Big info dump, to sort out:
Introduction to the Aretian language family
(From an in-world Felonian Era Felonian-centric perspective)
According to Old Urngese legend, the ancient peoples of Aretia who survived the end of the world were gathered by the great Vashari Aum onto the slopes of Mount Kyunaret, and were found to be of three broad tribes: the White (Hujar) tribe, the Green (Kiavik) tribe, and the Red (Jakka) tribe. To escape the desolation of the world they agreed to co-operate in building Jakuk-Niaunun (c.f. Ainyn
jøkuć ‘cave-home’
njynan ‘mountain-gate’,
njynunei ‘mountain-town’), an underground palace of remarkable beauty within the mountain, which would house the god Kiau (c.f.
Kyunaret) and keep the people safe from the ravaging demons (
aurunki) outside until the earth could be repopulated. When the danger subsided, each tribe went its separate ways: the Hujar pushed north to hunt in the earth's slow-waxing memory of winter, the Kiavik west to settle the new, virgin forests, and the Jakka south to heal the soil.
White Aretians
The White Aretians / Snow Tribe left first, and travelled north, following the migrating herds and birds, where, with the cooperation of powerful Vashari, they founded Birdland (the legendary White Aretian homeland). Here they encountered the rival Glass Tribe (the ancient Toi·oi), against whom many wars were fought. The two sides eventually came to a confederation and co-founded the Kingdom of Urngas, though later conflict arose again and an army from Birdland led by (anti-)hero Kureselmi conquered Glass Island (Ajinuk), ravaging it in the process and destroying or exiling the Glass Tribe. (Kureselmi famously deceived a Vashari lord into giving him aid to cross the ocean, convincing the Vashari that the Glass Tribe were fashioning weapons designed to take Vashari out of the sky, and that the Vashari must help destroy the tribe’s glass houses to interrupt production of the weapon.)
The principal White Aretian deities were (in Kelsi) Yumta, the goddess of the quick northern summer, in which flowers carpet the earth; her consort Sennifín, the Lord of Mosquitoes; Moi, the summer-dormant elk-god whose giant waking body sheds snow; and his consort Šelm, the goddess of the sky, who lives in the full moon, and whose principal task is guarding the Bridge of Heaven at night. Kiu, the Lord of the Mountain, is said to reside inside Kyunaret (Urngese Kiau).
A White Aretian group migrated more easterly than the others, and established the nation of Iutarnum. Later this area was conquered by a Red Aretian (Nicufenkic) peoples, and became Jodarn.
(At the beginning of the Classical Era, the seafaring Róruans arrived and conquered first Ajinuk and then Urngas (and parts of Baugo), which was seen as the retribution of the Glass Tribe for the actions of Kureselmi; these areas were subject to the Empire of the East for a time, but after several hundred years the Róruan polity disintegrated, leaving relatively little trace; new kings of Urngas and Ajinuk were called from ‘Birdland’ (by then identified with Tumšaǧ, a large Kelsi polity), and both areas retained a distinct cultural identity throughout the Róruan period.)
Green Aretians
The Green Aretians / Leaf Tribe chose to live in the dense upland and mid-high-latitude coniferous- and temperate rain-forests of Aretia, and consequently spread west along the vast band of this terrain in Northern Aretia, hence they acquired the name Arethlanians (lan = west). They were skilled in both hunting and gathering, and garden agriculture. They frequently assimilated isolated tribes whom they encountered (many of whom spoke forms of Old East Orlogian, hence the significant OEO substrate in Arethlanian languages), adopting local agricultural practice and many customs, but usually imposing (with the aid of their relatively sophisticated material culture) their language and overall belief and political systems as they went. Eventually the Arethlanian languages split into many divergent branches, including Central Alpine, Central Silvine, Baugoic (inc. Old Beyvin; Middle Beyvin being formed by heavy influence from Rochûce), Baulanic, Yarrobamic, Felonian, Aeolic and Panaphonic.
