Ancient Tevvic

Ancient Tevvic
त़ैव्वॉ॔ ता॔ण (ťēvvó tā́ṇa)
Pronunciation	[cɛːʋ.ˈʋɔ ˈtɑː.ɳɑ]
Created by	Melinoë
Date	May, 2026
Native to	Uttarakhand
Ethnicity	Tevvics
Era	Spoken from the 8th century to the mid 12th century AD, developed into Middle Tevvic by the mid 13th century AD.
Language family	Indo-European Para-Germanic ? Tevvic Ancient Tevvic
Early form	Proto-?
Writing system	Devanagari

Ancient Tevvic (Autonym: त़ैव्वॉ॔ ता॔ण (ťēvvó tā́ṇa), /cɛːʋ.ˈʋɔ ˈtɑː.ɳɑ/) was a language spoken in northern India, largely around the modern state of Uttarakhand. It is seemingly a member of the (unnamed) family, making it part of the so-called "Para-Germanic" branch of languages. Ancient Tevvic is immensely divergent, to the point it had become unintelligible to its closest relatives by at most 300 years after splitting from them. Being among the many colloquial languages spoken throughout India, Ancient Tevvic was considered a Prakrit, despite not being Indo-Aryan in the slightest, though it would receive large influence from Sanskrit, much like the other languages of India, though it would largely avoid Sanskritization.

Ancient Tevvic is the primary ancestor of the Tevvic branch of languages, which is comprised of a small group of relatively distantly related languages from across southeast Asia, largely focused on the Indian subcontinent.

History

Ancient Tevvic split off from its relatives by about 750AD, the peoples having begun migrating to India likely due to the Turkic migrations into the lands.

Development

• /x/ > /h/
• /r/ > /ɹ~ɻ/
• unstressed /i, u, ɑ/ > /ə/, leaving /ʲ, ʷ/ on following consonant, with the last turning consonants retroflex. Approximants simply move place, to /j, w, ɻ/ or /ʎ, ɫ, ɭ/ respectively
  • this palatal/labialization often affects the vowel and is then dropped
• /ə/ lost where new clusters are easy
• diphthongs simplify
• /VjV, VwV/ > /V:/
• coda nasals to nasalization where possible
• word final /s/ > /h/
• word final /Vh{ʲ,ʷ}/ > /V{ʲ,ʷ}/
• /wu/ > /u/
• /ĩ, ũ, ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ɑ̃, ə̃/ > /ɨ, ɨ, ə, ə, ə, ɑ/
• overlong vowels to plain long
• /w, v/ > /ʋ/, /hw/ > /ʋ̥/
• /NC/ > /C:/ when of the same place, when not then place assimilation occurs, thus /nt/ > /t:/ but /mt/ > /nt/
• /{rt,tr,rc,cr}, {rd,dr,rɟ,ɟr}, {rn,nr,rm,mr}, {rs,sr,rʃ,ʃr}, {rz,zr,rʒ,ʒr}/ > /ʈ, ɖ, ɳ, ʂ, ʐ/, /rk, kr/ > /ʈ/ in some areas
• coda geminates to /Cʰ/

Phonology

		labial	alveolar	retroflex	palatal	velar
nasal		m	n	ɳ	ɲ
stop	unvoiced	p	t	ʈ	c	k
	voiced	b	d	ɖ	ɟ	ɡ
fricative	unvoiced	f	s	ʂ	ʃ	h
	voiced		z	ʐ	ʒ
approximant		ʋ̥, ʋ	l	ɻ, ɭ	j, ʎ	ɫ~ɰ

	front				back
	unround		round
	short	long	short	long	short	long
High	i	iː	y	yː	u	uː
Mid-High	e	eː	ø	øː	o	oː
Mid-Low	ɛ	ɛː	œ	œː	ɔ	ɔː
Low			(ə)		ɑ	ɑː

Morphology

All inflectable terms follow one of three stress patterns, acrostatic (initial stress), mesostatic (stressed ending), or kinetic. kinetic stress originally entailed a moving stress, where it was acrostatic in some forms, but mesostatic in others, this "moving" stress has been leveled out, but the phonological effects remain, as in मंह॔ः (mạháh) but मंग॔ः (mạgáh).

