Old Beltonian

Old Beltonian Βάμιν Σιδωαδε, Bæmin Sidwade
Type
Fusional-Synthetic
Alignment
Nominative-Accusative
Head direction
Final
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
Yes
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect

Old Beltonian (Βάμιν Σιδωαδε, Bæmin Sidwade, Modern Standard Beltonian: Bémesiawri Cewl) was the earliest stage of the Beltonian language. It existed in the period from approximately 400 to 900, beginning with the divergence of Wistarian and ending with the divergence of Classical Beltonian from the vernacular dialects.

Old Beltonian was a continuation of the Proto-Beltonic language that was spread across Beltonia by the Beltonic Migration. It largely abandoned the nonconcatenative morphology of its predecessor, though elements of it survived in irregular noun and verb inflections. It remained a highly inflective language with a large number of cases and moods. It also pivoted towards a nominative-accusative alignment, merged two of the genders and introduced verb inflections by person, while mostly eliminating verb inflections by gender. In phonology and it introduced consonant clusters, reduced the number of guttural consonants while adding voiced stops as separate phonemes and expanding the palate of vowels. The language introduced loanwords from other languages, especially Greek, and to a lesser extent Latin, Arabic and pre-Beltonic languages.

The language had multiple dialects which changed over time but were mostly mutually intelligible. In the Wistarian Marches there was a continuum of hybrid dialects between Beltonian and Wistarian. By the 8th century, the Omchoke dialect dominated literature and would become the basis of Classical Beltonian, while the southern dialects would ultimately have a greater influence on Middle High Beltonian and therefore the modern language.

The earliest writings of Old Beltonian are Beltonian Runes. From the 6th century onwards, the language was most often written in the Greek alphabet, and more rarely in the Latin and Arabic alphabets.

History

In Roman Beltonia, Latin was the official language of the government, although Koine Greek had in practice become the local lingua franca. In Lower Beltonia, which unlike the modern region of the same name included what is today Wistaria and Middle Beltonia, ordinary people spoke multiple Ionian languages and dialects of Greek. In Upper Beltonia, notionally part of the Roman Empire, ordinary people spoke various dialects of a language that is now referred to as the Proto-Beltonic language.

The Beltonic Migration took place over the 4th to 6th centuries. As Roman power over the region weakened, many tribes from mountainous Upper Beltonia migrated to Lower Beltonia. Since the 1980s, the consensus among historians is that the number of migrants was small compared to the existing population. Smithson writes "the estimate that the migrants, or invaders if you see the glass as being half-empty, were 10-20% as numerous as the existing population is representative of the prevailing historical views." The Beltonians formed a ruling class that gradually assimilated with the existing population. They initially adopted the Greek alphabet. The official alphabet was changed three times between Latin and Greek, and throughout the Beltonic Migrations both were used.

The Christianization of the Beltonians and the reconquest of the area by the Eastern Roman Empire re-established Greek as a language of administration, trade and religion. Beltonian continued to be spoken by ordinary people. As Byzantine hegemony declined, Beltonian was re-established as the official language of government in 763, using the Greek script. Greek continued to be the official language of the church, although there were religious writings in Beltonian. After the Arab conquest of Wistaria later in that century, the Arabic alphabet was also used to write Beltonian in Euchesia and the Wistarian Marches.

The majority of surviving Old Beltonian literature comes from the period from after 763. In the years leading up to the rise of the Beltonian Empire, the written language became standardised and began to diverge from the vernacular. Some linguists like Chrétien and Ansleh strictly limit the term Old Beltonian to refer to the language from 763 to the 10th century, and refer to the language from the 4th century until 763 as Transitional Beltonian or Proto-Beltonian (not to be confused with Proto-Beltonic).

Bacha and Chrétien both suspect that the changes to the language that occurred within that time were primarily caused by interactions between the dialects of the migrants. Chrétien writes: "The 200-year period of the was probably the two centuries in which the Beltonian language changed the most." In particular, the simplification of noun gender likely arose from the interactions of dialects with subtle variations on Proto-Beltonian, and Bacha suspects that "at least one of the original dialects lacked the ergativity of Proto-Beltonic." A smaller number of the changes came from those of the pre-Beltonic population learning the language.

Phonology

Consonants

Old Beltonian had approximately 23 consonant phonemes. Compared to Proto-Beltonic, there was a net reduction in the number of consonants, mainly due to a loss of guttural ones.

