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| familycolor = #E4CEFA
| familycolor = #E4CEFA
| fam1= One of the world's primary language families
| fam1= One of the world's primary language families
| child1      = Pwaɬasd-Ngos
| child1      = Kenaywanic
| child2      = Central Lahobic
| child2      = Central Lahobic
| child3      = Tlengastic
| child3      = Łogawenek
| child4      = Woŋom-Baan
| child4      = Nayzehenyn
| child5      = Šlokhowdeš
| child5      = Tłašnelek
| child6      = [[Chlouvānem]]
| child6      = [[Chlouvānem]]
}}
}}
The '''Lahob languages''' (also '''Lahobic'''; [...] Chl. ''lahūvumi dældai'') are a large [[Verse:Calémere|Calémerian]] language family, most widely spoken on the continent of Márusúturon.
The '''Lahob languages''' (also known as '''Lahou''', '''Lahobic''', '''Neshlenkentian''', or '''Lahob-Imuniguronian'''; [...] Chl. ''lahāvumi dældai'') are a large [[Verse:Calémere|Calémerian]] language family, most widely spoken on the continent of Márusúturon<ref>The only core Lahob-speaking territories in other continents are the Kāyīchah islands (geographically in Védren) and a handful of small Tłašnelek-speaking villages in far eastern Gathuráni - an area whose actual classification as Evandor or Márusúturon is disputed.</ref>.


<!-- ; its Urheimat is in the far northern part of Evandor, where the greatest diversity among them is still found; the most spoken language of the family is however [[Chlouvānem]], spoken (along with its daughter languages) across large areas of Greater Evandor (in the continent of ''Márusúturon'' or ''Mārsūtram''), with [[Verse:Chlouvānem Inquisition|its own heartland]] more than 10,000 km away.<br/>
There are six currently recognized living Lahob branches, often grouped in two macro-branches:
The family takes its name from ''Łaȟoḇeyšer'', language of the ''Łaȟoḇ'' people, the largest and first studied in the Lahob heartlands.
* ''Northern Lahob'', ''Core Lahob'', or ''Lahob proper'' - an occasionally used, at least geographically relevant, category for the five non-Chlouvānem branches spoken in Northern Márusúturon:
** ''Kenaywanic languages'', spoken mainly in western Sprêny, including ...
** ''Central Lahobic languages'', spoken across the country of Peħlleit and a few communities in the far southwest (Konyzałay peninsula) of Koitrûx; including Łaȟoḇeyén, ...
** ''Łogawenek languages'', spoken in the countries of Ferbêny, most of Alêig, and moribund in far northern Soenyŏ-tave; including ...
** ''Nayzehenyn languages'', spoken mainly across most of central, northern, and eastern Koitrûx, including Yełeshian Lawo, Shershan Lawo, ...
** ''Tłašnelek languages'', spoken in northwestern Koitrûx as well as some isolated coastal communities further north and west, both on Gurdugal and on the Márusúturonian mainland (as far west as eastern Gathuráni).
* ''Chlouvānem languages'', including [[Chlouvānem]] and all of its descendants, which is the most spoken and widespread branch, counting for nearly the entirety of all Lahob speakers.


Lahob languages nowadays are divided into five or six branches, four of which only spoken in a small area along the Orcish Straits and the tundra/taiga border (the eastern coast of Gathuráni and (for the Woŋom-Baan branch) far northwestern Kerbellion):
The Lahob family is one of many language families - including the unrelated Kenengyry and Samaidulic families, as well as various not better classified isolates - that most likely originated in the area of Márusúturon between the Carpan and the Skyrdegan seas, roughly between 30° and 40°N. The Urheimat of Proto-Lahob speakers is thought to be either the western shore of the High Ivulit (i.e. modern day Leny-tḥewe or Ebed-dowa) or the area around the Little Ivulit (today southern Leny-tḥewe, Līnajotia, or southern Qualdomailor). From there, the Lahob peoples mainly expanded northwards, up to the taiga of northern Qualdomailor, except for a few tribes (notably the Ur-Chlouvānem) who migrated southeastwards, into the Lāmiejāya plain. In most of this area, however, Lahob languages were replaced by the later spread first of Samaidulic and then of Kenengyry languages, so that practically all non-Chlouvānem Lahob languages are spoken in the Northern Márusúturonian taiga, along the Orcish Straits.<br/>
* ''Pwaɬasd-Ngos languages'', including Tundra Pwaɬasd, Forest Pwaɬasd (sometimes included in a Macro-Pwaɬasd language), Zerfek, Nehsy, and Ngos;
The Ur-Chlouvānem eventually settled in the far southern part of the Plains, where they intermixed with the local populations, forming a distinct ethnicity whose main connection with the other Lahob peoples is linguistic rather than genetic. Eventually the Chlouvānem language, the only attested ancient Lahob language, became the liturgical language of the [[Verse:Yunyalīlta|Yunyalīlta]], which led it to be spread across all of Márusúturon and become, as of today, the most spoken language of the planet.
* ''Central Lahobic languages'', including Łaȟoḇeyšer (the language that gave its name to the family), Łokow, Yełeshian Lawo, and Shershan Lawo;
* ''Tlengastic languages'', including Coastal Tlengast, Hilly Tlengast, and Bänme;
* ''Woŋom-Baan languages'' (sometimes considered as a sub-group of the Tlengastic branch), including Woŋom, Baan, and Selmeš.


