Othramic

[Esneirra973]

Othramic (Othramic: Peni Oθramatan) was a language isolate spoken within the Kingdom of Othramanur in the northern Balkans. This language exists in an alternate timeline I've created on Reddit, where Indo-European peoples never expanded into Europe. Linguists have hypothesized connections to Vasconic, Tyrsenian, Afro-Asiatic, and even Indo-European languages, but none of these theories have been met with positive reception. The language's native name means "Language of the Othramas", with Oθrama coming from oθa ormata "lion men". They earned this name due to their reputation as a tribe of warriors.

Phonology:
/m n/ - <m n>
/pʰ p tʰ t kʰ k/ - <φ p θ t x k>
/t͡sʰ t͡s/ - <c z>
/s h/ - <s h>
/ɹ/ - <r>
/i u e o ɑ/ - <i u e o a>

(C)V(C)

Numbers:
1 - paθ
2 - zan
3 - ciri
4 - nau
5 - pax
6 - sai
7 - samφa
8 - zun
9 - pirac
10 - θar
100 - θetar
1000 - amtun

Grammar

Othramic was a somewhat analytic language that utilized an SOV word order. It also employed a system of noun classes and case endings to convey the meaning of different words.

Pronouns:

Spoiler:

Pronouns have ancient, irregular stems that could be indicative of a fossilized ablaut system, only declining for number and person. However, the case suffixes mentioned below can be appended to pronouns to generate different meanings.

Personal Pronouns:
First Sing: ne
Second Sing: he
Third Sing: te
First Plu: ko
Second Plu: so
Third Plu: to
First Coll: koa
Second Coll: soa
Third Coll: toa

Demonstratives:
Proximal Sing: kar
Proximal Plu: kur
Distal Sing: tar
Distal Plu: tur

Nouns:

Spoiler:

Noun Classes:
Class I: o- (men, fire, animate objects)
Class II: e- (women, water, deities, spirits)
Class III: ar- (inanimate objects, fruits, vegetables)
Class IV: pe- (abstract concepts)
Class V: a- (body parts, other living beings, and plants)
Class VI: hV- (remaining nouns, where V = the immediate following vowel, but <a> if there is no other vowel in the word)

Number Suffixes:
Singular: -0
Plural: -ta
Collective: -ka

Case Suffixes:
Ergative: -(a)k
Absolutive: -0
Genitive: -(a)n
Dative: -i
Locative: -mu
Comitative: -rek

Adjectives:

Spoiler:

Adjectives usually agree in case and number with nouns. There is a comparative suffix -sat and a superlative suffix -sot that can also intensify the meanings of said adjectives.

Verbs:

Spoiler:

Verbs in Othramic were relatively simple, only distinguishing between aspect and mood.

Aspect:
Imperfective: -ten
Perfective: -0
Habitual: -kun

Mood:
Indicative: -0
Subjunctive: -(h)i
Imperative: -(h)u

Derivational Morphology:
Intensive Verbs: -ko
Stative Verbs: -ez
Causative Verbs: -haz
Verbal Noun/Infinitive: -xe
Participle: -aθ

Example:

Below, I have written an Othramic translation of "The North Wind and the Sun". Although the story would have never existed in this timeline, it still serves as an excellent expert to demonstrate the language's grammar. In this universe, one could explain it as an Othramic translation of a Pelasgian text, since the Kingdom of Othramanur had extensive cultural and political influence from the city-states of Pelasgia.

Eparpuk1 ke Emastek peφarun nikiten, zonto ouθar ekanten xic arpeφerek numirek poφten.
II-wind.north-ERG and II-sun-ERG IV-power-GEN argue-IMPF-IND, when I-traveler-ABS arrive-IMPF-IND REL III-cloak-COM warm-COM wrap-IMPF-IND
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.

To istu xic tek xic arpeφe ten ouθaren kiθahazi paθas xic tek erahusat zanan ezteni.
3P-ABS agree-PRF REL 3S-ERG REL III-cloak-ABS 3S-GEN I-traveler-GEN remove.CAUS-PRF-SUBJ first REL 3S-ERG II-strong.COMP-ABS two-GEN be-IMPF-SUBJ
They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.

