Verse:Lõis/Indo-Iranian languages

Sanskrit

Sanskrit in Lõis, unlike in our timeline, is most often written with the Latin alphabet. Its orthography was standardized in the second century AD. Older texts (like the Vedas) use a deeper orthography for Sanskrit, including j̈ for /h/, vowel and semivowel letters used interchangeably (reflecting Sievers' law) and vowel letters <e> and <o> besides <a>. Popular Lõisian English transcriptions like <Jimoleyos> for the Himālayas reflect this more ancient Sanskrit orthography. The modern orthography is used in Sanskrit texts on astronomy like the Súryasidḋánta.

Vowels

ᴀ ᴀ́ i í u ú ꞃ ꞃ́ l ᴀi ᴀ́i ᴀu ᴀ́u

Consonants

p ṗ b ḃ m ꞇ ꞇ̇ d ḋ n żꞇ żꞇ̇ żd żḋ ꞃ̇n ç ç̇ j j̈ ņ c ċ ᵹ ᵹ̇ y ꞃ l v ş ꞃ̇ꞅ ꞅ h

/ʂʈ/ is written ꞃ̇ꞅꞇ or şꞇ depending on etymology.

Anusvāra and visarga are written ṁ and ꞅ̇.

The interpunct (·) is used to separate nouns in compounds.

Dialectology

Lõisians use the name "Indic" (Sáinḋavaṁ in Sanskrit) rather than "Sanskrit" to refer to the spoken language.

Lõisian scholars call Vedic Sanskrit "Old Indic" (Puráṙna·sáinḋavaṁ), and unlike in our timeline, more conservative (i.e. less Prakrit-like) dialects were spoken in the first few centuries AD as vernacular languages. The situation was a bit like Arabic dialects in our timeline, with Classical Sanskrit (identical to our timeline) serving as a bridge between the different native dialects.

Most dialects have some innovations traceable to Vedic Sanskrit, like the use of retroflex lateral flaps /ɭ ɭʰ/ for <żd żḋ> (termed "thick D" by phoneticians). Extreme northwestern Sanskrit, though, uses dental fricatives /ð ðʰ/, deriving from a Vedic dialect that used /ɭd ɭdʰ/. /r/ is pronounced as a uvular fricative or trill in some Southern dialects.

The main Prakrits in Lõis are Pali, Gandhari and a variant of Sauraseni, which gave rise to the modern Indic languages in Lõis. They are considered separate languages. In addition, there is a Sanskrit-Greek creole language spoken in Heleasia.

Sample text

From the Rgvaida (in the ancient orthography):

Agnimíżdei purouhitoṁ iojņosio deiuoṁ rtuijaṁ j̈outóroṁ rotnoḋétamoṁ

Bactrian

Unlike in our timeline, Bactrian is a living language.

Middle Persian

One Middle Persian dialect in Lõis has /ɭd/ from PIIr *rd, instead of /l/ as in other dialects: guḷd-e-ḷdāḷd "red rose". The Persian language spoken in Newton descends from this dialect, and as in Northern Sanskrit, ḷd reflexes as /ð/: /gøð ðuəð/.

Middle Persian in Lõis has the phonological innovations associated with Modern Persian in our timeline, like some words have w -> b. (read: it's basically Modern Persian minus the Arabic vocab, and with conservative vowels/contrastive vowel length)