	Labial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d			k g		(ʔ)
Affricate			t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Fricative	f v	s z	ʃ ʒ	ç		χ	h
Approximant		(ɹ ~ ɾ)		j	w	ʁ
Lateral		l

Vowels

The number of monophthongs increased from 3 to 6. /e/ and /o/ originally entered the language as allophones of /i/ and /u/, before merging with /ai/ and /au/ as well as also arriving in loanwords. Despite the merger of the original diphthongs, similar ones were formed through assimilation with the palatal consonants and /w/ as well as arriving in loanwords. Ansteh concludes that /ei/ and /ou/ also came into existence through the same assimilation process but quickly became monopthongized to /e/ and /o/.

The vowel system was not fixed. In particular, the Omchoke region showed a series of vowel shifts such as /u/ > /ʉ/ that would mark the transition towards Classical Beltonian.

	Front	Centre	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	(ə)	o
Open	æ		ɑ (ɒ)
Diphthongs	æi æu eu oi

Grammatical sound mutation

I-mutation

I-mutation works by colouring the first core vowel that is not /i/ nor proceeded by a palatal consonant:

• /æ/ and /ɑ/ become /je/
• /u/ becomes /ju/
• /wɑ/ becomes /ja/

In addition, if one of the core vowels is /i/, the emphasis moves to this vowel.

Cross-mutation

The third form of mutation focuses on swapping both certain sounds and emphasis. Until i- and u-mutation, this mutation can only affect both core vowels simulatenously.

• /i/ swaps with /u/
• /j/ swaps with /w/
• The emphasis moves to the other core vowel if there is one. If the second core vowel is an /æ/ or /ɑ/ that was previously stressed, it will be reduced to [ə] or deleted.

Sound changes

The following changes appear to have occurred before the divergence of Wistarian:

• Lowering of diphthong end vowels: [ai] > [ae] and [au] > [ao]
• Merger of /h₂/ and /h₃/ phonemes into /χ/. The realization of /h₁/ becomes clearer as being [h] on the starts of syllables, [x] after back vowels and /a/ and [ç] after front vowels.
• /ʎ/ > /j/
• /ɲ/ > /in/. This creates hiatuses instead of diphthongs.
• Emergence of /e/ and /o/ as separate phonemes to /i/ and /u/. This begins with compound words which preserve [e] and [o] in places where the Proto-Beltonic allophony rules would require them to become [i] and [u].
• /a/ divides into allophones, with [a] > [ɑ] in non-emphasized syllables and between two back consonants, and [a] > [æ] in other emphasized syllables. Diphthongs are also affected: [ae] > [æe] and [ao] > [ɑo].
• Emergence of voiced stops as separate phonemes and increased willingness to contrast voiced and voiceless front fricatives, as compound words do not change voiced/voiceless quality in places where Proto-Beltonic allophony rules require either.
• Deaffrication in syllables that follow emphasized syllables: /ts/ > /s/, /ʈ͡ʂ/ > /ʂ/, [kx] > /x/, [qχ] > /χ/.
• Lenition in aspirated consonants that follow an emphasized syllables: [kʰ] > /x/

The following changes appear to have occurred after the divergence and while they were not consistent across the dialects, they ultimately affected all major dialects by the 9th century:

• The majority of linguists believe there was a gradual conversion of the original pitch accent into stress which started in the High dialects and spread gradually to all dialects, although some instead believe that Beltonian was always reliant on stress.
• Merger of /x/ and /qχ/ into /χ/, although a contrast between /x/ and /χ/ persisted for longer in Low dialects.
• Especially in High dialects, /Vχ/ > /əç/ in the least stressed syllables, except for /iχ/ > /iç/.
• /a/ following a stressed syllable and a front consonant becomes [ə].
• Realisation of rhotic consonant begins to change in some dialects from [ɻ] to [ʁ], the latter resembling a voiced allophone of /χ/.
• Monophthongization of diphthongs: [æe] > [e] and [ɑo] > [o].
• Lowering of word-final vowels: /i/ > /e/ and /u/ > /o/.
• Fronting of retroflex consonants: /ʂ/ > /ʃ/, /ʈ͡ʂ/ > /t͡ʃ/ and /ʐ/ > /ʒ/.
• /ŋ/ > /n/ in non-stressed syllables.
• /ja/ > /je/
• Loss of [ə] before and after fricatives, after liquid consonants and on the ends of words, triggering consonant assimilation and deletions.

