PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT FROM COMMON SLAVIC

As other North Slavic languages in the world of Ill Bethisad, also Vozgian has its common ground in Early Common Slavonic (ECSL), because it had separated from it sometimes during 3rd – 5th century A.C. Opposite to Nasika, Vozgian was far more influences by new trends in Common Slavonic, thus the Early Ancient Vozgian resembles respectively more the Classic Common Slavonic than Nasika.

This page describes the entire process of Vozgian's development from Common Slavic. It is precisely what has become known in conlang circles as a "Grand Master Plan". It is supported by another page, the GMP Machine. If you want to know what a Common Slavic word would look like in Vozgian, it applies all the sound changes described here and generates the outcome automatically.

STAGE 1
From Early Common Slavic to Ancient Vozgian:
VowelsNasal vowelsVowel/liquid combinationsConsonants

STAGE 2
From Ancient Vozgian to Modern Vozgian:
VowelsVowel/liquid combinationsConsonantsOther combinations

STAGE 1

Remain basically the way they are, with the following exceptions. The common ground is the situation in ECSL, the next step is the situation in early ancient Vozgian, if not noticed else.

Metathesis of liquids, present in all West, South and East Slavic languages, does not occur in Vozgian (or, for that matter, in any other North Slavic language). Therefore, the Common Slavic combinations of vowel + liquid remain basically intact, the vowel being mostly affected by own changes.

As for the consonants, it should be noted that unvoiced consonants become voiced before the stressed syllable of a word, when this syllable is non-initial and contains the vowel a, o, ǫ, u, ъ or y. Under the same condition, voiced consonants become fricativised: p > b, s > z, b > v [β], d > ð, etc. This change occurs to intervocal consonants and consonants followed by a liquid or a nasal. All other consonant clusters keep their initial value. Example: CSL četyre > AV čedəjr "four"

Word-initial j disappears, for example: jezero > ezeru "lake".

Another characteristic of Vozgian is the appearance of new diphthongs. When preceded by a vowel and followed by a consonant, v turns into a glide (aŭ, oŭ, etc.). Common Slavic y becomes əj.

Vowels

ECSLCCSLConditionAncient Vozgian
á a   a
å o Normally o
Final u
é
ái, åi
ě Normally ä
Final e
e e   e
í
éi, ei
i Normally ji
Final je
i ь Normally
Final
u ъ Normally ŭ
Final Ø
ú y   əj
áu, au, óu, ó u   u
éu, eu ju   ju

Nasal vowels

ECSLCCSLConditionAncient Vozgian
em, en
im, in
ę Before a bilabial consonant em
Before any other consonant en
Final e
åm, ån
um, un
ǫ Before a bilabial consonant om
Before any other consonant on
Final o

Vowel + liquid combinations

ECSLCCSLConditionAncient Vozgian
árC, álC arC, alC   arC, alC
årC, ålC orC, olC   orC, olC
érC, élC erC, elC   erC, elC
erC, elC
írC, ílC irC, ilC   jirC, jilC
irC, ilC ьrC, ьlC
rьC, lьC
  jərC, jəlC
úrC, úlC urC, ulC   urC, ulC
urC, ulC ъrC, ъlC
rъC, lъC
  ŭrC, ŭlC

Consonants

ECSLCCSLConditionAncient Vozgian
b b Normally b
Before a stressed syllable β
p p Normally p
Before a stressed syllable b
v v Before o, ъ, y, ǫ ŭ
Before a, e, ě, ę, i, ь v
After a vowel, before a consonant ŭ
d d Normally d
Before a stressed syllable ð
t t Normally t
Before a stressed syllable d
z z   z
s s Normally s
Before a stressed syllable z
ch [x] Normally ch [x]
ch Before a stressed syllable h [ɣ]
g g Normally g
Before a stressed syllable h [ɣ]
 
k k Normally k
Before a stressed syllable g
č   č
ž, zj ž   ž
š, sj š Normally š
After a stressed syllable ž
m m   m
n n   n
r r   r
l l   l
j j Normally j
Initial Ø
kv-, gv- kv-, gv- Before o, ъ, y, ǫ kŭ-, gŭ-
Before a, e, ě, ę, i, ь kv-, gv-
-tl-, -dl- -tl-, -dl-   -l-


STAGE 2

The second stage is the development of Modern Vozgian from Ancient Vozgian. The table below gives the sound changes for all five major Vozgian dialects:

  1. Podozerian, spoken in the Northwest of the republic;
  2. Meshanian, also known as Vologodian, the highly russified dialect spoken in and around the republic's capital, Vuolokta;
  3. Tothmian, also known as Central Vozgian, the dialect on which the standard language is based;
  4. Motyak, spoken in the Northeast of the republic;
  5. Slovodian, spoken in the Southeast.