Rux Eparpuk peφarurek zaisotrek kono, per θi te konoten tarak ouθarak arpeφe ten nirxaten temu;
then II-wind.north-ERG IV-power-COM good-SUPR-COM blow-PRF-IND, but as 3S-ABS blow-IMPF-IND DIST.SG-ERG I-traveler-ERG III-cloak-ABS 3S-GEN fold-IMPF-IND 3S-LOC
Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;

Ke sora Eparpu atni. Rux Emaste masako, ke ouθarak arpeφe ten kiθa sorsam.
and now II-wind.north-ABS give.up-PRF-IND. then II-sun-ABS shine.INT-PRF-IND, and I-traveler-ERG III-cloak-ABS 3S-GEN remove-PRF-IND immediately
and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.

Kaθa Eparpuk seze partaxe xic Emastek erahusat zanan ezten.
thus II-wind.north-ERG need-PRF-IND confess-INF REL II-sun-ERG II-strong.COMP-ABS two-GEN be-IMPF-IND
And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

Note 1: Eparpu is an Othramic wind spirit whose name is derived from epar opu "north head".

[Creyeditor]

I like the vibe of this conlang. Reminds me of Anatolian natlangs.

[Visions1]

I like your aspect and mood thing. Reminds me of Hittite and Hebrew. I await you next move.

[Esneirra973]

Thank you both! I sought inspiration from the languages of the Near East as well. I hope to develop this language a bit further, and then devise a medieval descendant of Othramic or two.

[Esneirra973]

Liturgical Ohotic (Liturgical Ohomic: Pį Zaik Ohǫtą "The Holy Language of the Ohotans) was a descendant of Othramic which was spoken in the Kingdom of Hungary from 1600 AQ (787 AD) to 2000 AQ (1187 AD). After the Kingdom of Othramanur was conquered by the Rasnans, the region was subject to cultural assimilation over the centuries. Although many Othramas became citizens of Rasna and learned the language, they still preserved Ohomic to some extent. An alternate Age of Migration caused great instability to the region, and saw the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary. Much like in our timeline, it was founded by Magyars, except they traveled a bit further west. While the Hungarian language has gained an increased foothold in the region, the Othramic language has survived among the religious minorities which have inhabited the region since before the arrival of the Magyars. The most notable groups are Buddhists and Daian Cultists, who both use Ohomic as a liturgical language, the only difference being that Buddhists use more loanwords from eastern languages, such as Potta (*Putta) "Buddha" and Nyufǫ (*Niruφana) "Nirvana".

Phonology:

/m n/ - <m n>
/p ᵐb t ⁿd k ᵑɡ/ - <p mb t nd k ng>
/t͡s ⁿd͡z/ - <z nz>
/ɸ ᵐβ s ⁿz h/ - <f nf s ns h>
/l j/ - <l i>
/i u e o a/ - <i u e o a>
/ĩ ũ ẽ õ ã/ - <į ų ę ǫ ą>

Diachronics

Othramic to Liturgical Ohotic:

Spoiler:

Loss of /ɹ/
/pɹ tɹ kɹ t͡sɹ sɹ hɹ/ > /pʰ tʰ kʰ t͡sʰ j j/
/mɹ nɹ/ > /m l/
/ɹ/ > /j/

Loss of Aspirates
/pʰ tʰ kʰ t͡sʰ/ > /ɸ θ h j/
/θ/ > /l/ | V_V
/θ/ > /h/ | becomes /ɸ/ in some dialects, this distinction is preserved in dialectical borrowings. (Ex. har "10" and its alternate form far "10")

Vowel and Nasal Shifts
/V/ > /Vː/ | in open syllables
/N(V)p N(V)t N(V)k N(V)t͡s/ > /ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ ⁿd͡z/ | unstressed
/N(V)ɸ N(V)s N(V)h/ > /ᵐβ ⁿz ᵑɡ/ | unstressed
/n/ > /l/ | _(...)n (ex. anene "flower" > alin "flower")
/V/ > /∅/ | unstressed syllables
/i u e o ɑ/ > /e o e o a/
/iː uː eː oː ɑː/ > /aj aw i u o/
/VN VjN VwN/ > /Ṽ Ṽj Ṽw/
/awj ajw/ > /oj ew/

Example Sentence:

Othramic
Tek θetar akurata tanra, per nek θar akurata xap minti nek te nantenihaz.
3S-ERG hundred fish-PL-ABS have-PRF-IND, but 1S-ERG ten fish-PL-ABS steal-PRF-IND without 1S-ERG 3S-ABS notice-IMPF-SUBJ-CAUS
He had a hundred fish, but I stole ten of them without him noticing.

