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	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Voiceless stop	p	t		k	q
Voiced continuants	β	ð
Fricative	f	θ	ç			h
Sibilant		s
Liquids		l	j [ɟʝ]
Trill or Tap		r

Consonants may be geminated, as in Herlucc /herluc:/ (c is /ç/, as a geminate it fortifies to /c:~cç/).

• /q/ derives from earlier /g/ and /ʔ/
• /β/ and /ð~ɹ/ are written "b" and "d" the clusters /mβ/ and /nð/ are [mb] and [nd], and may only occur intervocalically and syllable finally. Some southern dialects have [mβ~β̃ ] and [nð~ð̃~ɹ̃].
• /ð/ is often realised as /l/ initially, deleted finally, and as /ɹ/ elsewhere.
• /ç/ is written "c", /θ/ is written "th", all other values are written the same as their IPA
• /h/ - [h] and [ʔ] are in free variation syllable finally New - Mah [mah~maʔ] and are often elided, with compensatory vowel lengthening (New - Mah [ma:])
• /j/ is almost always realised as [ɟʝ], /j/ is only present in colloquial/low register speech.

Vowels

Vowels	Front	Mid	Back
Close	i, y		ɯ <ù>, u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ <è>		ɔ <ò>
Open		a

Diphthongs: ɛi <èi>, ɔu <òu>, iy <iy>, uɯ <uù>

/e/, /ɯ/ and /o/ are commonly [ʲe], [ˠɯi̯] and [ʷo] respectively, when stressed

unstressed vowels have different qualities:

• i, e -> ɪ
• u, o -> ʊ
• a, ɛ, ɔ -> ɐ
• ɛi -> ɐi
• ɔu -> ɐu
• iy -> ɪy
• uɯ -> ʊɯ

Borrowing into Classical Htaevic

Classical Htaevic lacked several phonemes present in Ancient Hsuqliht, so when it borrowed Hsuqliht words it had different methods of dealing with the foreign sounds.

Consonants

• q -> q, k
• β -> ʋ (<r> in Htaevic orthography)
• mb -> mb, m, b, mv
• ð~ɹ -> l, ʋ,
• nd -> nd, n, d, nz
• θ -> ts, s, t, f, h
• r -> l, d

Vowels

• y -> iw
• ù -> ë, i, u
• è -> e, a
• ò -> o, a
• e -> e, ey, ëy
• o -> o, ow, ëw
• èi -> ey, ay
• òu -> ow, aw
• iy -> iw, yiw, yu
• uù -> uë, uy, uw

Grammar

The Ancient Hsuqliht verb paradigm can be summed up as:

VERB STEM-(indirect object)-(direct object)-(tense/aspect/mood with optional subject person marking)

"TAM Portion"

The subjunctive and potential of Proto-Meó-Hsuqliht have collapsed into one class. The third & impersonal conjugations have merged (except for in the jussive mood, which became a distinction of formality, with the third person conjugations being used only in very formal situations - they are largely similar in form, the third person simply has /q/ e.g. -ès- vs -qès-). Previous sound changes rendered the perfect conjugations of the conditional and the imperfect conjugations of the optative with /o/, 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 /o/ and /ɔ/. There are four tenses (past, present, pluperfect, and future) and two aspects (perfect and imperfect). Additionally, the subjunctive/potential merger also led to the loss of the imperfect conjugations in that class. Therefore, only the indicative and jussive moods retained their imperfect conjugations.

-iCVC is the general phonetic structure of the TAM portion of the verb, though the jussive form is unique. The first C signifies person (h- third or neutral, k- first, s- second). The vowel (V) denotes mood and aspect - /a/ for the subjunctive/potential, /o/ for the conditional, /ɔ/ for the optative, /e/ for imperfect indicative, /ɛ/ for perfect indicative, and /i/ for present perfect indicative.

The jussive form is CVC, the vowel conjugations are the same as the indicative. The first consonant corresponds to person (∅- impersonal, k- first, s- second, q- formal jussive)

The tenses are donated by the final consonant, and correspond as -∅ present, -s past, -q future, -h pluperfect. The one exception is the impersonal present perfect indicative, which is /iç/.

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 -> daccèq
• /kik/ -> /kk(j)/ e.g. makiko -> makkjo~makko
• /sis/ -> /ss(j)/ e.g. rifasisah -> rifassjah~rifassah

"Person Portion"

An indirect and direct object may be optionally inserted into the verb. The indirect object precedes the direct object. Their forms are as follows:

Indirect objects

• First person - -qa- (dialectal/colloquial -ŋ- also exists as well as in the combined forms -ŋk- -ŋn- -ŋh-, the only instance of /ŋ/ in the language)
• Second person - -n-
• Third person - -m-

Direct objects

• First person - -k-
• Second person - -n-
• Third person - -h-

Additionally, there are nine combined forms, some of which are subject to certain phonological processes.

• First person indirect object -qa-

* First person direct object -qak-
* Second person direct object -qan-
* Third person direct object -qah-

• Second Person indirect object -n-

* First person direct object -nt-
* Second person direct object -nn-
* Third person direct object -nh-

• Third person indirect object -m-

* First person direct object -mp-
* Second person direct object -mn-
* Third person direct object -mh-

Vocabulary

Ancient Hsuqliht had an octal number system:

Arabic	Hsuqliht	Word	IPA
1	ı	dia	ˈði.a~ˈɹi.a~ˈli.a
2	ʟ	ser	ˈser
3	и	pok	ˈpok
4	v	klet	ˈklet
5	ʜ	cep	ˈçep~ˈcçep
6	∇	hac	ˈhaç
7	ʌ	ròn	ˈrɔn
8	ı-	jòk	ˈjɔk