Nominals

Nominals decline based on roughly 4 categories, those being number, case, gender (adjectives), and possessor (nouns). Noun roots may be derived for different genders, often for a semantic change.

Nouns

Possessive endings

	singular	plural
1st
2nd
3rd

Masculines

a-stem

A-stem masculine nouns

	उ॔ल्फ़् (úlf) ("wolf", acro.)		हैज़॔ः (hēzáh) ("spear", meso.)		मंह॔ः (mạháh) ("stomach", kin.)
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
nominative	उ॔ल्फ़् (úlf)	उ॔ल्फ़ॉः (úlfoh)	हैज़॔ः (hēzáh)	हैज़ॉ॔ः (hēzóh)
vocative	उ॔ल्फ़् (úlf)	उ॔ल्फ़ॉः (úlfoh)	हैज़् (hēz)	हैज़ॉ॔ः (hēzóh)
accusative	उ॔ल्फ़ (úlfa)	उ॔ल्फ़ः (úlfah)	हौ॔ज़॓ (hēzạ́)	हौ॔ज़॓ः (hēzạ́h)
allative	उ॔ल्फ़ौर् (úlfōr)	उ॔ल्फ़्वंः (úlfvạh)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzṓr)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzóh)
genitive	उ॔ल्फ़् (úlf)	उ॔ल्फ़ां (úlfạ̄)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzáh)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzạ̄́)
ablative	उ॔ल्फ़ॅत़् (úlfeť)	उ॔ल्फ़ः (úlfah)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzéť)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzạ́h)
dative	उ॔ल्फ़ै (úlfē)	उ॔ल्फ़ैंः (úlfẹ̄h)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzḗ)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzẹ̄́h)
instrumental	उ॔ल्फ़ॉ (úlfo)	उ॔ल्फ़ंः (úlfạh)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzó)	हौ॔ज़ (hēzạ́h)

Texts

UDHR Article 1

Original (English)

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Cold Winter is Near

Tevvotanva		English
		The cold winter is near, a blizzard will come.
		Come in my warm house, o' friend.
		Welcome! Come here, sing and dance, eat and drink!
		That is my plan.
		We have water, beer, and fresh milk from the cow.
		Oh, and warm soup!

Vocabulary

Phrasebook

Greetings
Tevvotanva	English	Usage notes
	welcome
	good morning	must agree for gender
	good evening
	good day, (formal) hello
	farewell, goodbye
	hello, hi	casual
	(good)bye

Introductions
Tevvotanva	English
	what is your name?
	my name is...
	how are you?
	I am [adj], and you?
	where are you from?
	I am from...

Numerals

1	आ॓ः (ə̂h)
2	त्वे॔ः (tvéh)
3	ट॔र्ः (ṭárh)
4	ष्ट्व॔र् (ṣṭvár)
5	प॓ष् (pə́ṣ)
6	स॔ःश् (sáhš)
7	ष्वु॓त् (ṣvɨ́t)
8	ढ़दु॓त् (ẓdɨ́t)
9	न॔वुंत् (návɨt)
10	तॉ॔हुंत् (tóhɨt)
11	ऐ॔ठ्ठुंत् (êṭṭḥɨt)
12	त्नै॔ठुंत् (tvêṭḥɨt)

Colors

Colors in Ancient Tevvic · [Term?] (layout · text)