Liturgical Ohomic
Tek tol fitai koiat, pi nek hap har koiat maind nek lǫhazendi te.
3S.ERG have-PRF-IND hundred fish-OBL.PL, but 1S.ERG steal-PRF-IND ten fish-OBL.PL without 1S.ERG notice.CAUS-IMPF.SUBJ 3S.ABS
He had a hundred fish, but I stole ten of them without him noticing.

[Creyeditor]

Interesting geographic context for an ogonek in your romanization? Was there a natlang inspiration?

[Esneirra973]

Interesting geographic context for an ogonek in your romanization? Was there a natlang inspiration?

I mainly did it for aesthetic purposes, inspired by Polish and Old Church Slavonic. None of the languages in this region in this timeline would use the Latin script anyways, but I’d like to imagine nasal vowels as an areal trait here. Here, the Balkans are dominated by Uralic and Pelasgian speaking groups, so it would be interesting to explore how they would evolve together.

An e with an ogonek (known as e caudata) was also used to write Latin in the early Middle Ages, so I don’t see it as much of a stretch for this feature to develop in the Mediterranean over time. While there is no Latin script, the Etruscans and Pelasgians still devised their own writing systems, which I might flesh out in another post.

[Creyeditor]

Ah, okay. So this is not an *in world* romanization, right?

[Esneirra973]

Nope! I devised a script for Othramic, which I'll include here. Still need to come up with something for Ohomic though.

/m n/ - <𐌌 𐌍>
/pʰ p tʰ t kʰ k/ - <𐌐 𐌘 T 𐌈 𐌊 Ϙ>
/t͡sʰ t͡s/ - <И 𐌆>
/s h/ - <𐌔 𐌇>
/ɹ/ - <𐌓>
/i u e o ɑ/ - <𐌉 V 𐌄 𐌏 𐌀>

And the ATL Etruscan alphabet for comparison, which is slightly different "in universe". (It's derived from a Pelasgian alphabet that's Phoenician based.)

/m n/ - <𐌌 𐌍>
/p pʰ t tʰ k kʰ/ - <𐌐~𐌁 𐌘 T~𐌃 𐌈 𐌊~𐌂 Ϙ>
/t͡s/ - <𐌆>
/ɸ s ʃ h/ - <𐌘 𐌔 И 𐌇>
/r/ - <𐌓>
/l j w/ - <𐌋 I V>
/i u e ɑ/ - <𐌉 V~𐌏 𐌄 𐌀>

[Esneirra973]

The Ohotans would later adopt a stylized variant of the Pelasgian writing system, as it was better suited to the phonology of their own language. For context, here is the writing system with its corresponding phonetic values in Ancient Pelasgian. Much like the OTL Greek script, it was derived from Phoenician, but a few extra letters were created based on glyphs from the Linear A script. The letters that are bolded are of Phoenician origin. Devising the script was a bit tricky, because I wanted to look for characters that were typeable via Unicode. As such, when I needed letters for sounds that did not exist in Phoenician, I looked for letter forms that could best match their values in Linear B, since its predecessor has yet to be properly deciphered. This is only meant to be an approximation of what the script might have looked like, so it might appear wonky when used for full sentences.

