Old Estyan

The Original Magic

Old Estyan served as the gateway between mortals and magic before history was recorded. It served as the first known language of Estya, and is the foundation upon which verbal spellcasting is built. Sorcerers ceased using Old Estyan in spellwork millennia ago, but all modern verbal spells are translations from Old Estyan, and the death of the language has seen a decline in new spells being created and mastered.

Writing System

The Old Estyan alphabet consists of 23 letters, which include the following present-day Orbin letters:
a, b, c, d, c, d, e, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, y, z.
These letters do not have uppercase counterparts, and no part of a sentence is capitalized to show importance, instead, other verbal indicators are used to mark importance.
Though the similar alphabet to modern Orbin, the letters look very different. Letters contain slashes and curls within the design, though a, c, e, k, l, m, n, o, p, t, u, y and z all appear similar to their Orbin counterparts. The alphabet has since evolved to become the modern Orbin Alphabet and serves as the foundation for the vast majority of modern Estyan alphabets.

Geographical Distribution

Believed to oringate with the original settlers of Estya, evidence suggests Old Estyan stretched across the entire world of Estya. However, as political and religious tensions mounted and borders became more clearly drawn, the language continued to evolve into Ancient Silver-Speak and Orbin. However, the spread of the Folatia Empire saw the Arborlich choosing to break with the common language at the time, Orbin. Their carefully coded language now manifests as modern Silvamish, and is the most distinct of the languages that currently exist across Estya.
In the modern day, however, Old Estyan has completely died, with even the eldest immortals ceasing to use it anymore.

Phonology

Consult the table below for the common sound each letter of the Old Estyan alphabet makes (written to show sounds in English, instead of IPA)

Tenses

Old Estyan opperates almost entirely in the present tense, with a few markers to indicate past or future intentions. A dot is added above or next to the first letter of the verb when it is intended to be in the future, and below the letter if it happened in the past.
However, in spoken language, this dot is represented by a quick, short click of the tongue on the roof of the speaker's mouth. If the click comes before the verb, it is intended to be past tense, while a click after the verb marks a future intent.
Examples:
e ḷuv apl py = "I loved apple pie"
e ŀuv apl py = "I will love apple pie."
e luv apl py = "I love apple pie."

Sentence Structure

Sentences are written without any spaces in the native alphabet. (When converting to Orbin, however, spaces are often added for clarity.) Instead, letters within the same word are connected somehow-- there is no record of if there was a specific way the letters should be connected or if any method was fine-- and words are differentiated by the lack of connection between letters.