Chlesamnic

Chlesamnic
Created by	–
Geographic distribution	Eurasia
Linguistic classification	Indo-European Para-Germanic Chlesamnic
Proto-language	Proto-Chlesamnic
Subdivisions	Western Eastern Northern Southern
Modern-day extent of Chlesamnic languages: West Chlesamnic Languages   Dobruja Polovic   Azov Polovic   Volga Polovic   Caucasus Polovic East Chlesamnic Languages   Erqhomis   Tonsian   Tevvic

The Chlesamnic languages are a branch of the Para-Germanic languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken predominantly in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Chlesamnic, an offshoot from Pre-Proto-Germanic, and thus distantly related to the Germanic languages.

A notable feature of early Chlemsamnic was its susceptibility to be influenced by various superstrata, resulting in the various modern Chlesamnic languages to become quite divergent from each other.

Branches

Due to their divergent nature, the true number of languages that make up the Chlesamnic family is still under debate. This article aims to show languages that are conventionally agreed upon that make up the four branches of the Chlesamnic languages. These four branches are named on the basis of geography, namely West, East, North, and South Chlesamnic:

Chlesamnic language tree

• Chlesamnic
  • West Chlesamnic
    • Low Polovic (including Standard Low Polovic
      • Volga Polovic
      • Azov Polovic
      • Dobruja Polovic
    • High Polovic
    • Caucasian Polovic
    • Balkan Thadic†
  • East Chlesamnic
    • Kolasian
      • Erqhomis
      • Tonsian
    • Tevvic
      • Ancient Tevvic (liturgical)
        • Tevvic
        • (Unnamed)
  • North Chlesamnic
  • South Chlesamnic

Typology

Earlier attested languages such as Old Thadish, Old Low Polovic, Ancient Tevvic, and Kolasian have been instrumental to comparative linguistics, as they exhibit many shared characteristics that have been lost or altered in their modern descendants. Using those languages, a number of shared typological features can be identified.

Grammar

• Largely suffix-based fusional morphology
• Nominative-Accusative alignment
• Subject-object-verb (SOV) word order
• 8-9 grammatical cases
  • Nominative
  • Vocative
  • Accusative
  • Allative (a post-PIE innovation)
  • Genitive
  • Ablative
  • Dative (merged with the PIE locative)
  • Instrumental
  • Comitative (a post-PIE innovation, unclear if it was a shared Chlesamnic or High Polovic innovation)
• Three grammatical genders
  • Masculine
  • Feminine (High Polovic would merge the feminine into the masculine by the time of the first written records)
  • Neuter
• Absence of the dual number
• Synthetic subjunctive mood
• Synthetic future tense
• Synthetic passive voice
• Verbal class system reminiscent to that of the Germanic languages
  • a Strong class of verbs that formed their preterites by reduplication and changes to the stem vowel according to seven patterns
  • a Weak class of verbs that formed their preterites by means of a dental suffix
  • a So-called preterite-present class whose present tense shows the form of the strong preterite
• Postpositions as opposed to prepositions
• Clitics for uses such as marking pronominal possession and verbal objects and introducing subordinate clauses

reconstructed a-stem endings
	singular	plural
Nominative	*-as	*-os
Vocative	*-Ø
Accusative	*-am	*-ams
Nom./Voc./Acc. (n.)		*-ā ~ *-ams
Allative	*-aur	*-arus
Genitive	*-as	*-ôm
Ablative	*-eť	*-ams
Dative	*-ai	*-aisu
Instrumental	*-o	*-am(i)s
Comitative	*-wam ~ *-oham	?

reconstructed present-active endings
	singular	plural
1st person	*-o	*-(a)mas
2nd person	*-asi	*-(a)θ
3rd person	*-aθi	*-anθi

Lexicography

The following is a very brief selection of cognates in basic vocabulary across the Chlesamnic family, which may serve to give an idea of the sound changes involved. This is not a list of translations: cognates have a common origin, but their meaning may be shifted and loanwords may have replaced them.

Proto-Chleslamic	Ancient Tevvic	Kolasian		Old Thadish	Old Low Polovic
*ať "I"	अ॑च् (ác)	—		ѣк̑ъ (ěk’)	атъ (at’)
*θū "thou"	थू॑ (thū́)	—		ѳꙋ (θu)	бꙋ (bu)
*wais "we"	वैः॑ (vḗh)	—		ѵѣ (wě)	вѣсъ (věs)
*yūs "you"	युः॑ (yū́h)	—		юу (ju)	юусъ (jus)
*áinas "one"	ऐ॑णंः (ḗṇạh)	—		ѣнѣ (ěně)	ѣнасъ (ěnas)
*θwai, *θwes "two"	थ्वॅः॑ (thvéh)	—		ѳѵѣ, ѳꙋѣ (θwe)	бесъ (bes)
*θráyas "three"	ठाः॑ (ṭhā́h)	—		ѳрѣꙗ (θrěja)	браꙗсъ (brajas)
*hwas "who"	ह्वः॑ (hváh)	—		хѵѣ, хꙋѣ (xwě)	хасъ (xas)
*hwat "what"	ह्व॑त् (hvát)	—		хѵѣтъ, хꙋѣтъ (xwět)	хатъ (xat)
*ahš, *áham "eye"	अ॑ष (áṣa)	ཨཧྨ (áhm)		ѣхѧ (ěxę̌)	—
*óus, *óusam "ear"	ऊ॑ष (ū́ṣa)	ཨོཨུས (óus)		ѻсѧ, ѡсѧ (osę̌)	—
*ốs, *ốsam "mouth; lips"	औ॑ष (ṓṣa)	ཨཽས (ōs)	ཨཽསྨ (ōsm)	ѣсѧ (ěsę̌)	—
*wánhas, *wánham "cheek"	व॑ग्गंः (vággạh)	ཝངྶ (vángs)		ѵѣнхѧ, ꙋѣнхѧ (wěnxę̌)	—
*nā́sā "nose; nostrils"	ना॑सा (nā́sā)	ནས (nâs)		наса (nasa)	—
*rauδás "red"	रौधः॑ (rōdháh)	རཝྡས (ravdás)		рѣдѣ (rědě)	—
*halgwás "green; yellow"	षंल्ग्वः॑ (ṣạlgváh)	ཧགས྄ (hagás)		хѣлгѵѣ, хѣлгꙋѣ (xělgwě)	—
*hāzwás "blue"	हाज़्वः॑ (hāzváh)	ཝས (vás)		хаꙁѵѣ, хаꙁꙋѣ (xazwě)	—
*θúsnas "brown"	थु॑नंः (thúnạh)	ཏུནས (túnås)		ѳѵꙑсѵѣ, ѳꙋꙑсꙋѣ (θwyswě)	—