The following changes did not affect all dialects but were found in the majority that affected both Classical Beltonian and Middle High Beltonian:

• Monophthongization of short diphthongs in High dialects: /ei/ > /e/ and /ou/ > /o/, which slowly spread to Low dialects.
• Especially in Low dialects, [ɒ] emerges as an allophone of /ɑ/ after /w/ and before nasal and labial vowels.
• Especially in High dialects, loss of [ə] between stops, triggering consonant assimilation.
• Especially in Low dialects, /u/ > /ʉ/, initially only in unstressed syllables.
• Loss of uvular stops /q/ > /k/ except its allophone [ɢ] > /g/. Bacha believes this began in the central dialects, although other linguists like Ansleh believe it began in Low dialects.

Nouns

Nouns were divided into two genders: common and neuter. The genders influenced agreement from adjectives, a few verb tenses and, initially, which pronouns would replace them. From the 7th century onwards, inanimate common nouns shifted towards taking the neuter pronouns. The common gender was formed the merger of the Proto-Beltonic masculine and feminine genders.

The conceptual plural disappeared during the 6th century. Some strong nouns underwent regularization.

Strong nouns

Strong nouns preserved two vowel inflections from Proto-Beltonic. With the accusative being the base form, the plural was formed through i-mutation and the nominative was formed through cross-mutation. In the former, the first core vowel had a /j/ inserted in front of it, with a few exceptions: /wæ/ and /wɑ/ became /wi/, while /æ/ and /ɑ/ became /je/. If the first core vowel was /i/ or was /j/ before it, the mutation instead moved to the second or (for bilateral roots only) resulted in /e/ being added on the end.

Cross-mutation usually resulted in the swapping of /u/ and /i/ and of /e/ and /o/ among the core vowels. /æ/ and /ɑ/ were unaffected, but if both core vowels were those vowels, then the second core vowel was deleted.

Starting in the 7th century, strong nouns began to switch their copulative form to resembling the nominative form, while retaining the -(o)s suffix.

	Bilateral muh		Trilateral balat
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mih	mihjan	balt	bjeltan
Copulative	muhos	mjuhans	baláts	bjelátans
Accusative	muh	mjuhan	balát	bjelátan
Dative	múhoh	mjúhnuh	balátoh	bjelátnuh
Lative	muho	mjuhno	baláto	bjelátno
Locative	muhim	mjuhem	balátim	bjelátem
Vocative	muh	mjuh	balát	bjelát

Weak nouns

Weak nouns inflected according to five stems, one of which did not exist in Proto-Beltonic. The weak noun inflections developed with several changes, some of which were sound shifts though there were also lexical shifts. For example, the -e declension's singular and plural locative forms reversed, likely due to confusion with other stems.

Most newly-added words were introduced in the accusative case, and thus took the -a declension. However, some words were introduced in the nominative case and therefore a new declension evolved.

	-a declension juláma		-C declension kjuriakon		-je declension makje		-o declension opaho		-e declension tife
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	juláma	julámin	kjuriakon	kjuriakonan	makje	makwan	opaho	opahwan	tife	tifin
Copulative	juláms	julámans	kjuriakons	kjuriakonans	makas	makjens	opahis	opahjens	tifus	tifwans
Accusative Vocative	julám	juláman	kjuriakona	kjuriakonjen	maka	makjen	opaha	opahjen	tifo	tifwan
Lative Dative	julámo	julámano	kjuriakono	kjuriakonano	mako	makjeno	opaho	opahjeno	tifuno	tifwano
Locative	julámim	julámem	kjuriakonim	kjuriakonem	makim	makem	opahim	opahem	tifwim	tifwem

Pronouns

Pronouns were irregular nouns, formed with a mix of suppletion and sound changes that had become unrecognizable.

	Singular					Plural
	1st	2nd	3rd			1st	2nd	3rd
			Masc.	Fem.	Nt.			Masc.	Fem.	Nt.
Nominative	sito	ješ	re	ko	ro	kam	rihau	tula	tulo	tula
Copulative	pav	tor	kas	kjus	kos	fint	ruhaut	tilt	tijet	tilt
Accusative	pa	ta	ka	ke	ko	fin	ruhal	til	tile	tila
Dative	poh	toh	koh	kjuh	kuh	finoh	ruhaluh	tiloh	tijoh	tiloh
Lative	po	to	ko	kjo	ko	fino	ruhalo	tilo	tijo	tilo
Locative	pem	tem	kem	kim	kawim	finim	ruhom	tilim	tilim	tilaim
Vocative	pa	ta	ka	ki	ko	fin	ruhalo	til	tile	tila

