Middle Olgish language

Middle Olgish, also Middle Cëlacian or Middle Eastern Olgish (Olg. Olgenam), is a historical stage of the Eastern (Cëlacian) Olgish language, spoken in the late Iron Age and into the first centuries of the Lécaronian Empire. It is closely related to, but in both grammar and lexicon distinct from, Liturgical Middle Olgish.

History and classification

Etymology

The term Olgenam, earlier Olginam derives from the Ortûlékian ethnonym Olgi ‘the skilful ones’ + nam ‘custom, way, language’, from an original root *olg- ‘skilful, artful, deft’. The name was applied to one of the Three Peoples of Ortûlék, ostensibly the ancestors of the Olgs, beside the Géni and the Auli, traditionally considered the ancestors of the Aribelians and Iiles, respectively. It is used endonymically by all speakers of non-differentiated Cëlacian dialects (that being, those other than Corbian and Wertian) for their language.

Dating and historical scope

Middle Olgish is considered to progress from Old Olgish from the middle of the ninth century E.B. The first three centuries of this development, characterized by multiple waves of rapid sound change, the Middle Olgish Unrest, fall under the term Early Middle Olgish. It is during this phase that Fádin updates the language of the Lonsorigi, and his Liturgical Middle Olgish is a variety of this early Middle Olgish; under the prominence of Fádin’s Tongue, this stage of Middle Olgish is often as a whole grouped under the umbrella of Liturgical Middle Olgish, even though only a very particular idiom is in fact used by the Olgish church and, thereafter, the Lécaronian bureaucracy.

From the mid-twelfth century, the Middle Olgish Unrest begins to diminish, although it will not fully subside for another four hundred years. This second, more stable and consistent, stage of the language is considered Middle Olgish proper and the idiom generally referred to by the term Middle Olgish alone. It shows significant divergences from Liturgical Middle Olgish, from which it is over a century removed, but remains intelligible with the holy language, especially to those intimately familiar with Fádin’s Lonsorigi and their, from the Middle Olgish perspective, rather peculiar vocabulary.

After more than three centuries of relative stability, the final waves of the Unrest begin to emerge in the early third century L.R. (the 16th century E.B.), as the number of everyday Olgish speakers rapidly dwindles in an increasingly cosmopolitan Lécaron. The ensuing sound changes again are significant, and Middle Olgish transitions into New Olgish around the mid-third century. In Seligon, the dialect of the Olgish-speaking but linguistically fairly isolated Northern Feldin diverges independently from Middle Olgish around 200 years later and is considered an independent language, Northern Feldic.

Phonology

Note that the below refer specifically to post-twelfth century Middle Olgish; the structure of Early Middle Olgish is discussed in the separate article.

Phoneme inventory

Middle Olgish Consonants

	bilabial	labiodental	alveolar	post-alveolar	velar	labiovelar	glottal
plosive	/p~pʰ/ /b/		/t~tʰ/ /d/		/k~kʰ/ /g/
fricative		/f/ /v/	/s/				/h/
nasal	/m/		/n/
tap		/ɾ~r/
lateral		/l/
approximant				/j/		/w/

Middle Olgish Vowels

	Front	Back
High	/iː/ /ɪ/	/uː/ /ʊ/
Mid	/eː/ /ɛ/	/oː/ /ɔ/
Low	(/a/)	/ɑː~aː/ /ɑ~a/

Significant sound changes

Vowels

The Old Olgish vowel system, already seeing reduction in Fádin’s writings, is significantly simplified, collapsing quantity with tense--lax distinctions. The separate tense and lax lengthening diacritics of Old Olgish are preserved in writing, as they were in Fádin’s Lonsorigi, making this shift hard to trace, but irregularities in their application suggest vowel quality and quantity are fully conflated by the late twelfth century. The low front unrounded vowel /a/, while still fully distinct in Liturgical Middle Olgish, disappears in writing around the same time, although it is likely to have be preserved by at least some speakers until the Early Imperial Era. The low back rounded vowel /ɒ/, which Fádin only preserved in select historical spellings, has fully disappeared.

Consonants

Relatively little change is seen in the consonantal system. The loss of interdental fricatives is complete, after Early Middle Olgish drops voiceless /θ/ but retains voiced /ð/. The Olgish fricative inventory experiences additional reduction in the loss of the voiceless velar fricative /x/, which merges with the voiced velar plosive /ɡ/. The voiceless post-alveolar fricative /ʃ/, already disappearing in Early Middle Olgish, is dropped fully, merging with /h/ between vowels and /s/ elsewhere. The voiced alveolar fricative /z/ is likewise lost in all positions.

Writing system

Developed specifically for his early form of Middle Olgish and popularized through his translation of the Lonsorigi, Fádin’s Calligraphy is the script most commonly used in writing formal Middle Olgish, while the simplified Lécaronian alphabet based thereof is the most widely seen in informal and utility writing. Both systems retain many Early Middle and even Old Olgish contrast eliminated in spoken Middle Olgish, leaving many written Middle Olgish forms unpredictable from their spoken counterparts and leading to a great variety in spellings, particularly among lesser-educated writers.

Prior to Fádin’s day, the most widely used writing system is the Old Olgish alphabet, which more directly corresponds to the Old Olgish runes. Considered a mere style variant rather than an independent script, it is used alongside Lécaronian writing for centuries, only gradually falling in disfavour for its more cumbersome letter shapes. It remains in sporadic use until the Late Imperial Era, particularly in the context of inscriptions, dedications, and other short texts meant to evoke the age of Olgish heroes.

Trivia

Middle Olgish, along with the Lécaronian Alphabet, was used for the LCC11 Conscript Relay in 2025.