Messarian language
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| Messarian | |
|---|---|
| Amsarturi | |
| ამსარტური | |
| Pronunciation | [ɑmsɑːrturi] |
| Native to | Messaria |
| Region | Greater Dienstad |
Mengriian
| |
Early forms | Ancient Messarian
|
| Messarian script | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Messaria |
| Regulated by | Messarian Linguistic Institute of Kharist |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | mes |
| ISO 639-2 | mss |
| ISO 639-3 | me |
Messarian is a language within the Ingro-Zyguric branch of the Mengriian language family. It is recognized as the official language of Messaria, where it is spoken as a first language by the majority of the nation's inhabitants and as a second by some regional subgroups. Messarian is the literary language for all Messarians, including other Messarian subgroups.
Classification
Messarian is the most-spoken member of the Mengriian language family. Unlike other members of the Ingro-Zyguric branch, Messarian has no Instrumental case despite being directly descended from Ingrian
Dialects
History
Proto-Mengriian, also known as Common Mengriian, was spoken by the Mengriian tribes which inhabited the Messarian peninsula from prehistory to early antiquity. By early antiquity, Proto-Mengriian had taken the form of what is now known as Ancient Messarian. However, most speakers of Ancient Messarian were concentrated in the eastern half of the peninsula by the 5th century BC as a result of the steady Greek colonization which had been occurring since the 7th century BC. The western half of the peninsula was speaking Soteric Messarian by the 6th century BC, a form of Messarian which combined certain aspects of the imported Greek language with the native tongue. This resulted in a number of changes, such as the removal of a pitch accent and its replacement with a stress accent in accordance with the adding of Greek phonetics.
Soteric Messarian was spoken from the 6th century BC up to the 4th century AD when the First Messarian Kingdom broke up into smaller states. Ingrian, the language of the Kingdom of Ingria and the prevalent Ingro-Zyguric language at the time, is generally accepted as the ancestor of modern Messarian due to its gradual distribution to other parts of the peninsula and subversion of other Mengriian languages in accordance with Ingrian territorial gains from 1212 to 1572 AD.
By 1602, the entirety of the peninsula had united into a single political entity, the Fourth Messarian Kingdom. The diffusion of various Messarian subcultures within the newly created kingdom contributed greatly to the emergence of modern Messarian, combining various aspects of the already similar Mengriian languages with Ingrian to create a single uniform language.
Phonology
Orthography
Modern Messarian utilizes the Messarian script, which has been in use since the 4th century AD. Saint Menas the Skete asserts that Mizri the Great created the Messarian script in the 3rd century following the Christianization of Mengriia, but no evidence to support his claim has been found. While the Soteric script is similar in appearance, it lacks characters for pulmonic and ejective affricates found in modern Messarian as a result of extensive Hellenization. It also utilized a bicameral alphabet, whereas the Messarian script is unicase.