Suwáá/Classical

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Classical Sowaár refers to an archaic literary standard of Sowaár, partly based on Late Old Sowaár.

Phonology

Consonants

Identical to Modern Sjowaázh

Syllabic resonants: m mm n nn nr nnr l ll r rr (ḿ ń ĺ ŕ m̀ ǹ l̀ r̀)

Vowels

Oral vowels
Front Back
short long short long
Close i /ɪ/ ii /iː/ o /o/ oo /oː/
Open e /ɛ/ ee /ɛː/ a /ɑ/ aa /ɑː/

Tone

Classical Sjowaázh had three level tones: high (á), mid (a), low (à). Conservative Modern High Sjowaázh has vestiges of the 3-tone system in its intonation.

7 possible pitch accent patterns:

  • short: á, a, à
  • long: áa, aà, àa, aa

The mid tone and low tone later merged, hence why high tone is the marked tone in High Sjowaazh.

Grammar

Classical Sowaár was optimized for poetic meters (like Marathi) – word order was relatively free and affixes used both long and short syllables. Vowel length was relatively free in affixes (obeying some constraints) and fixed in roots. As a corollary there were also fewer (phonemic) tonal distinctions in affixes than in roots. [TODO: rules]

Number prefixes for nouns existed but was optional.

More fusional and less agglutinative than Modern Sjowaázh?