Liotic

The Liotic languages, strictly speaking, include not only Liotan and its descendants, but also the related descendants of Sunovian - most notably Devrian, Kishtine, Vendreska, and Avritha - which were ultimately displaced by Liotan as its empire expanded. However, by comparison with the amount of material available in Liotan, few traces of these languages survive, and their study must accordingly be left to specalists; Liotic is here accordingly taken to mean "Liotan and its descendants". Liotan itself was, of course, the principal language of the Liotan Empire; it ceased to be anything resembling a homogenous entity when the empire fell, and four distinct dialect groupings of Liotic were eventually recognised.

Each of the contemporary Liotic languages has a page to itself, although the level of detail is rather less than that provided for Liotan. In particular, where a certain grammatical or syntactic feature survives unchanged, it is often presented without further explanation to avoid having to say "as in Liotan" or "was the same as in Liotan" over and over again. For example, all of the languages required both a subject and an object with many verbs which would be intransitive in English, with the precise configuration of subject and object adding nuance (e.g. neitear buir or neiteach samh for "I fall"); however, there is little point spelling this out in full each time.

The map below shows the parts of Dekavur in which Liotic languages are spoken circa 1312.

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North Liotic

The sparsely-populated plains of northern Dekavur were originally home to a variety of nomadic peoples, many of whom spoke non-Liotic languages. During the upheaval following the fall of the Empire, most of these peoples fled northwards, were eliminated by the invaders, or were assimilated into other populations. Those who remained all spoke languages which were recognisably descended from Liotan, and the group is accordingly named North Liotic. Most of these languages disappeared as their speakers dwindled or were assimilated into other linguistic groups; the only contemporary survivor is Machren, spoken in the northern province of Dima.

West Liotic

The West Liotic languages developed from the dialects spoken by the Liotans who migrated west out of Dekavur in the early 600's. They form a continuum of dialects from Kadhrein in the west to Ivrien in the east, with many intermediate stages in between; a close modern-day terrestrial analogy is the West Germanic continuum which stretches from Flemish and Dutch through the varieties of German to Schweizerdeutsch. For example, the word for "dog" is normally kathe in Ivrien and kas in Kadhrein, but also appears as both kath and kase; its plural similarly appears in all forms from the usual Ivrien kathen through /kaTe/, /kase/, /kaT@/ and /kas@/ to the Kadhrein kas.

South Liotic

The contemporary South Liotic languages are much the most vigorous of the Liotic languages spoken in Dekavur, and are dominant in parts of the south-west; they form another continuum, this time with three recognisable extremes. The most prestigious is Genistien, spoken in and around the urban centres of Tur Kurpen and Tullerin; there are also Chastuvien, the distinctive languages spoken in the peninsulas to the south of Tur Kurpen and the coastal regions to the east, and Astarien, a much lower-prestige language of the countryside. There as much overlap between these extremes; northern Chastuvien and southern Gensitien are mutually intelligible, Genistien and Astarien blend together in the upper Lica valley east of Tullerin, and some dialects in Chila resemble both Chastuven and Astarien.

South Liotic is the branch most influenced by Dekavurian, particularly Genistien and Astarien.

East Liotic

Like North Liotic, this branch of Liotic is the preserve of a minority group within Dekavur, in this case the inhabitants of the forests in the provinces of Kabra and Devri. Lemython is the only surviving language of this somewhat isolated group; the rest of East Liotic was gradually superseded by Dekavurian.

Samples

As a taster, here is a translation into each Liotic language of the popular Liotan aphorism "when you visit a friend, it is better to speak to him in his own language, rather than to make him learn yours".

Liotan: eich bíom-shdaineangalta fasg alamh feóm-shaphalta rreal llal-sheapha as feóm-theódhalta al-ghiliúlta mo-chamh.

Machren: eich bi zstaengam fasca alama feu zsafam ral lal-shafa as feu dtjouzam al-ghilulta mocha.

Kadhrein: e bukh re tangot fak aluv foukh re hofot rel laukh al shoef a foukh re hoerot o al uilyut rek.

Ivrien: e bim htangalta faka alum fom haufalta rel lal heufa a fom shouzalta al zhilyulta mokha.

Genistien: bi mòno stanalta huaska mon saufalta la lan shafa as mon ilultinénelta monka lára alundon.

Chastuvien: do bino stanalta nom alama fono safalta nom rál shafa as fono tsuózalta nom jilulta monka rál.

Astarien: stanaltábim faska ára caválan savaltam as ára kaumam jilyldeineltem aluvdon.

Lemython: bí thanalto mo fask é alom fú safalto mo la sháf as fú tôsalto mo gílult kòmo mo râ al.

To find out how all these languages are actually written, see here.