Old Nebulonic language

The Old Nebulonic language is the earliest-attested form of the Nebulonic language. It evolved from Late Proto-Nebulonic around 500-800, and it was spoken until it began to evolve into Modern Nebulonic. The end of the Old Nebulonic period is traditionally placed at 1547 (the Foggy Mountain Migration), though the end of the classical period is said to be in 1302, with the Fall of Maisad, the chief city of the Nebulones and epicenter of literary culture. It is more synthetic than Modern Nebulonic, but in itself it is mostly analytical and primarily agglutinative. It is a very regular language.

Phonology
Over the thousand or so years during which it was spoken, Old Nebulonic pronunciation shifted across time, location, and class. The tables below reflect the pronunciation of the High Classical Period.

Inventory
Old Nebulonic also had gemination of plosives and nasals as well as /s/, /r/, and /l/.

The voiced fricatives /β/, /ð/, and /ɣ/ arose from lenited voiced plosives and were a hallmark of the Classical pronunciation. It was often said that correct pronunciation of these difficult sounds was a mark of good education or background, as they are very unstable consonants and had generally evolved into /v/, /z/, and /Ø/ among the general populace. Eventually, as the Golden Age petered out, the Classical pronunciation of these consonants gave way to the popular pronunciation even among the learned. In Modern Nebulonic, /v/ has remained, but /z/ has merged with /s/, and /Ø/ (< /ɣ/) has had multiple outcomes depending on its environment.

One pronunciation system used for Old Nebulonic is simply the use of Modern Nebulonic pronunciation; the major differences are summarized below:

Vowels
Old Nebulonic had three diphthongs: /a͡i̯/ ‹ai›, /a͡u̯/ ‹au›, and /e̯͡a/ ‹ea›.

Stress
Stress is lexical, thanks to Late Proto-Nebulonic syncope and apocope, as well as the Old Nebulonic Accent Shift.

Orthography
The Old Nebulonic period was the first period of the Nebulonic language to be written. Writing was introduced in 868 by Rinti Mazai, a native Nebulone who was sent forth by King Talinno to acquire learning in the Jikin tradition and to bring back this learning and the culture of Chelyras. Talinno wanted to enrich the royal court and the Nebulonic people. Rinti brought back with him the religion practiced in Chelyras as well as writing in 868, both of which were fervently adopted by the court. The alphabet was based heavily on the aesthetic of the Chelyran alphabet, and in turn served as the aesthetic basis of the Tözenţeknoc orthography for Sajem Tan.

Verb phrases
Old Nebulonic had three sets of tense-aspect particles: perfective, imperfective, and gnomic. By the Modern Nebulonic phase, the gnomic set had fallen out of use.

Classical Age
The Classical Era of Old Nebulonic, also called the Golden Age, was the high point of literary use of the Old Nebulonic language. It began in 868, with the introduction of writing, and ended with the cultural and political changes that led to the Fall of Maisad. The court of Maisad was the center of Nebulonic literacy and culture, and the palace and royal quarter were home to many great teachers and writers. Other major centers of learning were the newly-arising monasteries, especially the Monastery of Rutta Leassī and the Monastery of Nara Valley. Wealthy landowners (a rare thing in Nebulonic society at the time) also patronized learned men and women from the royal court and the Jikin schools to enliven their homes with literary works of high quality. Often, the wealthy classes would display hand-written manuscripts of poems written just for them as a mark of their status.