Præta

Præta, formally known as iâ Sziroþs Præta / jə ˈʃi.roθs ˈpræ.tə / ("the Shirerithian Speech"), is the official language of Shireroth. Standard Præta, also known as Kaïsars Præta, the Kaiser's Præta, or Uiksts Prætâ, Script Præta, is the chancery standard used by the Golden Mango Throne and its ministries.

Despite being called "the Shirerithian Speech", Præta is the first language only in Brookshire, parts of Goldshire, and territories historically associated with these regions. In other parts of Shireroth, it is acquired to varying degrees of fluency through schooling.

History

Præta derives from the Brookshirese or Prætaic Language Family, specifically the prestige dialect spoken at Raynor I's court. This form of Præta, or Old Præta, bears extensive lexical influence from Khaz Modanian, the now lost language of the Empire of Khaz Modan. Old Præta was introduced to the Shirekeep region and portions of the Red Elwynn during the First Era as a result of concerted efforts to resettle the greater Shirekeep region and western Goldshire with more reliable subjects.

The usage of Old Præta drifted into diverging dialects by the end of the First Era, prompting the reassertion of a centralized standard with the onset of the Second Era, this time derived mostly from the dialect prevalent in Monty Crisco. Middle Præta succeeded in penetrating to the mouth of the Elwynn River and further into Goldshire. New Præta, or the contemporary form, was established in an archaic mode under Kaiser John II and refined under Kaiseress Viviantia I.

Orthography and Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Coronal		Palatal		Velar
Nasal		⟨ M m ⟩ / m /		⟨ N n ⟩ / n /
Plosive		⟨ P p ⟩ / p /	⟨ B b ⟩ / b /	⟨ T t ⟩ / t /	⟨ D d ⟩ / d /			⟨ K k ⟩ / k /	⟨ G g ⟩ / g /
Affricate						⟨ Tz tz ⟩ / tʃ /	⟨ Z z ⟩ / dʒ /
Fricative	sibilant			⟨ S s ß ⟩ / s /		⟨ Sz sz ⟩ / ʃ /
	non-sibilant	⟨ F f ⟩ / f /	⟨ V v ⟩ / ʋ /	⟨ Þ þ ⟩ / θ /			⟨ Ï ï ⟩ / j /	⟨ H h ⟩ / h /
Approximant
Trill				⟨ R r ⟩ / r /
Lateral Fricative				⟨ Ł ł ⟩ / ɬ /	⟨ L l ⟩ / l /

• ⟨ ß ⟩ is used for / s: /, derived from the archaic ⟨ ſs ⟩. It is only used when the / s: / falls entirely within a single morpheme

  e.g. ⟨ Aß ⟩ "As, ~7 1⁄4 bushels", versus ⟨ rass ⟩ "domestic", from ⟨ Ras ⟩ "House"

• ⟨ dz ⟩ common in Early New Praeta for / dʒ /, now deprecated.
• ⟨ ï ⟩ is sometimes written ⟨ i ⟩ or ⟨ ı ⟩ by nonstandard texts.
• ⟨ n ⟩ before a velar consonant is rendered as a velar nasal

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	⟨ I i ⟩ / i /	⟨ Î î ⟩ / ɪ̈ /	⟨ U u ⟩ / u /
Mid	⟨ E e ⟩ / e /	/ ə /	⟨ O o ⟩ / o /
Low	⟨ Æ æ ⟩ / æ /		⟨ A a ⟩ / ɑ /

⟨ A a ⟩ in unstressed vowels reduces to / ə /.

Archaic or nonstandard documents may use ⟨ Â â ⟩ and/or ⟨ Î î ⟩ to represent / ə /. Each represented distinct vowels in Early New Præta but have since merged into unstressed ⟨ A a ⟩.

Writing Rules

Nouns are capitalized in all instances. Words of other classes are capitalized at the beginning of a sentence.

Nominal Morphology

Præta nominals (pronouns, nouns, and adjectives) are declined, or modified in order to reflect their grammatical case, according to five cases: Vocative, Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative. They are also declined according to number (Singular and Plural). Gender also has some influence on which declension pattern is used.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

	First Person		Second Person				Reflexive
	Singular	Plural	Impolite	Neutral	Polite/Plural	Reverent
Nom	i	uis	ïat	þu	iks	isus	-
Acc	mi						si
Gen	min	ussar	ïis	þin	ikkar	isar	sin
Dat	mis	ussis	ïam	þus	ikkis	isus	sis

Because Præta verbs conjugate according to person and number, subject pronouns are not necessary, but may be added for emphasis. The Dative Opinion may be used to emphasize that the sentence expresses an opinion.

