Ancient Laevanaak

Ancient Laevanaak 
Language family	Laevanaak language family
Early form(s)	Livanar
Era	500BCE ⁓ 100CE
Writing system	Old Laenavaak
Official status
Spoken in	Ancient Atlantis
Speaker
Demonym	Atlantic
Technical information

Ancient Laevanaak is an ancestor to Laevanaak Languages spoken around two thousand years ago. Some of the most influential and oldest pieces of literature of the atlantic region are written in it.

Phonology and Orthography

Not much is known about the phonology of Ancient Laevanaak. The most prominent suggestions for its pronunciation are the letter Qakigo, which due to having a wide range of variants is likely to have been pronounced fundamentally different from the modern /g/ or /k/ reading, the double o diphthong, which does not exist in Modern Laevanaak and more evidence of a distinct /u/ phoneme. Some aspects can be assumed to have existed in Ancient Laevanaak due to multiple different descendants still retaining the same features like a /ɬ/ phoneme, a long /a/ or the three separate nasals. Even though the existence of the 〈Vh〉 digraph can be seen in a lot of words, since it is not attested the same way in descendants like Navnaak, it is not clear how it was pronounced. Other digraphs can be found in Ancient Laevanaak texts like 〈ks〉 and 〈qs〉, which are assumed to represent fricatives, and also 〈gk〉, which can be seen as the ligature Ŋeso in modern languages and is assumed to have represented the /ŋ/ phoneme. Rarely the 〈C〉 letter is used where usually the Ahmo is used indicating a separate phoneme that got merged in some varieties of Ancient Laevanaak.

Grammar

Syntax

Like its descendants Ancient Laevanaak generally had an SOV word order. It extensively used participle constructions in a lot of different situations, which in some situations used other word orders than SOV. Other clauses like relative clauses, conjunctions or infinitive constructions are less common compared to this. The positional locative is an aspect of Modern Laevanaak that hasn't been attested, although some linguists argue that it already existed back then.

Nouns

Ancient Laevanaak shows structures of an ergative-absolutive alignment, although it has three different cases used for subject/object cases. Usually they are called ergative, absolutive and objective by linguists. The ergative case seems to match the Laevanaak nominative case while the objective case matches the modern objective case. Meanwhile Navnaak retains all three cases. Late usages of a genitive case are rarely found and mostly attributed to a very early Middle Laevanaak.

Verbs

Verbs in Ancient Laevanaak mostly conjugate and work the same way as in descendants. Although there have been attested fusional imperative forms that mostly differ by variation of the language. There are generally more possible participle forms. In contrast to Modern Laevanaak the passive uses a particle and the interrogative uses a prefix.

Example Texts

Burning Waters

An example of written Ancient Laevanaak

Burning waters is a religious text written in 739 BCE alongside many other myths of its time in the most influential myth book of ancient atlantis. Due to it being written this early, it is distinct from ancient laevanaak and would sound rather archaic to a speaker. This text has countless translations into most of the different Laevanaaic languages, which is why it is often used to compare the different sister languages and dialects.

Laenavaak

Transliteration

                            

ihqvumaq nalak ovun vuoom gonean ven he navlen ime iqovim silek ihaqan he koelinan, nalan he gkevean meqinvim vek evgan oom mnelnaqoom qvosvim navlen ivumoiq en vinalan sihvumas nelna meni volalnan koaqan elanan nelna hoqev nalvam imbuavoom veivumen nelna meni gohiv nalan nimin navlek ksoomovil naavim oomihvumegk vegk ha aqiqvumegk bam gohoov gohiv holin oom honviqan heklasvam emvumaks qivanan ha silan nuin giblan vuloakivam hegkivumam navlen abam gohiv nalan nani silan soqvam laqivumam silegk nimin nani koelinahn muav qivaman silek nesvim haalnek higonan ihqvumaks ihgivim ihqvumaqinili qseqsavumaks nani viqin he meni nalan qvivmen has ugkvumen vinanvumam koelinan koaqak meni ven hihlen iahqvam ha lelan niovam eooqan ga hinlan giblan mivegvam kagkimvumaks meni giblan inan nibvumaks guvlan laioagk gan mahvu ha mak qivanan ailiqsvam qsigkbvumam koelinan he gan he ven ga qivanan gohoo amlen eva lelen vinuavoom oosevim en qivaman gan hegkivumaks meni meni man iqovugken kiveqsen he gulnen, evqsoom he vinalen gko uvenlavunak has laqivam ga ogkib bahivunagk lumb imbevilan abam gohiv eivin vegk emvumam ha silegk nimin laqivuman ihquvumaks silen ihqvumegk, nalumegk he ibnevaliegk silen havlegvumem, nuevumem ha hegkivumem ovun qsivamin qivamak muvahn imbevilan koelinan qsivavumaks. gulnan selgvam qunquioom ihqvumaqoomili hoivim ga abam laioak men oomihvam gohi laioak gan egkivam qabivumaks man hivavig hesig gohi eiviq shebvam qsebvumam aig qoogkilsinig hinalm gohi hilalnak vegk evqiv qoosvam veiqvuman qivagkegk oom hegkivumaqin ga qivanan nalak he laioak nihqn qinvim ha ginvim ne gali volalnak ivisan onvam ha goniq nihuaq