An important phenomenon distinguishing Modern Vozgian from Ancient Vozgian is vowel harmonisation: when the stressed syllable of a word is i, the preceding syllable is umlauted: a > ä, o > ö, etc. On the other hand, when the stressed syllable of the word is u or y, the opposite happens to the preceding syllable: e > ä, i > y. Vowel harmony is present in all Vozgian dialects except Slovodian.

Another characteristic feature of Vozgian is the fricativision of plosives before j: tj > tþ > þ [θ], dj > dð > ð [ð], bj > bβ > v [β], etc. For xample: svetja > sveþa "candle".

After the stressed syllable of a word, voiced consonants and consonant clusters tend to devoice. This happens mostly in the case of longer words.

Vowels

Ancient VozgianConditionModern Vozgian
Po.Ms.To.Mo.Sl.
a Normally a [a] a [ɑ] a [a] a [a] a [ɑ]
Before stressed i ä [æ] ä [æ] ä [æ] ä [æ] a [ɑ]
o Normally o [o] o [o] o [ɔ] o [ɔ] o [ɔ]
Before stressed i ö [ø] ö [œ] ö [ɵ] ö [ɘ] o [ɔ]
ä Stressed ä [æ] ä [æ] ä [æ] ä [æ] a [ɑ]
Unstressed ä [æ] e [e] e [ɛ] e [ɛ] a [ɑ]
e Normally e [e] e [e] e [ɛ] e [ɛ] e [ɛ]
Before stressed i i i i ej [e] e [ɛ]
Before stressed u/y e [e] ä [æ] ä [æ] ä [æ] a [ɑ]
i Normally i i i i i
Before stressed u/y i y [ɨ] y [ɪ] ej [e] e [ɛ]
ə Normally e [e] e [e] e [ɛ] e [ɛ] a [ɑ]
Before stressed i i i i i e [ɛ]
ŭ Stressed u u u u u
Before a stressed syllable e [e] u u e [ɛ] u
After a stressed syllable e [e], Ø o [o], Ø y [ɪ], Ø y [ɪ], Ø u, Ø
əj (y) Normally i y [ɨ] ai öj [ɘj] uj
Before r i y [ɨ] y [ɪ] ej [e] ai
Before l e [e] y [ɨ] ä [æ] ej [e] ai
Before stressed i i i i i uj
u Normally u u u u u
Before stressed i ü [y] ü [y] ü [y] ü [ʉ] u

Vowel + liquid combinations

Ancient VozgianConditionModern Vozgian
Po.Ms.To.Mo.Sl.
arC
alC
Normally arC, alC arC, alC arC, alC arC, alC arC, alC
Before stressed i ärC, älC ärC, älC ärC, älC ärC, älC arC, alC
orC
olC
Normally orC, olC oroC, oloC orC, olC orC, olC oruC, oluC
Before stressed i örC, ölC öröC, ölöC örC, ölC örC, ölC oruC, oluC
erC
elC
Normally erC, elC ereC, eleC erC, elC erC, elC ereC, eleC
Before stressed i irC, ilC iriC, iliC irC, ilC irC, ilC ereC, eleC
Before stressed u/y erC, elC äräC, äläC ärC, älC ärC, älC araC, alaC
jirC
jilC
Normally irC, ilC irC, ilC irC, ilC irC, ilC irC, ilC
Before stressed u/y irC, ilC yrC, ylC yrC, ylC ejrC, ejlC erC, elC
jərC
jəlC
Normally erC, elC erC, elC örC, ölC örC, ölC urC, ulC
Before stressed i irC, ilC irC, ilC örC, ölC örC, ölC urC, ulC
urC
ulC
Normally urC, ulC urC, ulC urC, ulC urC, ulC urC, ulC
Before stressed i ürC, ülC ürC, ülC ürC, ülC ürC, ülC urC, ulC
ŭrC
ŭlC
Normally urC, ulC urC, ulC urC, ulC urC, ulC urC, ulC
Before stressed i ürC, ülC ürC, ülC ürC, ülC ürC, ülC urC, ulC

