Proto-Gjevasudit

Public linguanthropological record
Property of the Royal Atheneum of Hövnís, Eörpe

Proto-Gjevasudit is a postulated intermediate between the language(s) spoken by the ancient Humans crashlanding in and/or around Gaaijvla Kilmpakki millions of years ago, and the Gjevasudit family containing the various languages and dialects spoken by modern Bieggjan.

Etymology & Definition

There is no definite theoretic evidence on the exact lingual properties of Proto-Gjevasudit, and most of the current information is based on majority-agreed-upon assumptions in the scientific community. The data available is a result of comparative studies between prior findings of ancient Human languages and recursive studies of the language families ordered below this clade.
Proto-Gjevasudit would likely be more accurately labeled as a ‘chrono-language’ as the research into it focuses on the span of millions of years of change that likely happened concurrently with the morphological evolution from ancient Humans to modern Bieggjan.
It’s also not known whether Proto-Gjevasudit is correctly referred to as single language, or if has its roots in several Human languages that eventually osmosed into the unusually homogeneous Gjevasudit family.

History

Proto-Gjevasudit arose as a concept shortly after a) it became clear that Gjevasudit previously may erroneously been categorized as a single homogenous language with regiolects and b) the genetic relationship between the native sapients of Biegjun, Lusoya, and Baloken were established.
There’s some contention whether Rotsahvre, Ojeinmasy, and Polosh should be categorized language families below Proto-Gjevasudit or as subfamilies of Gjevasudit. It’s still unknown exactly when (and how) the ancestors of the Lusoyan and Baluke were transposed from Biegjun to their respective new homeworlds. It’s also impossible to point with certainty when their respective language families branched off from those found on Biegjun.
Currently, the prevalent convention is to place them directly below Proto-Gjevasudit.

Linguistical Data

Classification

Linguhistorical Clade
Proto-Language

Morphology

Synthetic
Fusional or Agglutinative

Morphosyntax

Object-Subject-Verb
Time-Manner-Place

Phonology

Medium Consonant Inventory
Large Vowel Inventory
Pitch Accented

Early Form(s)

Human language(s)

Families

Gjevasudit
Rotsahvse
Ojeinmasy
Polosh

Writing System(s)

Goosujati

Signed Form

None

Anthropological Data

Status

Extinct

Native Speakers

Pre-Bieggjan

Speakers

None

Distribution

Biegjun

Official Language In

N/A

Regulated By

N/A

Biolingual Characteristics

The development of the early Proto-Gjevasudit languages is a stark reflection of the physiological adaptations that the Bieggjan species underwent in order to survive on a world that discourages heavy reliance on sight. During the brightest seasons daylight illuminance can easily pass 250,000 lumen – almost three times the illuminance measured from direct sunlight on most habitable worlds orbiting a G- or K-class star. Similar to native species already present before their arrival, the Bieggjan eventually evolved to depend primarily on hearing and touch instead.
This led to gradual changes in their methods of communication. Despite developing specialized nictitating membranes to filter away a portion of the bright sunlight they’re still likely subjected to a severe lack of contrast, impairing their ability to distinguish details in facial expressions and body language. To compensate for this, non-verbal communication in time became replaced with more precise language and paralanguage.

Akineticism

Something that’s considered defining for most of the Proto-Gjevasudit languages are their significant lack of kinesics. All aspects of communication, including those often associated with facial expressions or body language, can be expressed vocally instead. The Baluke make limited use of body language specifically, but it appears quite limited still compared to what the ancient Humans were thought to utilize.
This quality make the languages possible to use to their full extent even when sense of sight is lacking or absent, but also means any conditions affecting one’s oral or aural capacity can be extremely debilitating.

by Nimin N.

Sense of Hearing

Bieggjan’s hearing range is estimated to be nearly as broad and acute as the Yirroc’s, in terms of ability to distinguish between minute sound shifts. They have an estimated potential for discerning over double the amount of phones compared to other human-descendants, such as the Eörpan and Lima.

Bieggjan are estimated to hear sound between the ranges of 10-64.000Hz. Lusoyan have seen a slight shift downward on the scale, with a range of 2-55.000Hz while the Baluke range is narrower at around 45-35.000Hz.

— Notation by Dr. Tybulus Svilen

A divergence in the development of the languages of their direct descendants, the Lusoyan and Baluke, can be correlated to their respective biological changes as a result of adapting to new habitats.
The Lusoyan remained heavily reliant on aural-exclusive communication, and retained closely the same hearing range, which is reflected in their languages large phoneme inventories and absence of kinesics. In contrast, the more sight-friendly homeworld of Baloken seem to have made the Baluke slowly recurse back toward a balance between aural and visual reliance. Their languages on average have smaller phoneme inventories and there's also signs of simpler kinesics, especially body language, having some significance.

Speech Apparatus

The Bieggjan and their subspecies all feature some of the most developed and advanced speech apparatuses of all sapients. Of these, the Lusoyan's features are the best documented but it's assumed that Bieggjan and Baluke have very similar configurations.
Lusoyan have thinner and slightly longer tongues with a shorter root and additional supporting musculature. This allows for more possible places of articulation, and also gives them the ability to position the front and back of the tongue in two different places simultaneously.
They also feature important changes to their larynx. The muscles responsible for controlling the movement of the thyroid and cricoid cartilage, and those found in the vocal cords themselves, have finer control. And the vestibular folds have developed into an extra pair of vocal cords with similar musculature and epithelium. This additional pair of vocal cords give them better control over the resonance of their voice and also enables diplophonia.

Language Families

Simplified Cladogram

by Nimin N.

