Valyrian Historical Linguistics

After the Doom of Valyria and the fall of the Valyrian Freehold, the various dialects of High Valyrian spoken in the former dominions of the Freehold developed into separate daughter languages. So far, only Astapori and Meereenese Valyrian have been fleshed out as full languages.

Varieties

The term "Low Valyrian" is used to refer to all extant languages descended from High Valyrian. It can be divided into three groups: Northern, Southern and Ghiscari. The Northern group is made up of Braavosi, Lorathi, Pentoshi, Norvoshi and Qohorik. The Southern group is made up of Myrish, Tyroshi, Lysene and Volantene. The Ghiscari group is composed of Astapori, Yunkish and Meereenese. The term "Low Valyrian" can also be applied exclusively to the non-Ghiscari varieties, and the Northern and Southern group are then called Northern and Southern Low Valyrian, respectively. This can be seen in the chart below:

High Valyrian

Low Valyrian

Ghiscari Valyrian

Northern Low Valyrian

Astapori

Yunkish

Meereenese

Braavosi

Lorathi

Pentoshi

Norvoshi

Qohorik

Southern Low Valyrian

Myrish

Tyroshi

Lysene

Volantene

Ghiscari group

The Ghiscari group comprises Astapori, Yunkish and Meereenese. Astapori and Yunkish are nearly identical to each other, while Meereenese has a fundamentally similar grammar but a very different pronunciation. Astapori and Meereenese are the only varieties of Low Valyrian spoken on the show so far. The Ghiscari group has many words of Ghiscari origin, such as mhysa "mother".

The main grammatical changes in Ghiscari Valyrian are the reduction in the number of cases and genders, and the development of articles, of which High Valyrian had none. Ghiscari Valyrian has merged the solar and lunar genders into the celestial gender, and the aquatic and terrestrial into the terrestrial gender.

Astapori Valyrian

Abbreviations

• _: indicates the phoneme's place in a phonological environment
• #: word boundary
• ∅: null, elision
• V: vowel
• C: consonant
• P: plosive, stop
• L: liquid

Consonant sound changes

• Unconditioned sound changes
  • /ɲ/ > /n/ (dȳñes > dyni)
  • /j/ > /ʒ/
• Palatalization of /z/ before /i/
  • /z/ > /ʒ/ _i (māzigon > majigho, brozi > broji, ziry > ji, but zȳha > zya)
• Voiced stop > voiced fricative vowel-medially
  • /b/ > /v/ (jēlēbagon > jelevagho, kostōba > kotova)
  • /d/ > /ð/ (dovaogēdy > dovoghedhy)
  • /g/ > /ɣ/ (zūgagon > zughagho)
• Voiceless stop > voiced stop vowel-medially
  • /p/ > /b/ (epagon > ebagho, kepa > kiba, rapa > raba)
  • /t/ > /d/ (otāpagon > odabagon, teta > tida, botemagon > bodmagho)
  • /k/ > /g/ (pēko > pegu, pikībagon > pigivagho)
  • /q/ > /g/ (beqitsos > begistos)
• Voiceless fricative > voiced fricative vowel-medially
  • /s/ > /z/ (kesa > kiza, syt > zy)
• Metathesis of /s/ followed by a stop (/Ps/ > /sP/)
  • /ks/ > /sk/ (āeksio > aeske)
  • /ts/ > /st/ (rytsas > rysta, tōmītsos > tomistos)
  • perh. also /ps/ > /sp/ (e.g. āpsos > aspo)
• Deletion of /s/ before stop word-medially (/s/ > ∅ \ _P)
  • /sk/ > /k/ (hoskagon > hokagho)
  • /st/ > /t/ (ivestragon > ivetragho, kostōba > kotova, kostilus > kotlu)
  • perh. also /sp/ > /p/ (e.g. nuspes > *nupe)
• Debuccalization of voiceless stops before /t/ (P > /h/ \ _t)
  • /kt/ > /ht/ (unektogon > unehtogho)
  • /pt/ > /ht/ (teptan > tehtan)
• Syncope of unstressed /i/ between a stop and a liquid before a vowel (/i/ > ∅ \ P_LV)
  • /kiri/ > /kri/ (kirimvos > krimvo)
  • /qilo/ > /qlo/ (qilōny > qlony)
  • /tilu/ > /tlu/ (kostilus > kotlu)
• Various other changes
  • /qr/ > /q/ (qrimbrōsta > qimbrota)
  • /s/ > ∅ \ V_# at least in the sg.nom. (daorys > dory, hontes > hunte, hobres > hubre)

