ɜɛ (til) sjenchásje
Vocative	oɛx ɜɛүmɑ́ fech sjenchá	oɛxɑ́ɜ ɜɛүmɑ́ɜɛ fechásj sjenchásje

Adjectives

Phrygian adjectives follow their nouns and express gender agreement with the nouns they modify. They decline in much the same way nouns do:

rɑɓ (taf, "fine; tender")

	Masculine		Feminine
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	rɑɓ taf	rɑɓóı tafú	rɑ́ɓɛɜ táfesj	rɑɓɑ́ɜ tafásj
Oblique Vocative	rɑ́ɓɛ táfe	rɑɓí tafí	rɑ́ɓɜɛ táfsje	rɑɓɑ́ɜɛ tafásje

ƞóũop (póqor, "unimportant")

	Masculine		Feminine
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ƞóũop póqor	ƞoũpóı poqrú	ƞóũpɛɜ póqresj	ƞoũpɑ́ɜ poqrásj
Oblique Vocative	ƞóũpɛ póqre	ƞoũpí poqrí	ƞóũopɜɛ póqorsje	ƞoũpɑ́ɜɛ poqrásje