Vėtuhapamarėska

Old Pomorian language
(Vėtuhapamarėska gålba)
Pronunciation	[/ˈʋeː.tʊ.ɦɑ.pɑ.ˈma:.reː.skɑ/]
Created by	Raistas
Setting	Parallel World
Language family	Indo-European Old Pomorian language
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Balto-Slavic Early Proto-Slavic

The Old Pomorian (Vėtuhapamarėska gålba in Pomorian) is a Balto-Slavic language which is a direct ancestor of modern Pomorian. It's own ancestor could possibly be Proto-Balto-Slavic itself, but because the language shares many common sound changes and vocabulary with Proto-Slavic most scholars agree that the Pomorian language descends from a dialect of Early Proto-Slavic.

Usually Old Pomorian refers to a period from the VIIth to the late XIIIth centuries. During it Old Pomorian was spoken on a large territory of Northern Poland and South-Western Prussia.

The area marked in green represents Pomorian majority on the territory in the XIIth-XIIIth centuries

Homeland and migration

The history of Old Pomorian starts in the VIIth century during the Migration Period. Back then Pomorians lived in Polesie which is now the territory of South-Western Belarus and Eastern Poland. The ancestors of modern Pomorian people were also Baltic tribes, particularly Baltic Prussians.

The exact route of migration is not clear, however it is when a contact with Prussians started, so Pomorians probably headed north first (approximately Vth-VIth centuries) and then they moved to the west, where their current land is. Many Prussian loanwords entered the language during this time. The separation of Western and Eastern branches happened right after the migration had finnished with later mixing between them and creating other dialects.

Phonology

Here the Pomorian phonology of the XII century is represented. Some specific sound changes have not occured yet making the language more similar to its Baltic neighbours than to closer Slavic relatives.

Consonants

The consonant inventory was a bit smaller. Palatalization of velars only began in the Eastern dialect, and many other palatals were still sequences of dentals and "j" sound.

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Palato-alveolar	Velar
Nasal		m	n̪
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪		k
	voiced	b	d̪		g
Affricate	voiceless			(t͡ɕ)
	voiced			(d͡ʑ)
Fricative	voiceless		s̪	(ɕ)	x
	voiced		z̪
Trill			r
Approximant		w	l	j

Note:

• /t͡ɕ/ and /d͡ʑ/ sounds appeared as allophones before front vowels at that time only in Eastern dialect, while in Western one they probably stayed as /kʲ/ and /gʲ/ respectively, while the /ɕ/ sound was in every dialect (but has a different outcome in each group).

Vowels

The system of vowels was symmetric in Old Pomorian meaning that all the vowels could be either long or short. During this period the language completely lacked the /o/ sound, typical in modern Pomorian, but it appeared near the end of the XIII century, then turning into /uo/ in Western dialect and later in the rest except Eastern and South-Eastern where it preserved as /oː/

Long vowels Front Back Close i: u: Open-mid ɛ:~æ: Open ɑː

Short vowels Front Back Close i u Open-mid ɛ~æ Open ɑ

Notes:

• /ɑ/ and its long counterpart /ɑː/ could possibly be central rather than back. However it is disputed.
• It is not known, whether Old Pomorian had nasal vowels or they were sequences of an oral vowel and a nasal consonant. Even nowadays in modern Western dialects nasal vowels do not appear after stops.

Diphthongs

	i	u	l	m	n	r
e	ei	jau	el	em	en	er
ē	ēi	(jāu)	ēl	ēm	ēn	ēr
a	ai	au	al	am	an	ar
ā	āi	āu	āl	ām	ān	ār
i			il	im	in	ir
u			ul	um	un	ur

Notes:

• All diphthongs could be either descending (with an acute intonation) and long or ascending (with a circumflex intonation) and short.
• The jāu diphthong is not directly attested.
• Phonetically speaking sequences of a vowel and an approximant were not real diphthongs, but they also were descending or ascending and took part in ablaut.

Prosody

Old Pomorian was a pitch-accented language. Little can be found out about its stress from the few attestations but it is generally considered to be similar to modern Pomorian. There were also two different types of accent - acute and circumflex, but it is not accepted whether acute was the falling and circumflex - the rising accent (the accent system is speculated to be reversed in modern Pomorian). According to the newest data and the research of extinct southern dialects there could actually be three distinct accents, all of which having long or short variation. Some scholars even propose that Old Pomorian had broken tone similar to Danish stød or Latvian lauzta intonacija which then became a long acute accent in modern language. But this topic still needs more research, yet nothing can be stated for sure.