Præta offers a range of 2nd person pronouns that differ according to levels of politeness.

• Impolite is used for speech with those of a lower social class (though it may also be used between peers of a lower class)
• Neutral is used for speech between peers, especially those who are on familiar terms
• Polite is used for speech with those of a moderately higher social class, those who are unfamiliar, or in formal settings. Use of Polite pronouns coincides with using a person's title (or abbreviated style of address) and/or family name than a personal name.
• Reverent is used for speech with those of significantly higher social class and to deities. Use of reverent pronouns coincides with using full style of address, epithets, and avoidance of names; it also coincides with using a Reflexive pronoun to refer to oneself rather than a First Person pronoun.

Nouns

Nouns in Præta are organized into three declensions, identified according to their Genitive Singular ending.

	1st Declension Gen Sg ‑is						2nd Declension Gen Sg ‑os		3rd Declension Gen Sg ‑in
	Common			Neuter			Common		Common			Neuter
		"Sovereign" Kaïsar‑	"Herdsman" Hirz‑		"Might" Alf‑	"Cliff" Nasz‑		"Child" Mog‑		"Worm" Maþ‑	"Language" Prætâ‑		"Plain" Łat-	"Egg" Oï‑
Voc	‑e	Kaïsare	Hirze	‑	Alf	Nasz	‑	Mog	‑	Maþ	Prætâ	‑	Łat	Oï
Nom	‑	Kaïsar	Hirz
Acc									‑an	Maþan	Prætan
Gen	‑is	Kaïsaris	Hirdis	‑is	Alfis	Nasis	‑os	Mogos	‑in	Maþin	Prætin	‑in	Łatin	Oïin
Dat	‑i	Kaïsari	Hirdi	‑i	Alfi	Nasi	‑u	Mogu
Voc	‑as	Kaïsaras	Hirdis	‑a	Alfa	Nasza	‑as	Mogas	‑an	Maþan	Prætan	‑an	Łatan	Oïin
Nom
Acc
Gen	‑eï	Kaïsareï	Hirzeï	‑eï	Alfeï	Naszeï	‑ou	Mogou	‑eï	Maþeï	Præteï	‑eï	Łateï	Oïeï
Dat	‑am	Kaïsaram	Hirdim	‑âm	Alfam	Nasim	‑am	Mogam	‑am	Maþam	Prætam	‑am	Łatam	Oïim

Note: If a noun's stem ends in a palatalized consonant (e.g. Hirz "herdsman", Adtz "office", Nasz "cliff", Oï "egg", etc), the stem and the endings are modified according to the following pattern:

If the case ending features an ⟨ a ⟩, that is realized and written as ⟨ i ⟩

Nom Pl	Hirdiz	Adtis	Nasis	Oïis
Dat Pl	Hirdim	Adtim	Nasim	Oïim

If the case ending features an ⟨ i ⟩, the stem ending becomes unpalatalized if an unpalatalized equivalent is available.

Gen Sg	Hirdis	Adtis	Nasis	Oïis
Dat Sg	Hirdi	Adti	Nasi	Oïi

Note: If a noun stem ends in a vowel, it is dropped for non-zero case endings

Stem	Præta‑	Łæïra-
Nom Sg	Præta	Łæïra
Gen Sg	Prætin	Łæïros

Case Function

Vocative Case

The Vocative is used when addressing someone directly.

Ïaume, v' æïs ïa Mel? — "James, have the time?"

Nominative Case

Subject

Golletas varþt us Baïmam — "Mangos come from trees."

Predicate Nominative

Aïreon boþ Kaïsar. — "Ayreon is Kaiser."

Accusative Case

Direct Object

— " "

Object of certain prepositions.

— " "

Genitive Case

Possession or Relation

— " "

— " "

Object of certain Prepositions.

— " "

Dative Case

The Dative has many functions.