Demonstrative pronouns:

	Singular		Plural
	Common	Neuter	Common	Neuter
Nominative	tisa	tasa	čisa	časa
Copulative	tusus	tasus	čusət	časət
Accusative Vocative	tus	tas	čus	čas
Lative Dative	tuso	taso	čuso	časo
Locative	tusim	tasim	čusim	časim

Verbs

Like the modern Beltonic languages, Old Beltonian had multiple moods:

• Indicative: Conveying that an action is happening or has happened.
• Energetic: Conveying the same as the indicative but with emphasis.
• Cohortativej: Conveying that an action is desirable.
• Imperative: Conveying commands in the second person, and in other persons conveying an exhortation that someone should do or be allowed to do an action.
• Conditional: Conveying that an action would only happen under a certain condition. Unlike the conditional forms of many modern languages, it could not be used to present the 'future in the past'.
• Negative: Conveying an action did not happen, in conjunction with the adverb gu. This came from the Proto-Beltonic potential mood.
• Habitual: Conveying a recurring habit instead of a one-off or ongoing action. This is normally described in most languages as an aspect rather than a mood, but has the grammatical characteristics of a Beltonic mood.

Verbs also inflected for person and number, and in the third person inflected for three genders as well. Each mood also had an infinitive form and past participle. This meant there were 12 inflections for each mood, except the indicative mood which had additional inflections for the preterite (past indicative). However, not all the inflections were unique.

Compound tenses could be formed with two auxiliary verbs. Past tenses for other moods were formed with the verb in the mood's past participle, followed by axat (to do, make) in the present indicative. Using the past indicative of axat instead conveyed the pluperfect. Future tenses were formed with the verb in the mood's infinitive, followed by kifo (to go, travel) in the present indicative. Using the past indicative of kifo instead conveyed the future from the point of view of the past.

In addition, verbs were also divided between dynamic and stative verbs. The majority were the former and concerned actions, whereas the latter dealt with adjectival descriptions. Stative verbs used a present tense that was based off the original present tense, and did not distinguish between the indicative and habitual mood. Bacha uses the terms "quasi-stative" and "quasi-dynamic", noting that in Old Beltonian the distinction became arbitrary. For example, wikut (to be in charge) became to take a more dynamic meaning (to lead, command) but retained a stative pattern. Most dynamic verb inflections were formed by merging with pronouns from the Proto-Beltonic copulative case, whereas stative ones were formed by the pronouns in the absolutive case. The exceptions were infinitives, past participles and third person neuter forms.

Verbs were also divided between weak, semi-strong and strong verbs. Weak verbs followed two patterns, depending on whether they were dynamic or stative. The majority of verbs were weak and dynamic, and with the exception of a few suppletive verbs, all strong verbs were dynamic. Aspects of the weak verb patterns had been introduced to the strong verbs through regularization. Strong verbs retained the vowel mutations of the proto-language, although most did not retain it completely. The conditional mood in particular was prone to being regularized. Regularization tended to occur if a strong verb pattern had become unrecognizable through sound change. Semi-strong verbs had almost completely abandoned the vowel mutations except for the past tense.

Weak dynamic verbs

		žufit ("")
		Infinitive	Singular					Plural					Past participle
			1st	2nd	3rd M	3rd F	3rd N	1st	2nd	3rd M	3rd F	3rd N
Indicative	Present	žufit	žufitpav	žufittor	žufitkas	žufitkjus	žufita	žufitfint	žufitrəhaut	žufittilt	žufittijet	žufitjan	žufitəng
	Past		žufitəmpav	žufitəntor	žufitənkas	žufitənkjus	žufitjan	žufitəmfint	žufitənhaut	žufitəntilt	žufitəntijet	žufitin
Energetic		žufituk	žufitukərpav	žufitukərtor	žufitukərkas	žufitukərçus	žufitak	žufitukərfint	žufitukruhaut	žufitukərtilt	žufitukərčet	žufitjok	žufitukəng
Cohortative		žufital	žufitaurpav	žufitaurtor	žufitaurkas	žufitaurkjus	žufital	žufitaurfint	žufitauruhaut	žufitaurtilt	žufitaurčet	žufital	žufitaləng
Imperative		žufito	žufitubav	žufito	žufituri	žufituko	žufitwa	žufitumfint	žufitun	žufituntilt	žufitunčet	žufitwan	žufitwang
Conditional		žufitiki	žufitikərpav	žufitikərtor	žufitikərkas	žufitikərçus	žufitjanki	žufitikərvint	žufitikəraut	žufitikərtilt	žufitikərčet	žufitinki	žufitikang
Negative		žufitil	žufitjurpav	žufitjurtor	žufitjurkas	žufitjurçus	žufitel	žufitjurvint	žufitjuraut	žufitjurtilt	žufitjurčet	žufitel	žufitəlang
Habitual		žufito	žufit	žufit	žufito	žufite	žufita	žufitwan	žufitwan	žufitwan	žufitwan	žufitjan	žufitong