Gjevasudit

The only family of languages that could be directly linked with Proto-Gjevasudit and its preceding extinct Human languages. Gjevasudit is currently categorized as a group of 12 extant languages, and another speculated 14 extinct languages.
Each of the extant languages contain anything from two to fourteen dialects, and there appear to be at least some level of mutual intelligibly between all of them.

Goosujati

As far as is known, the Bieggjan have relied entirely on oral tradition until quite recently. The only found instance of any form of writing system before that is the universally used signage system Goosujati. Its inventory of glyphs, their shapes, and their meanings appear to be identical for all tribes, and it's changed very little across the ages.

Ojeinmasy & Polosh

Baloken is thought to have been populated by sapients circa 1.2 to 1.3 million years ago. So far, archeological remains point two distinct population groups existing independently during this period, from which the Baluke species trace their origins.
The Ojeinen appeared in the northern, boreal regions of the planet’s largest continent, Utoompa, and started as tribal nomads similarly to their Bieggjan ancestors. The Polochci originate from somewhere in the massive oceanic archipelago of Krop Hutvu and are thought to have early on founded a settled civilization focused on agriculture and fishing.
The two population groups developed in relative isolation and gave rise to several civilizations each, until the arrival of the Ascendancy.

Descendants of the Ojeinen and Polochci meet the criteria to be identified as separate subspecies of the Bieggjan but chose to be collectively identified as ‘Baluke’ both as a species and as a people.

— Notation by Dr. Tybulus Svilen

The languages that developed on Utoompa are categorized as descendants of Ojeinmasy, also called the East Baloken Family, which further divide into the north-east continental Uuhejmaasso and south-west continental Aamshmoomn. The two subfamilies are estimated to contain 125-150 distinct extant languages each.

The languages that developed on Krop Hutvu are categorized as descendants of Polosh, also called the West Baloken Family, which further divide into the Mukkrhm, Kruup, and Prkumma subfamilies. Mukkrhm and its descendants are all thought to be extinct today, but the other two are estimated to contain 65-80 distinct extant languages each.

Rotsahve

Lusoya are thought to have been populated by sapients around the same time period as Baloken, circa 1.2 and 1.3 million years ago, with the earliest traces of civilization being found in the Roturuh basin. The original population are thought to have spoken a language, with or without dialectal differences, called Rotsahve. It developed into numerous languages with both dialectal and accentual variation as the Lusoyan began to spread into new caverns and formed isolated to semi-isolated societies.
The languages descended from it are typically grouped into four major subfamilies, based on a combination of historically traced evolution and regional similarity: Konbi, Cazeceh, Pmhata, and Turyic. When globalization increased in later eras, the Turyic-descendent Apvaturji and Konbi-descendent Ehrebvha became prevalent to use as second languages and were eventually classified as lingua franca.
All of the languages of these four families were systematically made extinct after the Ascendancy introduced Voehn as not only its state language but its only accepted language.

Chitba

Classified as a quasi-sign language, Chitba is thought to be an intercultural adaptation by the non-lusoyan Cheitosnu to safely communicate without breaking any of the Ascendancy's extremely strict legislations surrounding language use. Use of Chitba has seen a steady decline since these laws, specifically 'misuse of state language' and 'illegal use of non-sanctioned languages', were abolished less than 100 years ago.

Aolkili

The Ascendancy's choice to legislate a taboo against the learning and usage of any language but Voehn became an increasing liability in the modern era, severely hampering diplomatic work, trade and other instances where communication with foreign bodies were required. The compromise that was eventually decided on was to create the Voehn-derived, dedicated trade language Aolkili.

While it was conceptually sound, with a range of phonemes ensured to be producible by the majority of Rosepetal's sapients and significantly simplified syntax, it's yet to gain a lot of traction and has been met with a lot of criticism - even from their own people.

The largest criticism against Aolkili is the fact it forces both Ascendancy citizens and foreigners to learn an entirely new language. Rather than take advantage of the lusoyan's exceptional memorization ability and make an exception for certain professions to learn already established lingua francas.

— Notation by Dr. Tybulus Svilen

Jinatsu

The Rejinat created Jinatsu as a part of establishing their own society and cultural identity, likely shortly following the Silent Revolt on Rejin – An event where most of the Rejinat population unexpectedly and nearly unisonely abandoned their place as a labor force by vanishing into the ocean depths. They surfaced several decades later, during the rebellion instigated by the Three Tails, with demands of independency as a species and people, and a claim for gaining governance over Rejin as their homeworld.

While Jinatsu and its dialects still aren’t officially recognized by the Ascendancy, it’s in all regards a fully-fledged, isolate language derived from Voehn. Jinatsu is considered the native language of the Rejinat and is taught alongside Aolkili at their educational institutions.

Cheitosnu Creoles

During the Ascendancy’s expansionist era, the populace of conquered alien civilizations became integrated into the Ascendancy as Cheitosnu. Most were involuntarily uprooted from their original homes and designated to ghettos located at the outskirt of major lusoyan settlements. Each ghetto, barring the occasional forced displacement in order to manage over/underpopulation, became largely isolated from each other.
Over time, creolization gave rise to numerous ethnicities within these ghettos, most of mixed species and culture, though exceptions like the Katari exist. Many of the ethnicities also developed their own creole languages, typically initially as pidgins that later became hybrids between Voehn and one or more of the following languages: Cufosni, Hifna, Luy-Qianakun, Mauwulen, Snösmy, Ueldish, and Waomsuqes.
The creoles Eimkjan, Iwarji, Huuju and Äeline are the most well-known, as they’ve remained largely unchanged and even spread to become major languages after their speakers were returned to and given back governance of their ancestral homeworlds.