Thad languages

The Thad or Eastern languages, are a subdivision of the Lámeyi languages which comprises several branches based on their reflexes of some Lámeyi proto-phonemes. The branch received its name from its geographical location, according to the tradition, even though the modern Thad languages are primarily spoken in the northern part of the continent.

The common ancestor of the Thad languages is typically called Common Thad, similarly to Common Khad being the ancestor of the Western branch, yet unlike the latter, the Common Thad stage is not confirmed to have existed, as different Thad dialects likely had been distinct already in the proto-language, but because of a relative geographical proximity they had never diverged enough to be considered separate idioms until later in history.

The subclassification of the Thad languages is pimarily based on development of the phonemes *d, *l, *n and *x, even though these are not the only differences within the language group:

• L-palmé
  • Zurayta
  • Yelayat
  • Bílaya
  • Ceiłoses
• D-palmé
  • Kyéreses
  • Ódayes
• H-palmé
  • Havˁen

Despite being closely related, Thad dialects differ from one another in terms of their phonology, morphology, and vocabulary, often to the point when dialects from different subbranches are not mutually intelligible. This is especially true for Havˁen, spoken in the northern part of the Vast Plain (Meħrade), which is the most divergent variety of Thad.

The Thad languages had been influenced by the neighbouring Core Khad dialects for centuries, sharing the same script as well. Many loanwords entered the Thad varieties at different points in time, and even grammatical features were slowly incorpotated into those varieties, particularly because of many word-to-word translations of ancient Khad texts.