Ancient Lathian
| Ancient Lathian | |
|---|---|
| Λάθικυ Láthiku | |
| Pronunciation | [[Help:IPA|ˈlatʰiku]] |
| Created by | – |
| Era | Mid to Late 1st Millennium BCE |
Indo-European
| |
Early form | Archaic Lathian
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | lt |
| ISO 639-2 | lt |
| ISO 639-3 | ltk |
Ancient Lathian is the form of Lathian used during the period of time spanning from about the 7th century to the 2nd century BCE in ancient Lathia and other parts of the ancient world. It was predated in the late 2nd millennium and early 1st millennium BCE by Archaic Lathian. It would be later replaced by Koiné Lathian in the late 1st millennium BCE.
Background
External history
After several attempts, and later deletions, I managed to create my first a posteriori conlang based on Proto-Indo-European. Originally, Lathian was meant to be a substrate language for a Romance conlang I was also working on, but in the end I decided to go ahead only with Lathian, and creating a modern Lathian conlang at some point in the future.
Internal history
Ancient Lathian was the language of the ancient Lathians, an Indo-European people that settled on the island of Lathia in the Mediterranean Sea, between modern day Libya and Greece. It is set in the distant past, beginning in the mid 1st millennium BCE. Before then, an earlier form called Archaic Lathian had been spoken not only in Lathia but also in other parts of the Mediterranean, such as Malta, Sicily, and northern Africa, as part of the Lathian Empire.
After losing a number of its colonies to Greece and Carthage, Lathia and its remaining colonies fell into a period of cultural and economic deterioration, known as the Lathian Dark Ages. After a number of years, however, Lathia managed to regain economic stabiity and a new period of prosperity began in the mid 1st millennium BCE. During this time, trade with other Mediterranean civilizations, especially Greece, increased.
One of the most important innovations in the development of the Lathian language came from the Greeks: the Lathian Alphabet. Lathians borrowed the Greek alphabet and modified it to suit their language. Before this, Lathian had been written with a system called the Lathic Syllabary. During the dark ages, Archaic Lathian underwent numerous changes, and by the 6th century BCE a new form of Lathian, written with a new alphabet, had emerged.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | k | ||
| Voiced | b | d | g | |||
| Aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
| Fricative | Voiceless | s | ʃ | |||
| Voiced | z | ʒ | ||||
| Trill or Tap | r | |||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Mid | e eː | o oː | |
| Open | ä äː |
Phonetic Notes
- /t/, /d/, and /tʰ/ are denti-alveolar.
- /l/ and /n/ become homorganic to following obstruents.
- /r/ is prototypically an alveolar tap /ɾ/. It becomes an alveolar trill /r/ word-initially. In the syllable-final position, either a trill or tap could occur with no semantic difference.
- /s/ and /ʃ/ become voiced before voiced consonants.
Phonotactics
Any vowel may end a word, as well as any nasal, liquid, or fricative. If a stop ended a word in PIE, it was dropped in Ancient Lathian.
Orthography
Alphabet
Ancient Lathian was written with an adapted version of the Greek Alphabet, which began to appear around the 7th century BCE.
| Letter | Name | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| Αα | Άλφα | /ä/ |
| Ββ | Βεέτα | /b/ |
| Γγ | Γάμμα | /g/ |
| Δδ | Δέλτα | /d/ |
| Εε | Έφσιλον | /e/ |
| Ζζ | Ζεέτα | /z/ |
| Θθ | Θεέτα | /tʰ/ |
| Ιι | Ιοότα | /i/ |
| Κκ | Κάππα | /k/ |
| Λλ | Λάμβδα | /l/ |
| Μμ | Μυυ | /m/ |
| Νν | Νυυ | /n/ |
| Οο | Όμικρον | /o/ |
| Ππ | Πιι | /p/ |
| Ρρ | Ροο | /r/ |
| Σσς | Σίγμα | /s/ |
| Ττ | Ταυ | /t/ |
| Υυ | Ύφσιλον | /u/ |
| Φφ | Φιι | /pʰ/ |
| Χχ | Χιι | /kʰ/ |
Diagraphs
There following diagraphs are used in Ancient Lathian:
| Diagraph | IPA |
|---|---|
| αα | /äː/ |
| εε | /eː/ |
| ιι | /iː/ |
| οο | /oː/ |
| υυ | /uː/ |
| σσ | /ʃ/ |
| ζζ | /ʒ/ |
Any other doubled consonant indicates germination.
Diacritics
The only diacritic used in Ancient Lathian is the acute accent (′), which is used to indicate stress. In a diphthong, the accent in placed on the first vowel (ex. άυμερυ; σμεέικρυ). In a long vowel diagraph, the accent is placed on the second vowel (ex. αρθαά).
