Eastonian language

Eastonian
Āsthaya
Pronunciation	[ɑːsˈtʰɐjɐ]
Native to	Emnia, Austrasia
Ethnicity	Eastonians
Native speakers	~30 thousand (2020)
Language family	Emnitic
Early forms	Primitive Eastonian
Writing system	Equatoric
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Eastonian languages are a group of closely related languages spoken by the Eastonian people in northern Calatania — primarily in eastern Emnia. While there exists a considerable degree of variation between the dialects or languages, a standardised form has been developed which is largely mutually intelligible across all varieties.

Classification

The Eastonian languages form a branch of the Emnitic language family. According to the traditional view, Eastonian is within the Emnitic family most closely related to Emnian, but this view has recently been challenged by many scholars who argue that the traditional view of a common Emnian-Eastonian protolanguage is not as strongly supported as had been previously assumed, and that many of the assumed similarities may be simply shared retentions or mutual areal influence.

In terms of internal relationships, the Eastonian languages are divided into two groups: western dialects, which are spoken in the eastern and southern highlands of Emnia, and eastern dialects, which are spoken in the Emnian Far East and Austrasia. Varieties form a dialect continuum throughout their range in which neighbouring varieties are highly mutually intelligible, while more widely separated speakers may not immediately understand each other's speech.

Grammar

Nouns and Adjectives

Eastonian nouns and adjectives are declined according to the following properties:

• State (indefinite, definite, or construct)
• Gender (feminine or masculine); this is an inherent characteristic of nouns but part of the declension of adjectives
• Number (singular or plural)

Nouns in their citation form are given in the indefinite singular; adjectives are given in the indefinite singular masculine.

Noun/Adjective ṭhavāb ("good")	masc. sg.	fem. sg.	masc. pl.	fem. pl.
indefinite	∅ ṭhavāb	∅-a ṭhavāba	∅-īṃ ṭhavābīṃ	∅-āṃ ṭhavābāṃ
definite	-a ṭhavāba	∅-ata ṭhavābata	∅-ayya ṭhavābayya	∅-āta ṭhavābāta
construct	∅ ṭhavāb	∅-at ṭhavābat	∅-ai ṭhavābai	∅-āt ṭhavābāt

Pronouns

Free pronouns:

Person		Singular	Plural
1st		anā	anāṇā
2nd		athā	athoṃ
3rd	masc.	hū	homū
	fem.	hī

Bound pronouns:

Person		Singular	Plural
1st		ayā	anū
2nd		achā	achoṃ
3rd	masc.	hū	homū
	fem.	hā

Verbs

Eastonian has two proper tenses: the perfect and the imperfect. These were originally aspectual, but have developed into something more like a past and nonpast. The majority of Eastonian verb stems are triliteral (i.e. made up of 3 radicals formed into a pattern), but a few have invariable internal stems. Below are the forms of the plain stem of regular Eastonian verbs.

Regular verb (triliteral)

Person	Perfect		Imperfect
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st	1a2ā3at chatābat "I wrote"	1a2ā3anā chatābanā "we wrote"	ya1a2ū3u yacatūbu "I write"	ne1a2ū3u necatūbu "we write"
2nd	1a2ā3athā chatābathā "you (sg) wrote"	1a2ā3athoṃ chatābathoṃ "you (pl) wrote"	te1a2ū3u tecabūtu "you (sg) write"	te1a2ū3oṃ tecabūtoṃ "you (pl) write"
3rd	1a2ā3a chatāba "he/she/it wrote"	1a2ā3aṃ chatābaṃ "they wrote"	i1a2ū3u icabūtu "he/she/it writes"	i1a2ū3oṃ icabūtoṃ "they write"

Verbs with invariable internal stems are conjugated quite similarly, by simply cutting from 1 to 3 in a paradigm and replacing it with the invariable stem.

By geminating the 2nd radical of the stem and shortening the 2nd internal vowel, the intensive is formed, i.e. khatāba "he killed" vs. khathaba "he slew".

By adding the prefix śa- to the plain stem, the causative is formed, i.e. jhacārat "I remembered" vs. śajacārat "I reminded". Note that the initial radical is "softened" after the prefix if it is the first letter. In the 3rd person, the initial -i on the imperfect stem becomes a -y- after śa-.

The reflexive/passive form is generated by adding the prefix et- (Eastern) or eś- (Western), i.e. irahūṣu "she washes" vs. etirahūṣu/eśirahūṣu "she bathes".

Vocabulary

Substrate hypothesis

Some theories about the origin of the substrate vocabulary in the Eastonian languages link it to an unattested Neocalatanian language. According to Coleman (2004), the speakers of the Proto-Emnitic language arrived in Eastonia and had fully assimilated the local populations by the middle of the 1st century CE. In her opinion, a detailed reconstruction of this language would be impossible.

Eastonian	Proto-Emnitic	Emnian	Sudric
lācya	...	...	abundance, riches
śālva	...	...	beer, ale
gauma	...	...	altar
maurva	...	...	ant
chārva	...	...	antler
abal	...	...	apple
arkhivān	...	...	archer, bowman
śarma	...	...	arm
aisva	...	...	arrow
aisvan	...	...	arrowhead
uśgān	...	...	ox, aurochs
mālya	...	...	badger
bārya	...	...	barley
bāka	...	...	berry
kvaṣa	...	...	black
nācva	...	...	corpse, body
gānja	...	...	bread
śajāṃ	...	...	leader
bālis	...	...	cat
puthil	...	...	child
lammāṃ	...	...	curse, hex, jinx
śracasa	...	...	demon
dainavāl	...	...	wolf
dvārya	...	...	door, gate
chān	...	...	dog
janhas	...	...	family, clan
ājra	...	...	farm
ājra	...	...	farm
dīvat	...	...	deity, ancestor spirit
pacva	...	...	livestock, wealth
sādila	...	...	saddle
śanima	...	...	spirit, soul, ghost
saśvāra	...	...	sun
evāṅka	...	...	young