Ablaut

As in Early-Proto Slavic, Old Pomorian also retained productive ablaut alterations, although they had been reduced early in its history. Some new alterations appeared instead and ablaut is still mostly productive even in the modern language. Here the alterations are listed:

e-grade	e	ei	jau	el	er	em	en
ē-grade	ē	ēi	(jāu)	ēl	ēr	ēm	ēn
i-grade	i	ī	u	il	ir	im	in
a-grade	a	ai	au	al	ar	am	an
ā-grade	ā	āi	āu	āl	ār	ām	ān
u-grade	u	i	ū	ul	ur	um	un

All the ablaut series remained mostly unchanged (they only underwent some phonological changes and became slightly diiferent in every dialect), but only North-Western dialects retained most qualitative alterations productive.

Grammar

Almost all the Old Pomorian morphology is reconstructed and not attested. The internal reconstruction was used by comparing different dialects.

Nouns

Noun declension patterns were pretty much recognizable with few differences in endings. There were also seven declensions same as in modern Pomorian. Endings for the Western dialects are before the slash while endings for Eastern - after the slash in the table below.

-es (masculine), -ā (feminine), -an (neuter)

	grā́des = hail			galvā́ = head			mârjan = sea
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	grā́des	grā́dā	grā́dai	galvā́	gàlvai	gàlvās	marjan	mârjai	marjā
Genitive	grā́dās	grā́dau	grā́dūn	galvā́s	galvâu	galvū́n	màrjā	mârjau	marjū́n
Dative	grā́dāu	grā́damā	grā́dames	gãlvāi	galvā́mā	galvàmes	màrjāu	marjàmā	mariãmes
Accusative	grā́dan	grā́dā	grā́dus	gãlvān	gàlvai	gãlves	màrjan	màrjai	màrjes
Instrumental	grā́dumis/ā	grā́damā	grā́daimīs	gâlvajān/ān	galvā́mā	galvā̂mīs	màrjumis/jā	marjàmā	marjâmīs
Locative	grā́dē/ēi	grā́dau	grā́daihu	gâlvāje/āi	galvâu	galvā̂su	mârēje/ēi	mârjau	marjā̂su
Vocative	grā́dei/e	grā́dā	grā́dāi	gãlva	gàlvai	gãlvā	màrja	màrjai	màrjā

-is (masculine, feminine), -in (neuter)

	zwērì = animal			ugnìn = fire
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	zwērìs	zwē͂rī	zwḗreis/īs	ugnìn	ûgnī	ùgnijē/ī
Genitive	zwēreîs	zwērjaû	zwērjū́n	ugneîs	ugnjaû	ugnjū́n
Dative	zwē͂rijei/ēi	zwērìmā	zwērìmes	u͂gnijei/ēi	ugnìmā	ugnìmes
Accusative	zwē͂rin	zwē͂rī	zwḗrins	u͂gnin	ûgnī	ugnī́n
Instrumental	zwērîmi	zwērìmā	zwērîmīs	ugnìmi	ugnìmā	ugnîmīs
Locative	zwērē̂i	zwērjâu	zwērìhu	ugnē̂i	ugnjâu	ugnìhu
Vocative	zwēreĩ/ī́	zwē͂rī	zwērijḗ/ḗi	ũgni/eĩ	ûgnī	ugnijḗ/ḗi

-us (masculine), -un (neuter)

	sūnùs = son			ledùn = ice
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	sūnùs	sū́nū	sū́nawe/ūs	ledùn	lèdū	lèdū
Genitive	sūnaûs	sūnaû	sūnawū́n/ū́n	ledaûs	ledaû	ledū́n
Dative	sū̂nawei	sūnùmā	sūnùmes	lêdawei	ledùmā	ledùmes
Accusative	sū̂nun	sū́nū	sū́nuns	lêdun	lèdū	lèdūn
Instrumental	sūnùmi	sūnùmā	sūnûmīs	ledùmi	ledùmā	ledûmīs
Locative	sūnā̂u	sūnâu	sūnùhu	ledā̂u	ledâu	ledùhu
Vocative	sū̂nau/ū	sū́nū	sū́nau/ū	lêdu/ū	lèdū	lèdau/ū

-s (masculine) -ū (feminine), -n/t/s (neuter)

	zmū́ = human being			mḗns = moon
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	zmū́	zmène	zmènes/ènīs	mḗns	mḗnese	mḗnenes/esās
Genitive	zmenī́s	zmenù	zmenū́n	mḗnesīs	mḗnesu	mḗnesū́n
Dative	zmênei	zmènmā	zmènmes	mḗnesei	mḗnesmā	mḗnesmes
Accusative	zmênin	zmène	zmenī́ns/ènā	mḗnesin	mḗnese	mḗnesīns/esā
Instrumental	zmenmì	zmènmā	zmènmīs	mḗnesmi	mḗnesmā	mḗnesmīs
Locative	zmenē̂	zmenù	zmènsu	mḗnesē	mḗnesu	mḗnesu
Vocative	zmenĩ/ū́n	zmène	zmène/esā	mḗnesi/s	mḗnese	mḗnese/esā

Verbs

Verb conjugation was a bit different from modern Pomorian being more archaic. More verbs belong to the fourth conjugation type. Simple present and past tenses have been reconstructed for Old Pomorian with relics of a simple (or probably continuous) future tense. Verb endings are in the table below.