Grammar
Ancient Lathian grammar, similar to that of other Indo-European languages, is highly inflective, with complex declension and conjugation systems.
Nouns
Lathian nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter); two numbers (singular & plural); and five cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, dative, genitive). There are three declensions for Lathian nouns:
First Declension
The first declension consists mainly of feminine and neuter nouns ending in -αα in the nominative singular, as well as a small number of masculine nouns.
| First declension | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine & Feminine | Neuter | |||
| Case | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative/Vocative | -αα/-α | -αας | -αα/-α | -ε |
| Accusative | -ααμ/-αμ | -αας | -ααμ/-αμ | -ε |
| Dative | -ααι | -ααις | -ααι | -ααις |
| Genitive | -υνς | -οον | -υνς | -οον |
| First declension | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine & Feminine: θάλαα (flower; blossom) | Neuter: νιοόμα (soul; spirit) | |||
| Case | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative/Vocative | θάλαα | θάλαας | νιοόμα | νιοόμε |
| Accusative | θάλααμ | θάλαας | νιοόμαμ | νιοόμε |
| Dative | θάλααι | θάλααις | νιοόμααι | νιοόααις |
| Genitive | θάλυνς | θάλοον | νιοόμυνς | νιοόμοον |
Second Declension
The second declension consists mainly of masculine and neuter nouns ending in -ο and -υ in the nominative singular respectively. It also contains a small group of feminine nouns ending in -ο in the nominative singular.
| Second declension | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine & Feminine | Neuter | |||
| Case | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative/Vocative | -ο | -οος | -υ | -ε |
| Accusative | -ομ | -οος | -υμ | -ε |
| Dative | -οι | -οις | -οι | -οις |
| Genitive | -υνς | -οον | -υνς | -οον |
| Second declension | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine & Feminine: δέινο (day) | Neuter: μάχυ (unmarried youth) | |||
| Case | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative/Vocative | δέινο | δέινοος | μάχυ | μάχε |
| Accusative | δέινομ | δέινοος | μάχυμ | μάχε |
| Dative | δέινοι | δέινοις | μάχοι | μάχοις |
| Genitive | δέινυνς | δέινοον | μάχυνς | μάχοον |
Third Declension
The third declension consists of nouns of all three genders ending in either a consonant or -ε in the nominative singular. A number of nouns from the third declension have irregular oblique stems.
| Third declension | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine & Feminine | Neuter | |||
| Case | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | -ε/-cons. | -ες | -ε/-cons. | -ιε |
| Vocative | -ε | -ες | -ε | -ιε |
| Accusative | -εμ | -ες | -εμ | -ιε |
| Dative | -ει | -εις | -ει | -εις |
| Genitive | -ονς | -οον | -ονς | -οον |
| Third declension | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine & Feminine: ρααζ (root) | Neuter: φίλισς (friend) | |||
| Case | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | ρααζ | ραάδες | φίλισς | φίλιε |
| Vocative | ραάδε | ραάδες | φίλε | φίλιε |
| Accusative | ραάδεμ | ραάδες | φίλεμ | φίλιε |
| Dative | ραάδει | ραάδες | φίλει | φίλεις |
| Genitive | ραάδονς | ραάδοον | φίλονς | φίλοον |
Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns are highly irregular. The dual number inherited from PIE and lost in nouns and adjectives has been preserved in pronouns.
| Personal pronouns | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | First person | Second Person | Third person | Reflexive | ||||||
| Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||
| Nominative/Vocative | εζοό | ευέ | ευέι | ετύ | ειύ | ειυύ | αυτόm, αυταάf, αυτύn | αυτύιm/f/n | αυτοόςm, αυταάςf, αυτέn | - |
| Accusative | μεweak, μέζεstrong | νοο, νοόζε | νος, νόζζε | τε, τέζε | υοο, υοόζε | υος, υόζζε | αυτόμm, αυταάμf, αυτύμn | αυτύιm/f/n | αυτοόςm, αυταάςf αυτέn | σε, σέζε |
| Dative | μοιweak, μόιζεstrong | νοοι, νοόιζε | νοι, νόιζζε | τοι, τόιζε | υοοι, υοόιζε | υοις, υόιζζε | αυτόιμm/f/n | αυτύιμm/f/n | αυτόιςm/f/n | σοι, σόιζε |
| Genitive | μόιυ* | νοόιυ* | νόσυ* | τόιυ* | υοόιυ* | υόσε* | αυσσόm/f/n | αυτύιμm/f/n | αυσόμm/f/n | σέιυ* |
The genitive pronouns marked with an asterisk (*) are declined in the 1st and 2nd declensions to agree in number and case with the thing possessed.