These four languages are part of the so-called Subpolar Evandor Sprachbund, sharing features among them and with a few neighboring Kordegic languages and the easternmost rural dialects of Gathura.<br/>
By number of native speakers, they are the second-largest on the planet (just slightly behind the mostly Védrenian [[Yombu-Raina languages]]), however the vast majority of Lahob speakers speak a language belonging to the Chlouvānem branch.<br/>
The other two branches are spoken by groups that migrated southwards in prehistoric times:
Excluding Chlouvānem (and its daughter languages) with more than 1.4 billion speakers, the other Lahob languages are fairly small by number of speakers, with less than 100,000 speakers collectively: Nordûlaki is the only official language, and the main lingua franca, across the area (except for the areas in Soenyŏ-tave), and in the most densely populated areas the vast majority of people are Nordûlaki-speaking descendants of Evandorian colonists. Lahob speakers are mostly clustered in a few villages, rarely exceeding a thousand inhabitants.<br/>The situation in the Chlouvānem-speaking areas is almost the reverse, as it is the Dachsprache everywhere across the [[Verse:Chlouvānem Inquisition|Chlouvānem Inquisition]], in a state of diglossia with thousands of local vernaculars which are either descendants of Chlouvānem itself, Chlouvānem-based creoles, or totally unrelated languages.
* ''Šlokhowdeš'' is an isolate among the larger Lahob family, spoken in a hilly area in the Baran river basin in north-central Greater Evandor (an area politically divided between Koitrûx to the north and Alêig to the south). Probably it is the only surviving language of a formerly larger branch.
* ''Chlouvānem languages'' include [[Chlouvānem]] and all its descendants. Despite being by far the most spoken of the whole family and having the longest documented history, it took a long time to recognize the Lahob origin of Chlouvānem, due to many factors (including the long distance (some 10,000 km) from the Lahob homeland, the enormous lexical influence of other languages, the genetic difference between the Chlouvānem and other Lahob speakers (though mainly due to interbreeding with other peoples) and the fact all other Lahob languages have a very different morphology, changed in more than 5000 years; Chlouvānem is morphologically extremely close to Proto-Lahob).


Excluding Chlouvānem (and its daughter languages) with more than 1.4 billion speakers, the other Lahob languages are fairly small by number of speakers, with about 200,000 speakers collectively, 40% of which speaking Łaȟoḇeyšer. Other relatively large languages are Tundra Pwaɬasd (about 21,000), Yełeshian Lawo (about 20,000), and Coastal Tlengast (about 17,000).
40% of which speaking Łaȟoḇeyšer. Other relatively large languages are Tundra Pwaɬasd (about 21,000), Yełeshian Lawo (about 20,000), and Coastal Tlengast (about 17,000).


[[File:Lahob languages.png|thumb|Distribution of Lahob branches in Evandor and Márusúturon.]]
==Name==
The Lahob languages have a few competing names, all ultimately derived from Lahob proper:
* ''Lahob'', ''Lahou'', or ''Lahobic'' all derive from the ethnonym ''Łaȟoḇ'' [ɬaˈχɔβ] in Łaȟoḇeyén, through [[Nordûlaki]] ''Lahou'' [laˈhɔʊ̯]; the ultimate origin is Proto-Lahob *ɬakʰober, which is the common self-designation for many Lahob peoples (e.g. Łogawe, Łokow, Tɬow).
* ''Neshlenkentian'' derives from Łogawe ''nɛ łenkɛnt'', meaning either "our family" or "we are a family"; ''łenkɛnt'' is ultimately connected to Proto-Lahob *lenkaynət, the root for "family" in many non-Chlouvānem Lahob languages.
* ''Lahob-Imuniguronian'' is an outdated term which was common when the relationship between the Core Lahob languages and Chlouvānem hadn't been proved yet; as acceptance of the theory grew, the term Lahob-Imuniguronian was replaced by the simpler Lahob, that had been used for the Core Lahob languages until then. "Imuniguronian" is the English adaptation of ''imúnigúronen'', the [[Cerian]] term (common to most Western languages) for "Chlouvānem".


