Præta

Præta, formally known as iâ Sziroþs Prætâ / jə ˈʃi.roθs ˈpræ.tə / ("the Shirerithian Speech"), is the official language of Shireroth. Standard Præta, also known as Kaïsars Prætâ, the Kaiser's Præta, or Uikstâs 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 /	⟨ Â â ⟩ / ə /	⟨ O o ⟩ / o /
Low	⟨ Æ æ ⟩ / æ /		⟨ A a ⟩ / ɑ /

⟨ Â â ⟩, / ə / is not found in stressed syllables.

⟨ Î î ⟩, / ə / is found in Early New Praeta to represent a near-close central vowel, now merged with and written ⟨ Â â ⟩.

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.

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									‑ân	Maþân	Prætân
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	‑âs	Kaïsarâs	Hirdis	‑a	Alfa	Nasza	‑âs	Mogâs	‑ân	Maþân	Prætân	‑ân	Łatân	Oïin
Nom
Acc
Gen	‑eï	Kaïsareï	Hirzeï	‑eï	Alfeï	Naszeï	‑ou	Mogou	‑eï	Maþeï	Præteï	‑eï	Łateï	Oïeï
Dat	‑âm	Kaïsarâm	Hirdim	‑âm	Alfâm	Nasim	‑âm	Mogâm	‑âm	Maþâm	Prætâm	‑âm	Łatâm	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 ⟨ â ⟩, 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	Prætâ‑	Łæïrâ-
Nom Sg	Prætâ	Łæïrâ
Gen Sg	Prætin	Łæïros

Case Function

Vocative

• Direct address

Nominative

Subject

• Object of a Copula

Accusative

• Direct Object

Genitive

• Genitive of Possession

• Genitive of Relation

Dative

• Indirect Object

• Direct Object of certain verbs

• Dative Absolute

• Subject of a Copula

• Colloquial Possessive

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 /

ratz- "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
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

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.