लैंझ़॔ः (lẹ̄žáh), फ़्लै॔ख् (flḗkh)	फ़्वु॓ः (fvụ́h), फ़्रु॓ः (frụ́h), मॊग॔ः (mougáh), अ॔स्काठ् (áskāṭh)	स्व॔ठ् (sváṭh)
रौद॔ः (rōdáh), अंद॓ः (ạdạ́h)	तु॓ः (tụ́h); अंण॔ः (ạṇáh)	फ़्लॉव॔ः (fleváh), फ़ै॔ताठ् (fḗtāṭh)
ह्रॉनि॔ः (hroníh)	षंळ्ग्व॔ः (ṣạḷgváh), ह॔रित (hárita)	नी॔ल (nī́la)
अ॔ःमाठ् (áhmāṭh)	हाज़्व॔ः (hāzváh)	मॅ॔चक (mécaka)
शौ॔ण (šṓṇa)	शौ॔ण (šṓṇa)	पाटल॔ (pāṭalá)

Lexical comparison

Leipzig-Jakarta

Leipzig-Jakarta List
Rank	English	Proto-?	Tevvotanva
1	fire		[Term?]
2	nose		[Term?]
3	to go		[Term?]
4	water		[Term?]
5	mouth (body) (river)		[Term?]
6	tongue		[Term?]
7	blood		[Term?]
8	bone		[Term?]
9	2sg pronoun (you)		[Term?]
10	root		[Term?]
11	to come (move)		[Term?]
12	breast		[Term?]
13	rain		[Term?]
14	1sg pronoun (I)		[Term?]
15	name		[Term?]
16	louse (Phthirapteron)		[Term?]
17	wing		[Term?]
18	flesh/meat		[Term?]
19	arm/hand		[Term?]
20	fly (Dipteron)		[Term?]
21	night (time)		[Term?]
22	ear		[Term?]
23	neck		[Term?]
24	far (prep.)		[Term?]
25	to do/make		[Term?]
26	house/structure		[Term?]
27	stone/rock (singular)		[Term?]
28	bitter		[Term?]
29	to say		[Term?]
30	tooth		[Term?]
31	hair		[Term?]
32	big		[Term?]
33	one (number)		[Term?]
34	who?		[Term?]
35	3sg pronoun (they) (m) (f) (n)		[Term?]
36	to hit/beat		[Term?]
37	leg/foot		[Term?]
38	horn		[Term?]
39	this (pron.)		[Term?]
40	fish		[Term?]
41	yesterday		[Term?]
42	to drink		[Term?]
43	black (color)		[Term?]
44	navel		[Term?]
45	to stand		[Term?]
46	to bite		[Term?]
47	back (body)		[Term?]
48	wind		[Term?]
49	smoke (substance)		[Term?]
50	what?		[Term?]
51	child (kin term)		[Term?]
52	egg		[Term?]
53	to give		[Term?]
54	new (adj.)		[Term?]
55	to burn (intr.)		[Term?]
56	not (adj./adv.)		[Term?]
57	good	[Term?]
58	to know		[Term?]
59	knee		[Term?]
60	sand		[Term?]
61	to laugh		[Term?]
62	to hear		[Term?]
63	soil		[Term?]
64	leaf		[Term?]
65	red (color)		[Term?]
66	liver (organ)		[Term?]
67	to hide		[Term?]
68	skin/hide (animal) (general)		[Term?]
69	to suck		[Term?]
70	to carry		[Term?]
71	ant (Formid)		[Term?]
72	heavy		[Term?]
73	to take		[Term?]
74	old		[Term?]
75	to eat		[Term?]
76	thigh		[Term?]
77	thick		[Term?]
78	long (spacially)		[Term?]
79	to blow		[Term?]
80	wood		[Term?]
81	to run		[Term?]
82	to fall		[Term?]
83	eye (body-part)		[Term?]
84	ash		[Term?]
85	tail		[Term?]
86	dog		[Term?]
87	to cry/weep		[Term?]
88	to tie		[Term?]
89	to see		[Term?]
90	sweet		[Term?]
91	rope		[Term?]
92	shade/shadow		[Term?]
93	bird		[Term?]
94	salt		[Term?]
95	small		[Term?]
96	wide		[Term?]
97	star		[Term?]
98	in		[Term?]
99	hard (materially)		[Term?]
100	to crush/grind		[Term?]

See also

• Ancient Tevvic dictionary