Weak stative verbs

		xukat ("to be angry, to rage")
		Infinitive	Singular					Plural					Past participle
			1st	2nd	3rd M	3rd F	3rd N	1st	2nd	3rd M	3rd F	3rd N
Indicative Habitual	Present	xukat	xukatpa	xukatto	xukatka	xukatki	xukata	xukatfin	xukatrəhau	xukattil	xukattili	xukatjan	xukatəng
	Past		xukatəmpa	xukatənto	xukatənka	xukatənki	xukatjan	xukatəmfin	xukatənhal	xukatəntil	xukatəntili	xukatin
Energetic		xukatuk	xukatukərpa	xukatukərto	xukatukərka	xukatukərki	xukatak	xukatukərfin	xukatukruhal	xukatukərtil	xukatukərtil	xukatjok	xukatukəng
Cohortative		xukatal	xukataurpa	xukataurto	xukataurka	xukataurki	xukatal	xukataurfin	xukatauruhal	xukataurtil	xukataurtil	xukatal	xukataləng
Imperative		xukato	xukatupa	xukato	xukatuka	xukatuki	xukatwa	xukatumfin	xukatun	xukatuntil	xukatuntil	xukatwan	xukatwang
Conditional		xukatiki	xukatikərpa	xukatikərto	xukatikərka	xukatikərki	xukatjanki	xukatikərvin	xukatikəral	xukatikərtil	xukatikərtil	xukatinki	xukatikang
Negative		xukatil	xukatjurpa	xukatjurto	xukatjurka	xukatjurki	xukatel	xukatjurvin	xukatjural	xukatjurtil	xukatjurtil	xukatel	xukatəlang

Strong and semi-strong verbs

Strong verbs formed the preterite through cross-mutation and formed the cohortative and negative moods through i-mutation. Only 10 used both sound mutations to form the conditional mood, with the rest undergoing regularization and adopting weak verb endings.

		nabúv ("to plow")
		Infinitive	Singular					Plural					Past participle
			1st	2nd	3rd M	3rd F	3rd N	1st	2nd	3rd M	3rd F	3rd N
Indicative	Present	nabúv	nabúvpav	nabúvtor	nabúvkas	nabúvkjus	nabúvkos	nabúvfint	nabúvrəhaut	nabúvtilt	nabúvtijet	nabúvtilt	nabúvəng
	Past		nápivpav	nápivtor	nápivkas	nápivkjus	nápivkos	nápivfint	nápivrəhaut	nápivtilt	nápivtijet	nápivtilt
Energetic		nabúvuk	nabúvukərpav	nabúvukərtor	nabúvukərkas	nabúvukərçus	nabúvak	nabúvukərfint	nabúvukəruhaut	nabúvukərtilt	nabúvukərčet	nabúvfjok	nabúvukəng
Cohortative		njebúval	njebúvwərpav	njebúvwərtor	njebúvwərkas	njebúvwərus	njebúvwa	njebúvwərvint	njebúvwəraut	njebúvwərtilt	njebúvwərčet	njebúvwan	njebúvung
Imperative		nabúvo	nabúvubav	nabúvo	nabúvuri	nabúvuko	nabúvwa	nabúvumfint	nabúvun	nabúvuntilt	nabúvunčet	nabúvwan	nabúvwang
Conditional		nabúviki	nabúvikərpav	nabúvikərtor	nabúvikərkas	nabúvikərçus	nabúvjunki	nabúvikərvint	nabúvikəraut	nabúvikərtilt	nabúvikərčet	nabúvinki	nabúvikang
Negative		njebúvil	njebúvərpav	njebúvərtor	njebúvərkas	njebúvərçus	njebúva	njebúvərvint	njebúvəraut	njebúvərtilt	njebúvərčet	njebúvjan	njebúvang
Habitual		nabúvo	nabúv	nabúv	nabúvo	nabúve	nabúva	nabúvwan	nabúvwan	nabúvwan	nabúvwan	nabúvjan	nabúvong