Pelasgian Script:

/m n mʲ nʲ mʷ nʷ/ - <μ ɴ χ ψ ѫ ѥ>
/p t k pʲ tʲ kʲ pʷ tʷ kʷ/ - <π τ κ φ θ γ β δ ϙ>
/s sʲ sʷ/ - <ξ σ w>
/l r j w/ - <λ ρ ϝ v>
/lʲ rʲ/ - <ѧ ζ>
/lʷ rʷ/ - <ю ω>
/i u a/ - <ι~η υ~ο α>

The characters <ι υ> and <η ο> existed in free variation, with the former being used in stressed syllables and the latter being used in unstressed syllables. The only exceptions were sequences of /ji ju wi wu/, which were always written as <ϝη ϝο vη vο>. For comparison, this is how the script is used to write Liturgical Ohomic, which Buddhists still use in the western Balkans to this day.

/m n/ - <μ ɴ>
/p ᵐb t ⁿd k ᵑɡ/ - <π μπ τ ɴτ ϙ ɴϙ>
/t͡s ⁿd͡z/ - <θ ɴθ>
/ɸ ᵐβ s ⁿz h/ - <φ ɴφ ξ ɴξ κ>
/l j/ - <λ ι>
/i u e o a/ - <ι υ η ο α>
/ĩ ũ ẽ õ ã/ - <ί ύ ή ό ά> (derived from shortened forms of <ιɴ υɴ ηɴ οɴ αɴ>)

And here is the previous example sentence I used, this time in the proper script:

Τηϙ τολ φιται ϙοιατ, πι ɴηϙ καπ και ϙοιατ μαιɴτ ɴηϙ λόκαθηɴτι τη.
/tek tol ɸitaj kojat pi nek hap haj kojat majⁿd nek lõhat͡seⁿdi te/
3S.ERG have-PRF-IND hundred fish-OBL.PL, but 1S.ERG steal-PRF-IND ten fish-OBL.PL without 1S.ERG notice.CAUS-IMPF.SUBJ 3S.ABS
He had a hundred fish, but I stole ten of them without him noticing.

[Esneirra973]

The grammar of Liturgical Ohomic has grown increasingly simplified since the days of the Kingdom of Othramanur. The noun classes have largely been fossilized, and only three noun cases remain (ergative, oblique/absolutive, and genitive). The collective number has also disappeared, only remaining in a few uncountable nouns (ex. oimok "people, tribe", from ormaka "people"). Verbs have also seen a similar simplification process, which I will discuss in my next post.

Pronouns:

Spoiler:

Personal Pronouns:
1S Erg/Obl/Gen: nek/ne/nę
2S Erg/Obl/Gen: hek/he/hę
3S Erg/Obl/Gen: tek/te/tę
1P Erg/Obl/Gen: kok/ko/kǫ
2P Erg/Obl/Gen: sok/so/sǫ
3P Erg/Obl/Gen: tok/to/tǫ

Demonstratives:
Prox. Sing. Erg/Obl/Gen: kiak/kai/kią
Prox. Plu. Erg/Obl/Gen: kiok/koi/kiǫ
Dist. Sing. Erg/Obl/Gen: tiak/tai/tią
Dist. Plu. Erg/Obl/Gen: tiok/toi/tiǫ

Relative and Interrogative Pronouns:
who, which, that (relative): hei (from Othramic xic)
who: zok (from Othramic zak)
what: zų (from Othramic zon)
when: zųto (from Othramic zonto)
where: zųmu (from Othramic zommu)
why: zięk (from older zųiek, derived from Othramic zonrek)

Nouns:

Spoiler:

iąst (*ęast) "Sun"
Ergative Sing/Plu: iąstak/iąstatak
Oblique Sing/Plu: iąst/iąstat
Genitive Sing/Plu: iąstą/iąstatą

aipife "cloak"
Ergative Sing/Plu: aipifek/aipifetak
Oblique Sing/Plu: aipife/aipifet
Genitive Sing/Plu: aipifę/aipifetą

Numbers:
1 - paf
2 - zą
3 - hel (*xiri > *here~heie > *hele)
4 - nau
5 - pah
6 - sai
7 - sąfa
8 - zų
9 - pioi
10 - hai
100 - fitai
1000 - ǫtų

[HolyHandGrenade!]

At first I was annoyed at using non-latin letters with such a simple phonology when Latin ones would suffice, but it actually works really well with the aesthetic of the language