Ancient Succlythian
Ancient Hsuqliht, also known as Classical Hsuqliht, was a language spoken in Hsuqlihta, it had influence on the Fertile Tongue spoken in the Htaevic Empire. It descended from Proto-Meó-Hsuqliht, which was spoken from some unknown time up until c. 5000 Y. The Hsuqliht languages branched off from Ancient Meó in approximately the <5100s> Y. It would then undergo numerous innovative sound changes until the 6100s Y, when it split into North and South Hsuqliht, with the South Hsuqliht variety being the one that held more prestige and the one described in this article. It remained relatively conservative for the next approximate thousand years. There was no form of writing sensu stricto, although there was an extensive array of glyphs used to convey spiritual concepts of the Herlucc religion that the Hsuqlihts practiced, which were occasionally (but rarely) used as a form of proto-writing in some contexts, mainly as mnemonic devices. They would go on to adopt the Hlunliw logography, influencing it with their own language, which had a position of prestige within the Haki Republic. It contributed much of the technical and religious vocabulary to the Classical Htaevic language. The language described in this article is that of the Hsuqliht Empire/Haki Republic, a time period lasting from 7000 Y to 7500 Y. The language had a large impact on the language of Classical Htaevic. There are no written records of the language earlier than this period.
Phonology
Consonants
| PULMONIC | Bilabial | Denti-Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Voiceless stop | p | t | k | q | ||
| Voiced continuants | β <b> | ð <d> | ʝ <j> | |||
| Fricative | ɸ <f> | θ <th> | ç <c> | h | ||
| Sibilant | s | |||||
| Liquids | l | |||||
| Trill or Tap | r |
- /β/, /ð/ vary between fricative and approximant.
- /ʝ/ is occasionally [j], usually in casual or fast speech, or for ease of pronunciation
- /mβ/ and /nð/ are [mb~mβ] and [nd~nð].
- /h/ - syllable final /h/ may be elided and replaced with compensatory vowel lengthening
- /ð/, /l/, and /r/ may be velarised [ðˠ], [ɫ̪] [rˠ], especially when geminated.
Vowels
| Vowels | Front | Mid | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i y | u | |
| Close-mid | ʲe <e> | ə <ë, '> | ʷo <o> |
| Open-mid | ɛ <è> | ɔ <ò> | |
| Open | a |
The vowel <ë> was originally /ɯ/ but shifted to /ə/. It can also be spelt "'" when it is optional such as in t'siqòn [təsiqɔn] or [tsiqɔn]
There are two diphthongs: ɛi <èi>, ɔu <òu>.
Grammar
The Ancient Hsuqliht verb paradigm can be summed up as:
[VERB STEM]-(indirect object and/or direct object)-(tense/aspect/mood with optional subject person marking)
Tense, Aspect, and Mood
Ancient Hsuqliht has 5 moods, compared to Proto-Meó-Hsuqliht's 6, as a result of the subjunctive and potential moods collapsing into one class and the extreme reduction of the jussive, which now functions as the imperative in the second person and first person plural.
Ancient Hsuqliht verbs have three conjugations for persons as opposed to PMH's four, the Hsuqliht third & impersonal conjugations have merged into one conjugation. This is the "general" conjugation, which is used predominantly for the third person, but may be used with the first or second person with the use of pronouns before the verb.
There are two aspects, perfect and imperfect, but the distinction only occurs in indicative mood. Four tenses are distinguished in all moods, excluding the imperative, distant past, past, present, and future.
Historical sound changes in the evolution from PMH rendered the perfect conjugations of the conditional and the imperfect conjugations of the optative both with /ʷo/, whilst the imperfect conjugations of the conditional and perfect conjugations of the optative both had /ɔ/. Therefore, the conditional and optative moods have both lost their imperfect conjugations, due to confusions between /ʷo/ and /ɔ/.
Appended to the verb ending is the general structure -iCVC, in which the first consonant signals the person, the vowel denotes mood and aspect, and the final consonant denotes tense. The 'i' is a dummy vowel used as most verb stems end in consonants; it may be reduced or omitted in informal speech. The imperative is unique in that it is tenseless and only has two forms, -ki and -si, which denote first personal plural imperative and second person imperative, respectively.
Synchronically, it is easier to analyse the tense/aspect/mood portion of the Hsuqliht verb as fusional, although Proto-Meó-Succlythian was largely agglutinative.
General Conjugation
| Distant Past | Past | Present | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect Indicative | -ihèh | -ihès | -ic | -ihèq |
| Imperfect Indicative | -iheh | -ihes | -ihej | -iheq |
| Subjunctive | -ihah | -ihas | -ihaj | -ihaq |
| Conditional | -ihoh | -ihos | -ihoj | -ihoq |
| Optative | -ihòh | -ihòs | -ihòj | -ihòq |
First Person Conjugation
| Distant Past | Past | Present | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect Indicative | -ikèh | -ikès | -iki | -ikèq |
| Imperfect Indicative | -ikeh | -ikes | -ikej | -ikeq |
| Subjunctive | -ikah | -ikas | -ikaj | -ikaq |
| Conditional | -ikoh | -ikos | -ikoj | -ikoq |
| Optative | -ikòh | -ikòs | -ikòj | -ikòq |
Second Person Conjugation
| Distant Past | Past | Present | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect Indicative | -isèh | -isès | -isi | -isèq |
| Imperfect Indicative | -iseh | -ises | -isej | -iseq |
| Subjunctive | -isah | -isas | -isaj | -isaq |
| Conditional | -isoh | -isos | -isoj | -isoq |
| Optative | -isòh | -isòs | -isòj | -isòq |
Imperative
| First Person Plural | Second Person |
|---|---|
| -ki | -si |
Assimilation
When a verb's conjugation results in the form of a /hih/, /kik/, or /sis/ sequence involving the /i/ in the iCVC sequence, the following sound changes may be made (these are avoided in high register speech, but common elsewhere);
- /hih/ -> /cç/ e.g. dahihèq -> dacceq
- /kik/ -> /kk(j)/ e.g. makiko -> makkjo~makko
- /sis/ -> /ss(j)/ e.g. rifasisah -> rifassjah~rifassah
Indirect and Direct Objects of the Verb
An indirect and/or a direct object may be optionally inserted into the verb. All the forms can be summarised by the following table:
| No direct | First person direct | Second person direct | Third person direct | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No indirect | -ak- | -an- | -ah- | |
| First person indirect | -aq- | -aqq- | -aqn- | -aq- |
| Second person indirect | -an- | -ant- | -ann- | -at- |
| Third person indirect | -am- | -amp- | -amn- | -ap- |
Vocabulary
Ancient Hsuqliht had an octal number system:
| Arabic | Hsuqliht | Word | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ı | dia | ˈði.a |
| 2 | ʟ | ser | ˈsʲer |
| 3 | и | pok | ˈpʷok |
| 4 | v | klet | ˈklʲet |
| 5 | ʜ | cep | ˈçʲep |
| 6 | ∇ | hac | ˈhaç |
| 7 | ʌ | ròn | ˈrɔn |
| 8 | ı- | jòk | ˈʝɔk |