Consonants

Ancient VozgianConditionModern Vozgian
Po.Ms.To.Mo.Sl.
p   p p p p p
pj Normally p f [ɸ] f [ɸ] f [ɸ]
Initial p p f [ɸ] p
b Normally b b b b b
After a stressed syllable p b p p p
bj Normally b v [β] v [β] v [β]
Initial b b v [β] b
After a stressed syllable p f [ɸ] f [ɸ] f [ɸ]
v, β Normally v [v] v [v] v [β] v [β] v [β]
After a stressed syllable f [f] v [v] f [ɸ] f [ɸ] f [ɸ]
vj Normally v [v] v [β] j v [β]
Initial v [v] v [β] j v [β]
After a stressed syllable f [f] f [ɸ] j f [ɸ]
ŭ Normally ŭ [w] v [v] ŭ [w] ŭ [w] ŭ [w]
Word- or syllable-initial vŭ [vw] v [v] vŭ [βw] ŭ [w] ŭ [w]
Before u v [v] v [v] h [ɣ] h [ɣ] ŭ [w]
t   t t t t t
tj   t þ [θ] þ [θ] c [ts]
d Normally d d d d d
After a stressed syllable t d t t t
dj Normally d ð ð z
After a stressed syllable t þ [θ] þ [θ] c [ts]
ð   h [h] ð ð ð z
k   k k k k k
g Normally g g g g g
After a stressed syllable k g k k k
ch   ch [x] ch [x] ch [x] ch [x] ch [x]
h   h [h] v [v] h [ɣ] h [ɣ] h [ɣ]
č   c [ts] č [tʃ] č [tʃ] č [tʃ] č [tʃ]
Normally dz dž [dʒ] dž [dʒ] dž [dʒ] dž [dʒ]
After a stressed syllable c [ts] dž [dʒ] č [tʃ] č [tʃ] č [tʃ]
s   s s s s s
sj, š   s š [ʃ] š [ʃ] š [ʃ] š [ʃ]
z Normally z z z z z
After a stressed syllable s z s s s
zj, ž Normally z ž [ʒ] ž [ʒ] ž [ʒ] ž [ʒ]
After a stressed syllable s ž [ʒ] š [ʃ] š [ʃ] š [ʃ]
m   m m m m m
mj Normally m mj mj mj
Initial m m mj m
n   n n n n n
nj Normally n nj nj nj
Initial n n nj n
r   r r r r r
rj Normally r rj rj rj
Initial r r rj r
l   l l l l l
lj Normally l lj lj lj
Initial l l lj l

Other combinations

Ancient VozgianConditionModern Vozgian
Po.Ms.To.Mo.Sl.
sk Before u, ai, y sk šk šch [ʃx] šj [ʃj] š [ʃ]
šč   st šč šch [ʃx] šj [ʃj] š [ʃ]
stj   st šč þ [θ] þ [θ] c [ts]
ktj   kt ktʲ chþ [xθ] chþ [xθ] chc [kts]
After a vowel je je je je ja
After a consonant e e e je ja
jo After a vowel jo
After a consonant ö ö ö jo
ju After a vowel ju
After a consonant ü ü ü ju
aj, yj, ŭj Final or before a consonant ai ai ai öj uj
oj, uj Final or before a consonant oj oj uj uj uj
ej, äj, əj Final or before a consonant e ej ej ej ai
evA, əvA
ovA
uvA, ŭvA
A = accented vowel, not being i evA
ovA
uvA
evA
ovA
uvA
ŭA ŭA ŭA
aŭ, äŭ Before a consonant o av af
eŭ, əŭ, iŭ Before a consonant ev ef
oŭ, uŭ, ŭŭ Before a consonant u ov, uv ŭo, u oŭ, u uf
om Before a (labial) stop, normally om om um um um
Before a (labial) stop, before stressed i öm öm üm üm um