Present tense Thematic person Singular Dual Plural 1st *-am, *-ā 1 -wā -ema/-eme 2nd -esi/-ēi -tā -ete 3rd -eti -te -anti Athematic person Singular Dual Plural 1st *-mì -wā́ -mà 2nd -sei -tā́ -tè 3rd -ti -te -ànti

Past tense Simple person Singular Dual Plural 1st -aun/-un -wai -āme 2nd *-ēis, *-eis 2 -tāi -āte 3rd -ē -te -ēn Sigmatic person Singular Dual Plural 1st -uhu -hawai -hāme 2nd *-his, *-hēis 2 -stā -āste 3rd -hēs -ste -hēn

Future tense Simple person Singular Dual Plural 1st *-sjam, *-sjā 1 -siwā -esima/-esime 2nd -sjei/-sēi -sitā -esite 3rd -siti -site -sjanti *(Continuous) 3 person Singular Dual Plural 1st *-ensja(m) -ensiwā -ensjema/-ensjeme 2nd -ensjei/-ensēi -ensitā -ensjete 3rd -ensiti -ensite -ensjanti

Notes:

1. Both endings could be reconstructed for 1st person singular in present tense. The former ending is from the Western dialects, the latter - from the Eastern ones.
2. According to the modern language the -ēis ending is reconstructible for 2nd person singular in past tense, but the form -ei was attested. However it is not precisely known whether the -ei(s) ending was real or it could be a misspelling.
3. It is not know how exactly the en suffix functioned, it could indicate a process or duration of an action. It is not found anywhere except this tense.

An interesting feature Old Pomorian verbs possessed was a presence of objective clitics. These clitics were attached to the end of prefixless transitive verbs or to the beginning of transitive verbs with prefixes to show a direct object. Those clitics are seldom used in North-Western dialects of the modern language, but are considered archaic. Pronouns in accusative case are used instead nowadays.

person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	-mej-/-mi-	-vās-/-vā-	-mes-/-me-
2nd	-tej-/-ti-	-tās-/-tā-	tes-/-te-

Clitics could be attached in all tenses and moods and didn't change their form like real verb personal endings. However they had long form (if the verb began in a vowel) and short (if the verb began in a consonant). There was no clitic for a third person, a corresponding pronoun was always used in that case. A similar reflexive clitic (-sej-/-si-) was also present which made a verb intransitive (it is similar to English word "oneself). For example: nātigēdjau means "I asked you", beināsigēdjesi is "if you ask yourself".

Development

To Early and Old Pomorian

• *ś, *ź > *s, *z, a change shared with West Baltic and Proto-Slavic.
• *ē, *ō > *ī, *ū before a final sonorant.
• *eu > *jau
• *ā and *ō > *ā, a change shared with Proto-Slavic.
• -as > *-es (in Baltic remained as *-as, in Slavic changed into *-əs and then into *-ъ except Old Novgorodian, where it became -e)
• *ā > *ū before labial consonants.

These changes happened before the IIIth century CE. It was the time when Early Pomorian separated from Early Proto-Slavic while still remaining a dialect of it. Some loanwords from Proto-Germanic and old Indo-Iranian languages and then also from Old Gothic were entering the language during this time. There were some changes in morphological structure but nothing major had happened by the VIIIth century, when the palatalization of velars started similar to the first Slavic palatalization.

• *k, *g, *x > *č /t͡ɕ/, *dž /d͡ʑ/, *š /ɕ/ before front vowels.
• sk, *zg > *škj, *žgj before front vowels.

Some Germanic words borrowed during this time were also affected by the palatalization. Despite started in the VIII century this process has not finished yet in the North-Western dialect, where words both with and without the palatalization appeared.

At first the nasalization happened only with long vowels approximately in XIIth - XIIIth centuries, after which Old Pomorian started developing into Middle Pomorian.

To Middle Pomorian

• In the XIII century most final consonants fell out.
• Nasalization of short vowels happened after fricatives. These short nasal vowels than merged with the long ones in all dialects except Southern.

In the late XIVth century the process called the iotation happened resulting in new palatal phonemes.

