Dâhî nezû داهى نزو - a Para-Balto-Slavic lang

A forum for all topics related to constructed languages
Post Reply
dva_arla
cuneiform
cuneiform
Posts: 184
Joined: 25 Oct 2019 21:03
Location: Realm of Ideas

Dâhî nezû داهى نزو - a Para-Balto-Slavic lang

Post by dva_arla »

Porphyrogenitos's Neugrotien inspired me to make this one. If you're reading this, thank you, and best of luck on your own lang!

The Dahaean language (Dahean: داهى) is a language spoken in the south-eastern coasts of the Caspian Sea. It is descended from a third branch of the Balto-Slavic language (Volgan?). The idea is that a Balto-Slavic tribe splits from their kinsmen, moving southward. Having passed throughout the Volga, they discovered fertile lands (OTL the Karakum) abound. They got their ethnonym from an earlier Indo-Iranian nomad population, which they assimilated.

The language, admittedly, is a "bogolang", though I do not plan to use solely a single language as the "cordon",rather, I shall cherry-pick sound-changes and features from the various Iranian languages surrounding the Dahaean sprachraum-- most of which are Northeastern: Avestan, Khwarezmian, Sogdian, and Scythian - if I could get my hands on the grammar of the latter (otherwise taking a gander at Ossetian must do).
Conlangs in progress:
Modern Khotanese
Modern Gandhari
?? - Japonic language in the Mekong Delta
Locna - Indo-European language in N. Syria
Wexford Norse
A British romlang, &c.
dva_arla
cuneiform
cuneiform
Posts: 184
Joined: 25 Oct 2019 21:03
Location: Realm of Ideas

Re: Dâhî nezû داهى نزو - a Para-Balto-Slavic lang

Post by dva_arla »

Some words from Wiktionary:

hand: rang رنگ
daughter: doghd دغد
brother: barâdir
sister: ispesar, ispêsar, ispes
mother: mâdir, mâ
father: dâdir, dâ
smoke: dûm
God: bagh (an Indo-Iranian loan, I know)
snow: sinê
nest: nezd
beard: bol
dream: sob, somm
wolf: org, borg, gorg
hundred: send
apple: lôla (w/ reduplication), wâla (w/ metathesis), mâla (influenced by substrata)
mead: mel (𝛿 > l), mîy (𝛿 > y)
horn, tip, head (< Persian): serr
worm: kerû
magpie (or its desert equivalent. Or 'falcon'?): isparg
tooth: zamm, zomm
water: wann (< wando), onn (< udnes)
raven/crow: warr, marr
name: emmen, îmen, esmen
clan-name: wal (e.g. Rostâm Yûsuf-wal)
white: sifêd (Persian infl.)
fire: pêda ( > śwaitaka)
otter (or its desert lookalike; lizard(?)): ûr
spring (of water): arz
head: garb ( rv > rb), gowr ( rv > rw)
stick/spear: gern
skull/spine: mazg (brain: maghz < Pers.)
yoke: jû, yû
plot (of land): gard, gerd (also found in place-names)
finger: ferest, ferešt, ferext (the latter two = RUKI)

As you can see, I am not quite decided yet on most of the sound-changes (or anything at all), etc, but this list should serve as a sketch- a preview- a spoiler- call it anything you like.
Last edited by dva_arla on 05 Aug 2020 05:54, edited 2 times in total.
Conlangs in progress:
Modern Khotanese
Modern Gandhari
?? - Japonic language in the Mekong Delta
Locna - Indo-European language in N. Syria
Wexford Norse
A British romlang, &c.
dva_arla
cuneiform
cuneiform
Posts: 184
Joined: 25 Oct 2019 21:03
Location: Realm of Ideas

Re: Dâhî nezû داهى نزو - a Para-Balto-Slavic lang

Post by dva_arla »

Sound Changes -- Vowels

The link below contains a Table showing the list of outcomes of Proto-Balto-Slavic vowels in Old Church Slavonic, Prussian, Pro. E. Baltic, Lithuanian, Latvian, and two possible outcomes for Proto-Caspian (whence Dahaean is descended). I'd love to display the table in this post itself; unfortunately, phpBB isn't very... culpable regarding tables (unless someone got it figured out already?)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1arjx66 ... sp=sharing

Sceme 2 presents an alternative scenario, in which ā > o (tbh this is more likely than preserving / relowering ā, given its phonetic value). This triggers a chain shift, one aiming to restore /a:/. Both schemes are equally tempting. I may shelf Sceme 2 for a sister language of Dahaean's.

If anyone has any comprehensive material pertaining to Latvian sound changes, or better yet, fill in on the Latvian sound-outcomes-- and/or confirm the outcomes already there, do notify me (in the comments).
Conlangs in progress:
Modern Khotanese
Modern Gandhari
?? - Japonic language in the Mekong Delta
Locna - Indo-European language in N. Syria
Wexford Norse
A British romlang, &c.
dva_arla
cuneiform
cuneiform
Posts: 184
Joined: 25 Oct 2019 21:03
Location: Realm of Ideas

Re: Dâhî nezû داهى نزو - a Para-Balto-Slavic lang

Post by dva_arla »

Sound Change: Consonants (until Proto-Caspian)

P.B.S ś, ź > P.Casp s, z (as in Slavic and Latvian)
P.B.S š from RUKI retracted to P.Casp. x (as in Slavic). Unlike Slavic though, there wouldn't be any 'first and second palatalisations', leaving the language with no /š/. (Palatalisation may happen at a much later stage of the language, given its occurrence at some point in the history of Khwarezmian and Sogdian.)
Conlangs in progress:
Modern Khotanese
Modern Gandhari
?? - Japonic language in the Mekong Delta
Locna - Indo-European language in N. Syria
Wexford Norse
A British romlang, &c.
JANKO GORENC
cuneiform
cuneiform
Posts: 170
Joined: 16 Sep 2010 15:16
Location: Slovenia
Contact:

Re: Dâhî nezû داهى نزو - a Para-Balto-Slavic lang

Post by JANKO GORENC »

Noticed that you have some ideas for several new conlangs: The Dahaean language, A 'Sino-Turkic' altlang. I ask you if you'll continue to develop his grammar ... adjective, verb, numbers, ... etc.
29.2.2024 I have successfully collected numbers from over 76,552 ways (languages both: natlangs and also conlangs).
Post Reply