Archaic Imperial (Empire-in-the-West)
Archaic Imperial (AI) is the name given to the earliest attested ancestor of Modern Standard Imperial. The corpus of AI texts is fairly small: some runic carvings, and the Imperial Law Code of the Temple; the language has been reconstructed based on its daughter and sister languages with a fair degree of confidence.
Phonology
Consonants
| POA | Labials | Dentals | Emphatics | Velars | Uvulars | Glottals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless stops | p /p/ | t /t/ | ṭ /tˤ/ | k /k/ | q /q/ | ? /ʔ/ |
| Voiced stops | b /b/ | d /d/ | ḍ /dˤ/ | g /g/ | ḡ /ɢ/ | |
| Fricatives | f /f/ | s /s/ | ş /sˤ/ | x /x/ | ẋ /χ/ | h /h/ |
| Nasals | m /m/ | n /n/ | ||||
| Liquids | l /l/, r /r/ | |||||
| Glides | y /j/ | w /w/ |
Vowels
- Short: /i a u/ i a u
- Long: /iː aː uː/ ī ā ū
- Diphthong: /ai au/ ai au
Suprasegmentals
Allophony
There is strong vowel allophony in AI, with backed or lowered allophones of most vowels occurring near the emphatic consonants (ṭ /tˤ/ q /q/ ḍ /dˤ/ ḡ /ɢ/ ş /sˤ/ ẋ /χ/). /i/ > [e] /u/ > [o] /a/ > [A] /i:/ > [i@] or [@i] (The former if the emphatic consonants follows the vowel, the latter if it precedes it.) /u:/ > [u@] or [@u] (As with /i:/) /a:/ > [A:]
The diphthongs show allophony based on the following consonant, with raised allophones before voiceless ones. /aj/ > [Ei] /aw/ > [Ou]
The short vowel also have tense/lax allophony, with lax allophones occurring in closed syllables. This applies after the emphatic allophony, so /i/ has the realizations [i], [I], [e], [E]. The vowel /a/ has no tense/lax allophony.