• *tj, *dj, *lj, *nj, *rj > */tʲ/, */dʲ/, */lʲ/, */nʲ/, */rʲ/
• *sj, *zj, čj, džj > */sʲ/, */zʲ/, */t͡sʲ/, */d͡zʲ/
• *stj, *zdj > *šť, *žď
• *škj, žgj > *sk, *zg or *šk, *žg in Western dialects.
• *škj, žgj > *č, *dž in Southern dialects.
• *č, *dž > *c /t͡s/, *dz /d͡z/. Did not occure in extinct Southern dialects.
• *škj, žgj > */t͡ʃ/, */d͡ʒ/ in Eastern dialects.
• */ɕ/ > /ʆ/
• *ao (probably /ɑɔ̯/) > *å /ɔː/

In the XVth century final long vowels shortened. This is the time when final *e dropped in non-Western dialects.

• [i], [u] > [ɪ], [ʊ]
• Final *i drops in extinct Southern dialects and Ežerina.
• *a > *o [ɔ] under new circumflex accent in extinct Southern dialects and Ežerina.
• *s, *z, *c, *dz > *š, *ž, *č, *dž before high front vowels. Does not occure in Western dialects.
• *s, *z, *c, *dz > *š, *ž, *č, *dž before open-mid front vowels. Only in Southern dialects.
• *au, *ei > *ō /oː/, ẹ /eː/
• *ai > *ē everywhere except Eastern dialects.
• *ai > *ei in Eastern dialect.
• *a > *o /ɔ/ under short and long circumflex accent in Eastern dialects.
• */ʆ/, */ʃ/ > /ʃ/
• /sʲ/, /zʲ/, /t͡sʲ/, /d͡zʲ/ > /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/ before front vowels in Western and Central dialects.
• */tʲ/, */dʲ/, */lʲ/, */nʲ/ > /c/, /ɟ/, /ʎ/, /ɲ/
• *ą̄, *ą, *ę̄, *ę > ą, ę, everywhere except Southern dialects.
• *ą̄, *ę̄ > ā, iā in Southen dialects.
• *a > *å before velar consonants in Central and Cenral-Eastern dialects.
• *a > *å before *v
• *vå > *å in South-Western and Southern dialects.
• *å > *o [ɔ] in Ežerina.
• /f/ appears as a phoneme in borrowings.
• */c/, */ɟ/ > /t͡ɕ/, /d͡ʑ/ in Southern and Eastern dialects.
• *šť, *žď, > *č, *dž in Southern and Eastern dialects.

In the XVIIth century the rest short vowels before nasal consonants became nasal. This did not happen in Western dialects.

To modern Pomorian

During the modern period Pomorian vowels underwent a major shift resulting in modern vowel system.

• *ō, *ẹ > uo, ie. Did not happen with *ō in Eastern dialects.
• *ā, *ē > o /oː/, ė /eː/. Did not happen in Eastern dialects.
• *a > *u before labial consonants in Western and South-Western dialects.
• *ovo > uo
• *į, *ų > (j)ie, (v)uo in some Northern dialects including Hel dialect.
• *ę, *ą > [jæː]/[æː], [aː] in some Northern dialects including Hel.
• *ēi, *āu > ei, au everywhere, except Eastern dialects.
• *ei, *ie, *au, *uo > jei, jei, vau, vuo word initially in North-Western dialects.
• *ie > ī in Eastern dialects.
• *ēi, *āu > ie, uo in Eastern dialects. This also applies to *o in loanwords.
• *i, *ī > y /ɨ/, ȳ /ɨː/ before dental stops, affricates and fricatives in Southern and Eastern dialects.
• *e > a before dental stops, affricates and fricatives in Eastern dialects.
• *ū > *yu /ɨʊ/ in some South-Eastern dialects.
• *ū > *ui /uɨ̯/ after labial consonants in Central and under a long circumflex in Eastern dialects.
• *il > *yu /ɨʊ/ in Eatern dialects.
• */uɨ̯/ > /ɨʊ/ in Eatern dialects.
• */rʲ/ > /r/ in Southern, South-Western and Ežerina
• *i, *ī > y /ɨ/, ȳ /ɨː/ before *r in Southern, South-Western and Ežerina
• *x > h
• /sʲ/, /zʲ/, /t͡sʲ/, /d͡zʲ/ > /ɕ/, /ʑ/, /t͡ɕ/, /d͡ʑ/ in Western and Southern dialects.
• Palatal consonants become dental in Northern dialects.
• *u, *a > *ü, *ö > *i, *e near front vowels in Hel dialect, when unstressed.
• *a, *å > oa under circumflex accent in Northern dialects.
• *e > ea under circumflex accent in Northern dialects except Hel.