Middle Ehryen

Middle Ehryen was spoken around the time when writing became mainstream, creating a need for standardization. This culminated in Written Ehryen, which is Middle Ehryen, just written. Eventually, sounds shifted some ways in some places and other ways in others, so some have adopted new orthographies.

As people began to speak faster, they tended to slur words that word harder to pronounce, such as *coñan*. However, this began occur a while after Middle Ehryen, when its varieties were not yet considered separate language but rather just dialects. The specific variety written about here is the Jhosefanae variety, so this would called *Jhosefanayen Middle Ehryen* (or JME). For the other varieties, you can see Varieties of Ehryen.

The history of Ehryen starts with the Spirits, not the Ehry. The Spirits had their own language, of which they didn’t have a name for. When the Ehry began interacting with them, they slowly adopted their language, until whatever language they had beforehand was gone. They called the language of the Spirits Qirenti, and slowly over time, they shifted. Qirenti never changed, because why would it if it were always spoken perfectly and everyone who spoke it never died, aged, or forgot? They didn’t have the slopiness of mouths and a limited mind, which would lead to changes in sound and rules. On the other hand, Ehryen was spoken by people rather similar to humans, and they had difficulty with the large amount of sounds present in Qirenti. As such, most of the sounds collapsed into less, and some disappeared entirely. Ehryen linguists noticed that some sound changes didn’t make much sense, like /z/ shifting to /ʒ/ but /s/ not /s/ shifting to /ʃ/. As such, they theorized an unnamed, unattested language. This language is believed to be what was spoken by the Ehry before they encountered, and a few things are believed to have been in this language, namely: a s/ʃ distinction (or similar), no dental or uvular sounds, no labial approximants, the basic 5 vowels minus /u/, and voicing distinctions only at the front of the mouth. Some linguists have theorized that the language may be related to the Language of the Dead (LoD), spoken in the Ehry equivalent of the afterlife. They theorize that when the first Ehry died and went to Maro’s hall, they spoke this language, which later evolved. Some say this is incorrect, and that they are two separate languages, citing LoD’s lack of voicing distinction. Some doubt the existence of this dead language entirely, and say others are pulling conclusions from thin air.

Some studies have been conducted between the multitude of Middle Ehryen dialects, and the results show that Andozeng is the most similar to LoD and the theorized Ehry language. While there are some differences (extra vowels and a labial approximant, namely), these are chalked up to influence from Qirenti.

### Phonology

In addition, ' means there is a "skip" vowel, typically /ə/, which is treated as a short vowel, and can shift depending on nearby vowels, and when you see "jh", that means it can be pronounced as /j/ or /ç/.

Syllable structure is (C1)(C2)V(C1)(C2)

#### Phonotactics

No plosive can follow another.

No geminated (long) sounds can follow another.

There can not be consonant clusters of two consonants from the same place of articulation, excluding /n/ and the affricates mentioned in the chart.

/m/, /ɲ/, /ŋk/, /pː/, /tː/, /kː/, /sː/, /θ/, /ʒ/, /ç/, /h/, /pɸ/, /ts/, /tʃ/, /kx/, /xɬ/, and /j/ cannot appear in consonant clusters.

/p/ and /v/ can appear only as C1.

/f/ and /s/ can appear only as C2.

/pɸ/, /ts/, and /kx/ can only appear at the very beginning of a word.

/ʰr̊/ can only be in a consonant cluster with /v/, and only at the end.

/ʰr̊/ and /xɬ/ can only be the first *consonant*, but /ʰr̊/ doesn't always follow this.

Geminated vowels cannot appear next to another geminated sound or another vowel, and cannot appear at the beginning or end of a word.

Geminated consonants cannot appear next to another geminated sound, and cannot appear at the beginning of a word.

### Grammar

Middle Ehryen, like many other Kyrentyen languages, is VSO. It has both prepositions and postpositions (see *Postpositions and Prepositions*), with demonstratives and numbers coming before the noun, but possessives coming after the noun (but possession is essentially a special preposition). Adjectives occur before the noun, and relative clauses occur after the noun. Also, the ordering of adjectives goes: Dem, Num, Adj, Noun.

In Old Ehryen, there was a case system, but, as people began to speak more quickly, people chose to omit declining nouns, and would use only the "Abstract" form. In some places, however, other forms have been preserved, such as the nominative case in *anasu* (-su), and the accusative in *aeñ* (-ñ).

#### Certainty

To express certainty, place a "certainty marker" in front of the sentence, even before the time expression. These are not necessary.

 *Jo* | I made this true

A common “It is true!” in response to skepticism is “Ze mera!”

*Qo enan ak Jhosefanay*
/tʃo enan ak josefanai/
I think he went to Jhosefanay.

#### Politeness

To show politeness in Ehryen, the word 'ña' is added to the end of the sentence. In some dialects, it is pronounced like /ca/. It can also act like 'isn't it' (like -ne in Japanese), and is frequently used to begin small talk.

*Mera ahryo ña*

/meɾa aʰɾ̥io ɲa/

It's hot, isn't it?

*Enan ak ynaha ña*

/enan ak inaha ɲa/

Please go home.

