Classical Brmek

Classical Brmek (ﺑﺮمیك Barmîk or ﺑﺮمی قنسعیوعد Barmî Kenesagyûgad) is a Jelbic language used in literary texts from the time of the Ahmadi Caliphate, based on medieval dialects spoken by the Jelbic tribes in Barmenia. Old High Jelbic is the direct descendent of Classical Brmek, based on the spoken Jelbic in the 23rd century and with a simplified grammar. Today Classical Brmek is only used in religious contexts, as one of the two sacred languages of Ahmadism (the other being Majatran) and a liturgical language for Barmenian Hosians and Yeudis.

In spite of its name, Classical Brmek is not the direct predecessor of the modern Brmek language, which is a local dialect of Old High Jelbic. The latter can be said to be a continuation of Classical Brmek, with an emphasis on native Jelbic words and written primarily in the Selucian script. Moreover, Old High Jelbic, of which modern Brmek is a dialect, was designed as a neutral variety of the language with the purpose of bridging the increasingly divergent dialects and languages spoken by the Jelbics after Classical Brmek ceased to be widely spoken. As such it was based on the Jelbanian grammar and pronunciation, with some Pontesian influence, whereas Classical Brmek is based on a no longer spoken Jelbic language in Barmenia. Although knowledge of Classical Brmek has gradually been restricted to religious contexts, it had a significant influence on all spoken and written Jelbic languages.

Phonology
Compared to Old High Jelbic, Classical Brmek has a simpler vowel system and a richer consonant system. The phonology of Classical Brmek is very similar to that of Qedarite (Semitic) languages, which facilitated its adoption of the Majatran abjad (Arabic script) as its main writing system. Classical Brmek has four vowels (/a/, /e/, /i/, /u/), which exist in both short and long forms, and 23 consonants. Several of the consonants, like the glottal stop (/ʔ/), were lost in modern Jelbic languages, several others were merged (such as /h/ and /ħ/ merging into /ɦ/, /k/ and /q/ merging into /k/, or /s/ and /t͡s/ merging into /s/), and others changed their value (such as /θ/ becoming /'f/, or /ɣ/ changing into /ɡʱ/). Unstressed short vowels in Classical Brmek were generally lost in modern Jelbic languages (e.g. kenes became kns), with the notable exception of vowels preceded or followed by /ʔ/ in Classical Brmek, where the glottal stop was assimilated into the neighboring vowel. A peculiar development from Classical Brmek into modern Jelbic is the transformation of stressed interconsonantal short /a/ into vocalic /r/: e.g. θay ("fire") became frj, gasqu ("school") became grsku, or utamû ("to speak) became utrmo''.

Grammar
Classical Brmek is an agglutinative language with a subject–object–verb word order.

Nouns
Nouns are inflected for case, but not number, gender and definiteness like in many other languages. There are six different cases: nominative, accusative, dative, locative, ablative, genitive, and instrumental. The case endings are no longer found in modern Jelbic languages, with the exception of the genitive suffix -ék/-aék (continuing the Classical Brmek -îk). Modern Jelbic compensated for the loss of case endings by reinterpreting a number of postpositions as grammatical particles, whereas Classical Brmek used postpositions sparingly and only when necessary to avoid ambiguity.

Cases

 * Nominative case: شمب şameb ("the sheep", "a sheep")
 * Accusative case: answers the question "whom?" and "what?", formed with the suffix ن‎ -(e)n: شمبن دكیومقر şameben idakyûmeqre ("he/she killed a sheep")
 * Genitive case: answers the question "whose?", formed with the suffix یك‎ -îk: حيانيك طرس ħayânîk θers ("the khan's horse")
 * Locative case: answers the question‎ where?", formed with the suffix د -(e)d: دومرد dûmurad ("in the village"), كنسد kenesed ("in the country")
 * Ablative case: answers the questions "from where?" and "why?", formed with the suffix ع -(e)g: عسقع gasqug ("from school"), احمد برمستانع قمويقر âħmad barmestâneg qamûyeqre ("Ahmad came from Barmenia")
 * Instrumental case: answers the question "with what?", formed with the suffix ت -(e)t: استطلزت قسيومرز ʾastiθluzet qasiyûmiriz ("we are united by blood"), كيعنت سطقن تيولر kaîgnet saθqen tuyûler ("they catch fish with a spear").
 * Dative case: answers the question "to whom?", formed with the suffix ش -(e)ş: كتابن قزقیش معمویقرم kitâben qezqaiş megamûyeqrim ("I gave the book to Kezkai"), نبی اكیمش جنطیور nabî ʾakîmeş janθyûre ("the prophet prays to God")

Verbs
Classical Brmek verbs exist in two classes: -yû verbs and -mû verbs. Exceptions are rare, being limited to verbs that refer to ongoing states (knowing something, existing) and thus take continuous forms rather than present. However, all verbs conjugate regularly, with the exceptions limited to usage restrictions. Unlike Old High Jelbic verbs, Classical Brmek also conjugated for number and person by including personal endings. The personal endings are added at the end of the word, after the addition of the particles indicating tense, mood, and aspect.

Conjugation table
These tables show the forms of each class of verb, with an example of each: yayû ("to meet") and yalemû ("to think").

The existence of a form in the table does not mean it is necessarily used for all verbs.

Writing system
Classical Brmek was primarily written in the Majatran script, a cursive writing system first adopted to write the language sometime in the 13th century, and which later spread throughout Majatra, later adapted to write other languages, such as Majatran.

It is unclear where the Majatran script originated, with scholars divided into those who consider it an adaptation of the Kathuran (Syriac) script and those according to whom it is a cursive version of the Arakhim/Cildanian script (Aramaic/Hebrew). Either way, it was originally born from the Qedarite (Semitic) writing systems in use in North-West Majatra around the time, and it preserves a number of their features. Like the Arakhim and Kathuran scripts, the Majatran is an abjad or consonantal alphabet, meaning that it generally only marks consonants. The Majatran scripts also has a number of letters called matres lectionis, i.e. consonants used to represent a vowel. In the Brmek Majatran script, matres lectionis are almost exclusively used for long vowels, leaving short vowels generally unwritten. The matres lectionis are waw (و) - used for both w and û, aleph (ا) - used for both ʾ and â, and yûd (ي) - used for both y and î. Additionally, possibly under the influence of Yeudi, word-final he (ه) was frequently used to represent final a or e.