'''Proto-Lahob''' is the reconstructed common ancestor of all Lahob languages on the planet of Calémere. It was spoken about 5000 years before the present in the northern part of Evandor, along the coasts of the Orcish Straits - which today divide the "human" part of the continent from ''Gurdugal'', the "orcish" part.<br/>
Chlouvānem linguists have largely adopted the Nordûlaki term ''Lahou'' as the ethnonym for all Lahob peoples in the form ''lahāvai'', so that the language family is known as ''lahāvumi dældai''; however, the older term ''hūlisakhāni dældai'', after the mythological ancestral land of Hūlisakhāna mentioned in early Chlouvānem literature may still be heard sometimes. Curiously, the legend of Hūlisakhāna was probably non-Lahob in origin and the term is most likely not of Lahob origin too.<br/>The Łoqɔ (a Łogawenek language from northern Soenyŏ-tave) term ''ney łiŋgɛɛt'', cognate with Łogawe ''ne łenkɛnt'', has been adopted as ethnonym for the non-Chlouvānem Lahob peoples (''neichlilgǣtai''), and therefore ''neichlilgǣtumi dældai'' is the usual term for what is known as Northern Lahob, Core Lahob, or Lahob proper in Western linguistics. Somewhat confusingly, ''kēhamyutei lahāvumi dældai'', which ''literally'' translates as "Northern Lahob languages", is typically used for the Nayzehenyn languages only.
Among Calémerian linguists, Proto-Lahob morphology is very difficult to reconstruct, as all branches apart from Chlouvānem have only been studied in the last century and have morphological traits very different from Chlouvānem, and have all undergone radical changes in nominal and verbal morphology (it is however interesting to note that some Chlouvānem daughter languages have progressed independently in a similar way); vocabulary and especially phonology are however much better understood.


The name of the language family - properly spelled '''Łaȟoḇ''' in Łaȟoḇeyšer, and pronounced [ɬaˈχɔβ] is a reflex of the Proto-Lahob word *ɬakʰober, meaning "people", which it is one of two roots normally used in forming ethnonyms - the other being *wānəme "tribe, group, horde". These two roots are reflexed in almost all languages, and in many ethnonyms:
===Ethnonyms===
* *ɬakʰober as ethnonym for e.g. the Łaȟoḇ (''Łaȟoḇeyšer'' means "Łaȟoḇ language"), Łokow, Lawo, Šlokhow; also reflexed as e.g. ''tlekweˤ'' in Coastal Tlengast, ''tlokweʁ'' in Hilly Tlengast (both "family"), ''chlåkhmah'' (tribe) in Chlouvānem;
It is notable how the vast majority of Lahob peoples have ethnonyms based on two single Proto-Lahob roots, which however are still present in some way in nearly all languages of the family, *ɬakʰober (people) and *wānəme (horde, tribe, group):
* *wānəme as ethnonym for e.g. the Bänme, Woŋom, Baan, and the -vānem part in Chlouvānem; also as e.g. ''onom'' (group) in Łaȟoḇeyšer and ''womme'' (village) in Šlokhowdeš.
* *ɬakʰober as ethnonym for e.g. the Łaȟoḇ, Łokow, Łogawe, Tɬow, Łoqɔ...; also reflexed as e.g. ''tɬawpe'' in Bɔni, ''tłɔwr'' in Waam (both "family"), or ''chlåmbhah'' (tribe) in Chlouvānem;
* *wānəme as ethnonym for e.g. the Bɔni, Wonum, Waam, Bāmn, the -vānem part in Chlouvānem (''chlǣvānem'' originally meant "Golden Horde"); also reflected as e.g. ''onom'' (group) in Łaȟoḇeyén and ''womme'' (village) in Tɬow.


Names for the proto-language and for the language family in Lahob languages are almost non-existant apart from Chlouvānem, as most of them are native languages of traditional populations (a substantial number being hunter-gatherers), and calques from Western languages (mainly Gathura) are used; in Chlouvānem the family is called ''Lahūvumi dældai'' and Proto-Lahob is ''Olahūvumi dældā'' — the term ''Lahūvai'' for the Lahob people being a borrowing from Nordûlaki ''Lahû''.
<!-- ==Common characteristics==
 
==Common characteristics==
Due to the presence of Chlouvānem languages and, to a lesser extent, Šlokhowdeš, all highly divergent, it is difficult to point out features common to all Lahob languages. Some notable ones are:
Due to the presence of Chlouvānem languages and, to a lesser extent, Šlokhowdeš, all highly divergent, it is difficult to point out features common to all Lahob languages. Some notable ones are:
* Proto-Lahob had a complex morphosyntactic alignment based on triggers, and this situation is exactly as in classical Chlouvānem and - with a few less voices - in its daughter languages, as well as in the Pwaɬasd-Ngos and Central Lahobic branches. The other Lahob languages have evolved this system into a typical ergative/absolutive alignment, though many languages maintain various "locative verbs" derived from the old locative-trigger voice.
* Proto-Lahob had a complex morphosyntactic alignment based on triggers, and this situation is exactly as in classical Chlouvānem and - with a few less voices - in its daughter languages, as well as in the Pwaɬasd-Ngos and Central Lahobic branches. The other Lahob languages have evolved this system into a typical ergative/absolutive alignment, though many languages maintain various "locative verbs" derived from the old locative-trigger voice.
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