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 <b> | ð <d> | ʝ <j> | |||
| Fricative | ɸ <f> | θ <th> | ç <c> | h | ||
| Sibilant | s | |||||
| Liquids | l | |||||
| Trill or Tap | r |
- /β/ and /ɸ/ are in free variation with /v/ and /f/ respectively.
- /β/, /ð/ vary between fricative and approximant.
- /ʝ/ is realised as [ɟʝ], /j/ is present in colloquial/low register speech.
- /mβ/ and /nð/ are [mb~mβ] and [nd~nð].
- /ð/ next to front vowels merges with /ʝ/.
- /çç/ is realised as [cç]
- /h/ - syllable final /h/ may be elided and replaced with compensatory vowel lengthening - 'new' - /mah/ [maː].
Vowels
| Vowels | Front | Mid | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i y | u | |
| Close-mid | ʲe | ə | ʷo |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
The vowel <ë> was originally /ɯ/ but shifted to /ə/.
There are two diphthongs: ɛi <èi>, ɔu <òu>.
The vowels <e> /e/ and <o> /o/ are [ʲe] and [ʷo] respectively, when stressed, and [ɪ] and [ʊ] when not.
unstressed vowels have different qualities:
- i, e -> ɪ
- u, o -> ʊ
- a, ɛ, ɔ -> ɐ
- ɛi -> ɐi
- ɔu -> ɐu
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)
Tense, Aspect, Mood marking
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 jussive was extremely reduced and now functions as an imperative. Similarly, it has 3 persons as opposed to PMH's 4, as the third & impersonal conjugations have merged into a form that may be used to indicate the third person, or other persons when used in conjunction with pronouns.
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.
Person
- First person - /k/
- Second person - /s/
- Third person - /h/
Third person verb conjugations may be used to denote other person with the use of a pronoun of the corresponding person before the verb.
Mood and Aspect
- Indicative
- Perfect Indicative - /ɛ/ <è>
- Imperfect Indicative - /e/
- Subjunctive - /a/
- Conditional - /o/
- Optative - /ɔ/ <ò>
The exception is the Present Perfect Indicative, which is -i in the first and second persons, and combines with preceding -h- to form -ç in the first person, thus -iki, -isi, -iç instead of -ikè, isè, ihè
Tense
- Distant Past - /h/
- Past - /s/
- Present
- Perfect Indicative, Conditional, Optative - /∅/
- Imperfect Indicative, Subjunctive - /j/
- Future - /q/
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
"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 - -aq-
- Second person - -an-
- Third person - -am-
Direct objects
- First person - -ak-
- Second person - -an-
- Third person - -ah-
Additionally, there are nine combined forms, some of which are subject to certain phonological processes.
- First person indirect object -aq-
* First person direct object -aqq- * Second person direct object -aqn- [aqn~aɴn] * Third person direct object -aq-
- Second Person indirect object -an-
* First person direct object -ant- * Second person direct object -ann- * Third person direct object -at-
- Third person indirect object -am-
* First person direct object -amp- * Second person direct object -mn- * Third person direct object -ap-
Vocabulary
Ancient Hsuqliht had an octal number system:
| Arabic | Hsuqliht | Word | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ı | dia | ˈʝi.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 |