Indirect Object

— " "

Direct Object of certain verbs

— " "

Dative Absolute

— " "

Emphatic Subject of Opinion

— " "

Colloquial Possessive Construction in replacement of the Genitive

— " "

Verbal Morphology

Regular Conjugation

The Old Praeta distinction of seven conjugations of strong verbs and four conjugations of weak verbs as well as the Middle Praeta distinction of two conjugations of strong verbs and one conjugation of weak verbs has been rendered down to a single conjugation for all regular verbs.

All tense endings are applied to the regular, or unmutated, stem except for the Preterite. To conjugate in the Preterite Indicative, the primary vowel of the stem receives what is called a U-Mutation. Front vowels are replaced with their back equivalent, back vowels raise by one degree. For unmutated stems with a primary vowel of ⟨ u ⟩, the mutated and unmutated stems are identical. The Preterite Imperative is formed through a periphrastic construction that uses a verb's infinitive form.

Unmutated		⟨ i ⟩ / i /	⟨ u ⟩ / u /		⟨ e ⟩ / e /	⟨ o ⟩ / o /		⟨ æ ⟩ / æ /	⟨ a ⟩ / ɑ /
Mutated		⟨ u ⟩ / u /			⟨ o ⟩ / o /	⟨ u ⟩ / u /		⟨ a ⟩ / ɑ /	⟨ o ⟩ / o /

ratzur "to suggest"		Indicative Mood				Optative Mood		Imperative Mood
		Present		Imperfect		Present		Present
Unmutated Stem	1s	‑	ratz	-a	ratza	‑o	ratzo
	2s	‑s	ratzs	-as	ratzas	‑es	ratzes	‑i	ratzi
	3s	‑t	ratzt	-at	ratzat	‑e	ratze
	1p	-um	ratzum	‑osum	ratzosum	‑em	ratzem
	2p	‑uþ	ratzuþ	-osuþ	ratzosuþ	‑eþ	ratzeþ	‑ite	ratzite
	3p	‑un	ratzun	-osun	ratzosun	‑en	ratzen
rotz-		Preterite						Preterite
Mutated Stem	1s	‑i	rotzi
	2s	‑is	rotzis					tuis + Sup	tuis ratzur
	3s	‑it	rotzit
	1p	-imen	rotzimen
	2p	‑iþen	rotziþen					tuiste + Sup	tuiste ratzur
	3p	‑inen	rotzinen
Supine		‑ur	ratzur -in (n)
Active Participle		-us	ratzus
Passive Participle		-oþ	ratzoþ

Irregular Verbs

biur "to be"	Ind.		Opt.	Imp.
	Pres	Imperf	Pres	Pres
1s	bom	as	biïo
2s	bos	ast	biïos	bïo
3s	boþ	as	biïoþ
1p	bom	osum	biïum
2p	bod	osuþ	biïuþ	bïote
3p	boþ	osun	biïun
	Pret			Pret
1s	si
2s	sis			os
3s	sit
1p	sim
2p	siþ			ost
3p	sin
Supine		biur -in (n)
Active Participle		bius
Passive Participle		szoþ

gaur "to go"	Ind.		Opt.	Imp.
	Pres	Imperf	Pres	Pres
1s	gah	gagg	gaggo
2s	gahs	gaggs	gagges	gaggi
3s	gaht	gaggt	gagget
1p	gaum	gaggam	gaggem
2p	gauþ	gaggaþ	gaggem	gaggite
3p	gaun	gaggan	gaggen
	Pret			Pret
1s	iza
2s	izes			izedi
3s	ize
1p	izemen
2p	izeþen			izedte
3p	izen(en)
Supine		gaur -in (n)
Active Participle		gaus
Passive Participle		gaggoþ

Tense/Mode Function

Indicative Mood

• Present Tense

• Imperfect Tense

• Preterite Tense

Optative Mood

• Present Tense

Imperative Mood

• Present Tense

• Preterite

Lexicon

Præta Lexicon

The core and bulk of the Præta lexicon derives from Common Brookshirian and have been with the language since Old Præta. A large portion, notably concerning matters of prestige, government, and magic, are borrowed from the language of Khaz Modan, due to their hegemonic influence over Brookshire before the founding of Shireroth. Others yet have entered the language from Goldshire and Elwynn and from cultures beyond the borders if the Imperial Republic.