Þeoþlewisæþ
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Old Tsjoen was an older form of Tsjoen, spoken ca. -100~300 fT (around the time of Old Wiobian).
Phonology
Old Norse-Middle Chinese hybrid gib
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Medial | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ng /ŋ/ | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p /p/ | t /t/ | k /k/ | |||
| voiced | b /b/ | d /d/ | g /g/ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f /f/ | ϑ /θ/ | s /s/ | x /ɬ/ | h /x~h/ | |
| voiced | β /β/ | δ /δ/ | z /z/ | γ /ɣ/ | |||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts /ts/ | |||||
| voiced | dz /dz/ | ||||||
| Resonant | v /w/ | r /r/ | l /l/ | ζ /ɻ/ | j /j/ | ||
- In Modern Tsjoen, /β ð ɣ/ merged with /b d g/ word-initially and was lost in other environments. /dz/ merged with /z/ and /zj/ merged with /ɻ/.
- /ŋ/ and clusters with /ŋ/ were allowed word-initially, unlike in Modern Tsjoen.
Vowels
Old Tsjoen probably had 9 short and long monophthongs.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||
| Close | i /i/, í /iː/ | y /y/, ý /yː/ | u /u/, ú /uː/ | |
| Mid | e /e/, é /eː/ | ø /ø/, ǿ /øː/ | ə /ə~ɨ/, ə́ /əː/ | o /o/, ó /oː/ |
| Open | æ /ɛ/, ǽ /ɛː/ | a /a/ | á /ɑː/ | |
Diphthongs
Numerous -j and -w diphthongs (some from PWio -dj and -hw)
*nkwaadj 'song, chant' > Old Tsj. gváj 'poem' > Modern Tsj. gvae 'poem'
Morphology
Old Tsjoen morphology was more complex than modern Tsjoen. Modern Tsjoen is analytic as a result of influence from the Hlou-Shum languages and more recently Rhythoed.