#### Plural

Ehyren lost its plural cases, but, if you know the number, you can say the number followed by the affected word. If you know the general number, or just have a guess, you say the affected word and then the number with *-es* attached.

*Hetr ynaha syes*

/hetɾ inaha sies/

I've made about 5 houses.

#### Negation

To say something is not something else, the word *ja* is placed at the very end of the sentence.

*Mera rasen yky ja*

/meɾa ɾasen iki ja/

Eels are not fish.

#### Prepositions and Postpositions

These function similarly as prepositions and adjectives. Some may used the post positions, others the prepositions. It is also posible for them to be both used in the same sentence (however you will probably never see that). Some postpositions cannot be prepositions (like '-lo'), and some prepositions cannot be post positions (like 'an').

 *Yu* X | *Of* X

 -(h)ed | concerning

#### Numbers

Ehryen uses base 8.

Numbers are always written before the noun, like *Mera **ar** ehry* (There is one Ehry).

#### Time and Tense

The Ehry have 4 daytime hours and 3 nighttime hours. The daytime hours, starting from dawn, are *Reñ*, *Xa*, *Kyr*, and *Tre*. *Reñ* comes from the word for "to grow", *renye*, which itself comes from the word for flower, *rejhen*. *Xa* is the word for mountain, which also indicates rising. *Kyr* is the word for high, and in this hour, the sun is highest in the sky. *Tre* is a shortening of the word for red, *treth*, because the sky reddens as dusk approaches. The 3 nighttime hours are *Mul*, *Aeñ*, and *Nyos*. *Mul* means hole and the downwards direction in general, as this is the time when the sun is just below the horizon. *Aeñ* is the word for black
, as it is the darkest part of night, and *Nyos* means silver or gray, as the black sky brightens, looking, well, silver.

When an Ehry wants to say something to happen at a time, they say *Ak* and then say the event or time, or they can say *Akreñ*, *Akka*, *Akkyr*, *Att're*, *Ak'mul*, *Akaeñ*, or *Akneos*, in respect to the times of day and night. If they are saying something will happen in the future, they begin the sentence with *Akfora*, and say *Aknera* for the past. In some cases, the demonstrative can be used for a similar purpose when combined with *Ak*. *Akkon* can mean the present, *Akyn* can mean the future, *Akkan* for the past, and *Aken* for the present. There are other words, too; *Areñ* means the next day, *Aren* means finally or in the end. Whenever they talk about the future, they add the futre word to the beginning of the sentences or story, and this means the story is future throughout; if they would like to use the future, speak for a bit, then change to present, they say something like, "*Akfora... Akkon...*".

The word *ane* can be placed before the verb to make the sentence, and only the one sentence, past tense. *Ers* is used for future tense.

Time words are placed before the verb (aka the beginning of the sentence) unless there is a certainty marker, in which case it is second.

### Writing

The standard writing system has always been the Kyrentyen for Ehryen, but two others are used, albeit in lower frequencies.

#### Kyrentyen Script

This fist image shows how to write all of the consonants in Ehryen (note "q" has two ways it can be written, and the second is exclusively used at the beginning of words). The second image demonstrates how to order the symbols. For example, if there was a word 123456, where 3 and 4 were vowels and the others consonants, 1 would be bottom left, and on top of that 2, then three, then 4 would be bottom right (slightly to the left), 5 on top of that, and 6 finally at the top right. Reading order is always bottom to top, left to right.

#### Ehryen Thazahitin

Ehryen Thazahitin is used for writing laws and stories. It's made of metal, with the orange typically being copper (*treka*) and the gray being iron (*ka*). Sometimes, it can used gold (*r'd'za*) and silver (*nyoka*), but this is very rare. It is written top down, left right.

#### Essential Verbs & Usage

In Ehryen, there is no word for “to ask”. Instead it is a combination of 'to want' and another verb. For example, if someone is asking for information, it would be like:

Naezo eo rehe na ken'sa
/naeʒo eo rehe na kenə̆sa/
I want to know what bird attacked (me).

If someone asked if you could do something for them, it would be like:

Naezo eo qina yo ynaha ña
/naeʒo eo tʃɪna io inaha ɲa/
Please clean the house.

If you wanted to do something, it would be like:

Naezo eo kya
/naeʒo eo kya/
I want to swim.

There are two ways to say that you own/have something.

Mera yn yu eo / Mera yn eo-cyu
/mera in iu eo/ /mera in eoçiu
That is mine.

Haan eo yn
/haːn eo in/
I own that.

To talk about how you like something, you’d say something like:

Ysa-alo eo faorej
/isaːlo eo faorej/
I really like fireflowers.

If you want to talk about enjoying doing something, you’d say something like this:

Ysa-alo eo nasa yky
/isaːlo eo nasa iki/
I really like eating fish

If you like it when someone does/is something, you’d say something like this:

Ysa-alo eo happac ypese hlyef
/isaːlo eo hapːaç ipese

 Haan | /haːn/ | to have, own

### Vocabulary

This is just going to be a large table of words.

ːθʒɪɚɾə̯ʰɾ̥ɲ