Vowel sound changes

• Shortening of all long vowels
  • /Vː/ > /V/ (gēlenka > gelinka)
• Flattening of diphthongs
  • Rising
    • /ao/ > /o/ (gaomagon > gomagho, dovaogēdy > dovoghedhy, daorys > dory)
    • /ae/ > /e/ (hae > he, laes > les)
    • /aːe/ > /aj/ > (āeksio > aeske, brāedion > braedhe)
    • perhaps by analogy, /aːo/ > /aw/
  • Falling
    • /io, ioː/ > /e/ when not word-initial (āeksio > aeske, liorilaksa > lerraska)
    • /ia, iaː/ > /e/ when not word-initial
    • /ie, ieː/ > /i/ when not word-initial (giēñilaros > ginilaro)

• Fricatization of word-initial /u, i/ before a vowel
  • /u(ː)/ > /v/ \ #_V (ūī > vi)
  • /i/ > /ʒ/ \ #_V (iōragon > joragho)
• Raising of stressed short mid vowels /e, o/
  • /e/ > /i/ when stressed (gēlenka > gelinka, hen > hin, kepa > kiba)
  • /o/ > /u/ when stressed (kona > kuna, hobres > hubre, lo > lu)

Meereenese Valyrian

Meereenese Valyrian, while in-universe ostensibly being a direct descendant of High Valyrian and a contemporary sister language to Astapori Valyrian, has all the sound changes that Astapori Valyrian has (detailed above), plus several others (detailed below). Thus, behind the scenes, it could be described as a daughter language or phonetically highly innovative dialect of Astapori Valyrian, the grammar of both being all but identical. However, given the radical sound changes to Meereenese Valyrian, it has a large number of homophones and a high degreee of syncretism compared to Astapori Valyrian. For the most part, these have not been been supplanted by analogy or other processes.

• Palatalization:
  • h, s > sh
  • z > j
  • t > ch
  • d > dj
  • n > ny / _{i, y, e}

Many sounds become palatalized before front vowels.

• Spirantization:
  • p > f
  • t > th
  • ch > sh
  • k, q > kh
  • s > sh / V_V, _C[+stop], _#

Voiceless stops spontaneously spirantized in between vowels and before other non-identical stops (i.e. geminates remain) and at the end of a word.

• Gliding:
  • v > w
  • j > y
  • i > ye
  • u > wa / #_
  • oa, ua > wa
  • oe, ue > we

These fricatives became glides at the beginning of a word. Also, generally, v became w many places.

• Lenition Chain:
  • dh, gh, h > Ø
  • d > dh
  • dj > j
  • b > v
  • g > gh

A second round of lenition deleted a number of consonants present in Astapori Valyrian. (Though dh and gh were not deleted at the beginning of a word.)

• Nasal Degradation:
  • n, m > ng / _#

Occurred in all paradigms.

• Degemination (Mutation):
  • nn > ny
  • ll > ly
  • vv > w
  • zz > r

Ubiquitous sound change.

• Degemination (Other):
  • CC > C

Ubiquitous sound change.

• Devoicing:
  • C > [-voice] / #_, _#

Radical devoicing affected the edges of words.

• Vowel Loss:
  • V > Ø / C[+fric]_C[-cont], C[+obs]_C[+glide], _#
  • y > i

This will include nasals and liquids. Single syllable words were left in tact (i.e. their vowels will not be deleted). (Note: Where complex clusters would be left, the vowel instead reduced to schwa.)

• Lateralization/Rhoticization:
  • r > l / _#
  • l > r / #_

Ubiquitous sound change.

• Vowel Lowering:
  • u > o
  • i, y > e
  • o, e, a > ǝ / _#

Affects those remaining vowels.

See also

• Low Valyrian languages