Proto-Ellonic

Proto-Ellonic (Ellonic: Svydde-Éalogh ) is the Proto-Language of the Ellonic, or 'West-of-the Mountains' languages.

Around 1 year BI (Before Invasion of the Xiú in Mauria), Mauric, the first language ever to be spoken in Mauria, developed into 3 branches: Ellonic, Salic, and Germansic. Ellonic is very different when compared to the other branches, because it didn't took part in the Low-Mauric Sound Shift (see below). But, Ellonic did however take part in the High-Mauric Sound Shift.

Phonology
Of all the branches, of Ellonic we know the most about its phonology, because Ellonic languages didn't take part in big sound shifts, but took part in more little changes altering their phonology


 * /j/ isn't used as one single consonant, it is found more often in palatalised consonants.


 * Is never used in Late Proto-Ellonic, it becomes /ɑ/

Proto-Ellonic has a very symmetrical vowel-inventory. This happened because of the Ellonic Vowel Law: back vowels are rounded only.

High-Mauric Sound Shift
Around 449 AI, the High-Mauric Sound shift occurred, and affected the Ellonic, and Germanisc branches. But it didn't affect the Salic branches. That's why people who speak an Ellonic language as L1 have a better time studying a Germanisc language, rather than a Salic one.

The High-Mauric Sound Shift


 * Mauric voiceless stops become voiced. /kʷ/ becomes /x/
 * Mauric voiced stops become voiced fricatives. (Did not happen in Germanisc)
 * Mauric aspirated voiced stops become aspirated voiceless stops (Did not happen in Germanisc*)
 * Mauric aspirated voiceless stops stay the same in Ellonic

- Germanisc follows rule one, and leave consonants become unaspirated.


 * /p/ > /b/
 * /t/ > /d/
 * /k/ > /g/
 * /kʷ/> /x/


 * /b/ > /v/
 * /d/ > /ð/
 * /g/ > /ʒ/ > /sʲ/
 * /gʷ/> /ʒ/ > /sʲ/

(voiced stop)ʰ > (voiceless stop)ʰ

Ellonic Sound Shift
This is a pretty big one, but is really simple.


 * All Front vowels are unrounded, and all Back vowels are rounded

Mauric had for all front vowels a rounded and an unrounded vowel. In Ellonic, the front rounded vowel became a back vowel (E.g. /y/ -> /u/). This also happened for some degree in Salic, however, in Salic the front rounded vowels are coming back.

Grammar
We don't know a lot about proto-Ellonic grammar, because a lot of the Grammar has been altered and/or lost over time.

Nouns
Proto-Ellonic is a highly agglutinative language. It has 5 cases, and 2 genders (Singular, and Plural). We don't know exactly how nouns are declined, since most Ellonic languages don't have cases anymore, however in Céalo-Moimh, some idioms still contain some form of declension. In 'High'-Ellonic pronouns are declined in the same way. In 'Lower'-Ellonic pronouns are declined in a different way but with the same type of system in mind.

Whenever a preposition is used, the Accusative case is used. With the exception of the preposition 'to' and 'of'. For 'to' the Dative is used, and for 'of' the Genetive. After an article or preposition a noun gets mutated. This is not the case in 'lower' Ellonic languages and so is seen as a sound-shift by some. The mutation only takes place with plosives and the fricatives /h/ and /s/. Aspirated Plosives will be mutated the same way as their unaspirated counterparts and lose their aspiration when mutated. The only Ellonic language with the whole mutation system intact is Céalo-Moirmh, the other languages mis the fricative mutations.

Verbs
Ellonic languages have over time ditched most of the tenses, and a lot of the tenses that did survive have been altered severely. So there is no reliable sources of information on this topic. What is known is that from Mauric verb endings have been used in making the suffixes for the verbs.

Céalo-Moirmhe, the Language who is the most similar to Ellonic, uses 'last vowel-agreement'. That means that the last vowel of the subject matches to the suffix used when conjugating verbs. This hasn't been attested in Ellonic yet.

The Big Split
Around 1700 AI the big Ellonic split occurred. Ellonic split into 3 groups: High-Ellonic, Middle-Ellonic, and Low-Ellonic. All of them went through different sound-shifts and so distinguish themselves from one another. There is one sound change that they all have in common, the voiceless aspirated plosives became unaspirated.

Low Ellonic and the Low Ellonic Vowel shift
The Low Ellonic language group consists mainly of Sidhe-Moirmhe, and Moirmhí-Uld. With Moirmhí-Uld spoken in the Urban area of Uldumhaír. Low Ellonic took part in the Low-Ellonic Vowel Shift. This shift brought back /y:/, a rounded front vowel. This Sound Shift is noticed in Moirmhe-sinéighd (Standard-Moirmh).


 * /a:/ -> /o:/
 * /e:/ -> /æ:/
 * /o:/ -> /u:/
 * /u:/ -> /y:/

The differences between Uldumháir and Sidhe-Moirmhe is intonation of words, and slightly different pronunciation of the changed vowels.

This shift also took place in Middle Ellonic, but was not complete and some vowels that changed didn't change in Low Ellonic. Low Ellonic didn't take part in the High Ellonic de-palatalization sound changes.

Middle Ellonic
The Middle Ellonic language group consists of two languages, or dialects: Moirmhe-dy-loante (Moirmhe at Land), and Moirmhe-dy-Máirse (Moirmhe at Sea). The difference between Moirmhe-dy-Loante and Moirmhe-dy-Máirse is that Moirmhe-dy-Máirse has been influenced by Céalo-Moirmhe, while Moirmhe-dy-Loante has been influenced by Sidhe-Moirmhe.

Like the Low Ellonic branch, Middle Ellonic took part in the Low Ellonic Vowel shift, but these changes are either incomplete, or not part of the original vowel shift that occurred in Low Ellonic.


 * /a:/ -> /o:/
 * /e:/ -> /æ:/
 * /o:/ remained unchanged in Middle Ellonic
 * /u:/ -> /y:/
 * /i:/ -> something between /i:/ and /y:/ (It has rounded slightly). This sound is written as 'ý' in the Ellonic Alphabet.

Middle Ellonic is the least used language to make up the Standard Moirmhe model in 2000 AI. This is mainly due the fact that it Middle Ellonic also got influenced by Rómmonds, and Væst-Germoansj, 2 dialects of High-Germanisc.

High Ellonic and Céalo Moirmhe
High Ellonic directly evolved into Céalo-Moirmhe. It did however change from Proto-Ellonic to High Ellonic. High Ellonic went through the High Ellonic nasal law.

The High Ellonic Nasal Law is quite similar to the Salic Nasal Law, but the only difference is that the end products are different. The Law consists of nasals /n/, and /m/ being mixed with vowels. In Salic the end products are palatalised nasals, in High-Ellonic however the end products aren't palatalised, but went through a consonant shift.

Only a few got /j/ at the end, and will palatalise the consonant that comes after it, and /j/ will disappear. If the next sound is a vowel, /j/ won't do anything and just stay there.

Knife PE: messy /mɛsy:/ > HE: méighsy /mɛisʲu:/