Anomalous verbs

Copula

There were two forms of copula: the pronouns in the copulative case and the verb rahar ("to be, to exist"). The former tended to imply a more permanent state. The latter was a suppletive verb that incorporated some forms from an alternative Proto-Beltonic mood, including its preterite and imperative stems.

		rahar ("to be, to stand")
		Infinitive	Singular					Plural					Past participle
			1st	2nd	3rd M	3rd F	3rd N	1st	2nd	3rd M	3rd F	3rd N
Indicative	Present	rahar	raharpav	rahartor	raharkas	raharkjus	raharkos	raharfint	raharrəhaut	rahartilt	rahartijet	rahartilt	raharəng
	Past		futpav	futivtor	futkas	futkjus	futkos	futfint	futrəhaut	futtilt	futtijet	futtilt
Energetic		rahuk	rahukərpav	rahukərtor	rahukərkas	rahukərçus	rahak	rahukərfint	rahukəruhaut	rahukərtilt	rahukərčet	rahfjok	rahukəng
Cohortative		fitiral	fitirwərpav	fitirwərtor	fitirwərkas	fitirwərus	fitirwa	fitirwərvint	fitirwəraut	fitirwərtilt	fitirwərčet	fitirwan	fitirung
Imperative		raho	rahpav	raho	rahuri	rahuko	rahwa	rahumfint	rahun	rahuntilt	rahunčet	rahwan	rahwang
Conditional		futíril	futírərpav	futírərtor	futírərkas	futírərçus	futíra	futírərvint	futírəraut	futírərtilt	futírərčet	futírjan	futírang
Negative		fitiril	fitirərpav	fitirərtor	fitirərkas	fitirərçus	fitira	fitirərvint	fitirəraut	fitirərtilt	fitirərčet	fitirjan	fitirang
Habitual†		raharo	rahar	rahar	raharo	rahare	rahara	raharwan	raharwan	raharwan	raharwan	raharjan	raharong

†Debatable. There is no record of a habitual form of the copula existing, but it existed in Classical and Middle Beltonian.

Other suppletive verbs

At least five other verbs were suppletive, with at least one mood formed from an alternative root.

Adjectives

Adjectives agreed with nouns based on their gender, number (singular or plural) and case, with cases agreements divided into three groups.

Starting in the 7th century, the copulative endings moved to match the nominative endings.

The first declension was used for words that came from Proto-Beltonic, and for loanwords which were introduced in the accusative case.

	-jo declension ximjo
	Singular		Plural
	Common	Neuter	Common	Neuter
Nominative	ximjo	ximje	ximwe	ximwa
Copulative Accusative Vocative	xim	xima	ximwan	ximjen
Dative Lative Locative	ximən	ximun	ximən	ximwan

The second declension was used for loanwords which had been introduced in the nominative case:

	-C declension ekklesiastikos
	Singular		Plural
	Common	Neuter	Common	Neuter
Nominative	ekklesiastikos	ekklesiastikos	ekklesiastikosan	ekklesiastikosan
Copulative Accusative Vocative	ekklesiastikosa	ekklesiastikosa	ekklesiastikoswan	ekklesiastikosjen
Dative Lative Locative	ekklesiastikosən	ekklesiastikosun	ekklesiastikosən	ekklesiastikoswan

Demonstrative adjectives, translating as "this" and "that", were irregular due to being formed from the demonstrative pronouns.

	Demonstrative adjectives
	Singular		Plural
	Common	Neuter	Common	Neuter
Nominative	tušo	taše	čuswe	časwa
Copulative Accusative Vocative	tus	tas	čus	čas
Dative Lative Locative	tusən	tasun	čusən	časwan

Syntax

Old Beltonian had an early version of 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. As with Middle Beltonian dialects, the hierarchy was not as rigidly defined as Classical Beltonian. For example, there was variation as to whether clergy were ranked above or below the king and where abstract concepts and verbs were positioned, and exceptions to the order were considered a change of emphasis rather than being disrespectful or incorrect.

The order was, from highest to lowest:

1. God
2. Other religious nouns
3. The king
4. Nobles
5. Other authority figures
6. Other humans
7. Animals
8. Inanimate objects

The Omchoke Bible was an exception, as it instead preserved the word order of the translated text.