Classical Jazeric
The Classical Jazeric language (jarʻīr şent) was a language spoken by the Jazeri people it is derived from Old Jazeric which in turn is derived from Proto-Jazero-Choigic; meaning it is related to the languages spoken by the Choigi people. It was the first Jazero-Choigic language to be standardized and a writing system was developed for it.
There are two periods of Classical Jazeric: "Old Jazeric" and "Middle Jazeric", these represent two different historical forms of the language. Old Jazeric has mostly been lost to time, its only remnants being ancient inscriptions. Nowadays when people say "Classical Jazeric" they usually mean to Middle Jazeric. All the linguistic information on this article refers to the Middle Jazeric period.
Classical Jazeric (Middle Jazeric) was the lingua franca of the Jazer Mountains from around 1000B to 100B. However not all Jazeri were fond of it. The monks spoke (and still speak) their own dialect known simply as "Temple Jazeric" which is derived from Classical Jazeric; this dialect has its own unique characteristics and has adopted the Classical writing system. Many philosophical works have been written in this dialect like "Jilmʌʌr". Classical Jazeric fell out of use around 100B and Temple Jazeric was made the de facto lingua franca for Jazeri people while the Choigi people speak their own tongues.
Phonology
-/ɹ/ becomes [ɫ] adjacent to velar sounds
-/ʁ/ becomes [ɢ] at word initial and final positions
-/a/ is pronounced [æ] [ä] [ɐ] or [ɒ] depending on the preceding consonant
Certain vowels are reduced when unstressed and historically short:
- /i/, /ɯ/ > /ɨ/
- /u/ > /ʉ~ɨ/
- /e/, /o/ > /ə/
- Soft vowels = /i/, /ɯ/, /e/, /ʌ/
- Hard vowel = /u/, /o/, /ø/
- Neutral vowels = /ɨ/, /a/
Phonetics
An interesting quirk of Jazeri physiology is the inability to produce bilabial consonants. All consonants that would normally be bilabial are actually labiodental.
Successor Languages
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