Imperial Milevian language

Imperial Milevian
Region	Southeastern Parshita
Ethnicity	Milevians
Era	13th to 17th century
Language family	Shaelic Milevic South Milevic Imperial Milevian
Writing system	Milevic script?
CWS code	IML

Imperial Milevian is a language historically spoken across western Milevia, used as a lingua franca in the Milevian Confederacy throughout its existence. Regional variants of Imperial Milevian would evolve into a large number of the modern South Milevic languages. Although extinct as a spoken language, it has survived through a number of written sources dating back to the time of the Confederacy in both traditional and colonial writing systems, and remains in limited use in certain liturgical contexts.

Classification and dialects

Several distinct dialect groups emerged mostly after the initial standardisation of the language in the early 13th Century, traditionally labelled as Dialects A, B, and C. Certain variants of Dialect A - which includes dialects spoken around the city of Phamphar - would develop into modern Farmoshi. The most notable distinctions between dialect groups are phonetic, and can be summed up as such:

• Standard /ʀ/ is retained in B and C but becomes /r/ in A
• Standard /cʰ c' c ɟ/ become /tsʰ ts' ts dz/ in A and /tʃʰ tʃ' tʃ dʒ/ in C, retain'd in B
• Standard /tʰ t' t d/ become /tʃʰ tʃ' tʃ dʒ/ before /i/ (< PSM *i) in C
• Standard /u(:) o(:)/ are merged in A as /o/, kept separate in B & C (although B unrounds /u/ to /ɯ/)
• Standard /ʍ/ is preserved in A/C, voiced to /w/ in B
• Some instances of Standard, A & C /e:/ corresponding to /ejə/ in B
• Standard /h/ lost in C (→ Ø)
• Standard /ji/ sequences become /i/ in A & C

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
			plain	lateral			plain	labial
Nasal		m	n				ŋ
Plosive	voiceless		t			c	k	kʷ
	aspirated		tʰ			cʰ	kʰ	kʷʰ
	ejective		tʼ			cʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ
	slack voiced	b̤	d̤			ɟ̤
Fricative	voiceless		s	ɬ	ʃ			xʷ ~ ʍ	χ	h
	slack voiced		z̤	ɮ̤	ʒ̤				ʁ ~ ʀ
Approximant						j		w; w̰