Red Aretians
The Red Aretians / Soil Tribe based their migrations on the reclamation of the soils (see the Great Kudzu) and the cultivation of crops on a wide scale; especially wheat in the West (e.g. the Iozhi and Chiacoic areas), and redroot in the East (the Wengal and Nicufenki areas). They also became keen pastoralists (Wengal and Chiacoic - mainly pastoralist; Iozhi and Nicuphenkic - mainly agriculturalists). They encountered fewer survivalist tribes than the Arethlanians, since the lands which they reclaimed had been, in general, abandoned during the Thermal Crisis. Their languages all derived from a common source, Proto-Red-Aretian, which was spoken in the foothills and grasslands south of the Aretian Alps for several centuries before their speakers dispersed, using the Aretian pony as a means of exploration, exchange, colonisation and conquest.
On Dating the Thermal Crisis
Aretian scholarship of the late Felonian era held that the Thermal Crisis occurred roughly around 4200 to 4000 BSE:
Thermal Crisis ~BSE 4200‒4000
VE 5· BSE 4000‒3001
NE 4· BSE 3000‒2001
AE 3· BSE 2000‒1001
RE 2· BSE 1000‒1
SE 1· SE 0‒999
FE (0)· SE 1000‒1999
ME (1)° SE 2000‒
In actuality, carbon dating has suggested that the Thermal Crisis occurred as much as two thousand years earlier, and that the Padin domes collapsed at least a thousand years before the Iozhi chronicles intimate (so we can no longer trust even the earliest Iozhi accounts of the Padin as anything beyond speculative fiction, informed, perhaps, by insightful myth). How to account for the missing millennia is anyone's guess.
Myth-makers may have used older stories of the Crisis to legitimate claims to hegemony; for instance, the Aretian myths regarding refuge in Kyunaret may preserve actual memories of the Crisis, but have recast the characters completely to fit their own world-view. Potentially, the Proto-Aretians were just a successful culture who came to dominate Aretia long after the land had been ‘reclaimed’.
Proto-Aretian
Phonology
Vowels
IPA
i u
æ ɑ
Orthography
i u
a ā
With length distinction
Consonants
(Orthography)
p t k k̆
f s x x̆ (H)
m n ŋ ŋ̆ (N)
l
v r j w
Phonotactics
(N,H)(C)V(V)(C2)(H)
C2 can be -p, -t, -k, -k̆, -m, -n, -ŋ, -ŋ̆, -r
Some cognates
°iæːk- > Hujar °iakka
> OUr. jakka
> Ain. eka
> Kel. yahka
> Jakka °ioki
> Aiv. iyaš
> Ioz. iozhi
> MIo. zhôzhi
> Jod. yogi
> Nik. zhoukʉ
> Kya. kyōhi
> Wen. shök
> Kjavik °eaħ
> Eth. ei
> Bag. eaħ
> Bey ïàf
> Yar. ɛlɣ
> Bli. elagh
°iāk- > Huj. °iāka
> OUr. juka
> Ain. jøć
> Kel. yunka
> Jak. °ioka
> Aiv. iyâk
> Ioz. ioga
> MIo. zhɔ̂va
> Jod. yova
> Nik. zhāfa
> Kya. kyoka
> Wen. shok
> Kjavik °eāħ
> Eth. och
> Bag. eoħ
> Bey œ̈w
> Yar. yewɣ
> Bli. llevŭgh
°āur- > Huj. °aur
> OUr. aur
> Ain. or
> Kel. aor
> Jak. °our
> Ioz. or
> Jod. our
> Wen. ûz
> Kja. °āur
> Eth. ar
> Bag. awr
> Bey árh
Features:
Hujar Kjavik Jakka
Animate/inan ✓ ✓ ✓
Evidentiality ✓
Construct st. ✓
Ergative inan. ✓ ✓
…
Classical languages (from which Proto-Aretian may be reconstructed):
Jakka branch:
Old Aivan (literature)
Old Wengal (scattered inscriptions)
> Wengal
Middle Chiacoic (scattered inscriptions)
> Shawwa
> Kyakoprak
> Yau
Classical Iozhi (literature)
> Iozhi
Classical Kufi (literature)
> Nikufenki
> Jodarn
Kjavik branch:
Late Panaphonic (literature)
> Felonian
Bolanic (literature, much lost)
Old Bliken (scattered inscriptions)
Baugoic (scattered inscriptions)
Old Yarven (small body of literature)
> Yarrobam
An old (outdated) table of languages spoken in Aretia, to be updated:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19l8 ... p=drivesdk
A newer diagram showing the Proto-Aretian languages, to digitise:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eyHdvh ... p=drivesdk