Suwáá/Classical
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
| 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 tones were also flexible and there were also fewer (phonemic) tonal distinctions in affixes than in roots. [TODO: rules]
Number prefixes for nouns existed but were optional.
More fusional and less agglutinative than Modern Sjowaázh?