Middle High Beltonian

Middle High Beltonian (MHB) is the form of the Beltonian language that was spoken in central and south Beltonia from 900 to 1600. In later centuries it also appeared as a written language.

MHB and Middle Low Beltonian (MLB) represented opposite ends of a spectrum of dialects, which were affected by other points of variation. Some linguists treat the Middle Central dialects as another set of dialects. MHB was not initially influenced by Classical Beltonian, which also developed from the Low dialects, although it was eventually influenced by the Classical and Middle Low dialects, especially with spelling and imported vocabulary.

MHB saw a series of consonant changes as a result of disappearing vowels and subsequent consonant assimilation. Its vowels were affected by the later arrival of the Low Beltonian Vowel Shift which added front rounded vowels. In grammar, it saw a complete loss of gender marking and a reduction in the number of cases. Some aspects of verb inflection were simplified and auxiliary verbs were introduced to convey certain tenses and an imperfective aspect. MHB was the primary basis for Early Modern Beltonian and therefore modern Beltonian dialects.

History
Differences between the dialects in the regions around Batin and Omchoke were first noted in the 7th century. Smithson writes: "Beltonian was spread over a period of 200 years, in a series of waves. It was adopted by locals who had previously spoken different languages. Finally, while dialects often influenced each other, they could also move in different directions. All of those things fragmented the language, but not on an unusual scale. Indeed, in the 11th century, Beltonia was far more linguistically homogeneous than the Italian peninsula."

The Low dialects, specifically that of Omchoke, became the basis for Classical Beltonian. This became the spoken language of the ruling class and the language of writing throughout the whole of the Beltonian Empire. Very little literature of other dialects survives from between the 10th and mid-13th century. Middle Low Beltonian was better documented, due to the theatre scene that was centred on Omchoke. However, there were a few playwrights who wrote in Batinese dialects, such as Symeon Lismakt.

The arrival of the printing press in the 15th century and the Beltonian Reformation led to what Bacha terms "a revolution of the written language". Vernacular literature almost completely supplanted the Classical dialect. One of the most notable Middle High Beltonian works was Escha's Bible, which was written in a phonetic transcription of the Batinese dialect. Other literature from around the period was written in various other phonetic spellings with the Beltonian alphabet. By the 16th century, although spelling had become more (though not completely) standardized, and also more influenced by spellings of the Classical dialect.

Smithson writes that the improvement of communication afforded by the printing press paradoxically ended up dividing the language, by encouraging the written language to reflect the varying dialects of ordinary people. Also important was the decline of internal royal power in the Late Empire. The provinces each adopted different standardized written language, although the written languages were mutually intelligible.

Although the Ottoman conquest brought no immediate change to the language, linguists tend to treat it as the dividing line between the Middle and Early Modern periods.

Consonants
Middle High Beltonian had approximately 21 consonant phonemes.

Vowels
Early Middle High Beltonian had 8 vowel phonemes; some analyses consider the schwa to be a ninth. It is usually analyzed as having five diphthongs. Later dialects saw the addition of centering diphthongs, caused by the loss of syllable-final rhotic consonants. The centering diphthongs are usually reconstructed as ending on a different (but not contrasting) central vowel to the schwa, although at least some dialects had them ending on the schwa.

Vowels before nasal consonants (/m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ before the latter was lost) were nasalized at an early stage. Nasal vowels were not contrasted with oral ones, but they subsequently resisted the Low Beltonian vowel shift.

Articles
Middle High Beltonian had a definite article, which originated from a demonstrative adjective. The articles behaved as an adjectives, except that it did not have a case-neutral form. Vowel reduction eroded most of the differences between common and neuter articles, although the distinction survived for longest in the nominative singular.

Syntax
Middle High Beltonian also had a hierarchical word order. Regardless of their role in a sentence, nouns appeared from first to last in order of their position in the hierarchy, from highest to lowest. Their role highlighted with the case marking. The order was, from highest to lowest: It was common for the speaker's equals to come after the speaker instead of before. There was also no consensus on where to place abstract concepts or whether clergy were counted as religious nouns (though they were usually ranked below the king).
 * God
 * 1) Other religious nouns
 * 2) Authority figures
 * 3) The speaker's equals
 * 4) The speaker
 * 5) Subordinates
 * 6) Animals
 * 7) Inanimate objects

The system was less strict than Classical Beltonian and many forms of Old Beltonian. It was taboo to place religious nouns after other nouns. Apart from that, conveying words in an unusual order was not grammatically correct but instead weakened the meaning of the sentence in various ways. An example is the sentence "The king rules the country", where "king" would usually precede "country". If "country" instead preceded "king", it may have implied sarcasm, derision, irreverence or, in some cases, doubt. Without context, it would be impossible to infer which one was intended.

Bible translations like Escha's Bible were an exception, as they instead followed the word order of the original texts. Bacha remarks: "Escha's translation would have sounded like an announcement of a revolution to the Beltonians at the time."