Eastonian language

Jump to navigation Jump to search
Eastonian
Āsthaya
Pronunciation[ɑːsˈtʰɐjɐ]
Native toEmnia, Austrasia
EthnicityEastonians
Native speakers
~30 thousand (2020)
Early forms
Equatoric
Language codes
ISO 639-3
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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.

History

Orthography

Phonology

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. homū
fem.

Bound pronouns:

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

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
... ... ... ...
... ... ... ...

Ex nihilio lexical enrichment

Official Status