Update: Draft 2. Added sound changes. Added vocabulary.
Olympian is an Indo-European language spoken by the barbarian overlords who ruled Mount Olympus. From there, they launched raids that ravaged the surrounding countryside. Later ages deified them as gods. The name Zeus derives directly from the Olympian word ʒīw, meaning “god”.
Olympian is a genderless language with a default SOV word order. OSV word order is used to topicalize the object, and historical cases have decayed into clitics. The language is directly descended from the Titanic language Othryian.
In some ways, Olympian is a very archaic language. In other ways, it has been radically simplified.
Phonology
- Stops: p, b, t, d, k, g
- Fricatives: v, ð, ʒ, ɣ, h, ʁ
- Nasals: m, n, ɲ
- Liquid / glides: l, ʎ, w, y
- Short oral vowels: i, a, u (e and o are rare, occurring almost exclusively in diphthongs or as nasals)
- Long vowels: ī, ū, ē, ō
- Nasal vowels: ĩ, ẽ, ã, õ, ũ
- Front-rounded vowel: ü (< iu)
- Diphthongs: ei, ou, au, ai, ia (including nasal variants)
Phonotactics and Stress
The maximum syllable structure is CCVCC, though syllables are typically smaller. Permitted onsets include stop+liquid (pʁ, bʁ, tʁ, vʁ), stop+glide (tw, dy, kw), and palatal sonorant clusters (ʎ, ɲw). Three-consonant onsets have been eliminated entirely. Codas allow for a single consonant, a glide+sibilant cluster (such as wʒ or yʒ), a nasal-vowel+obstruent, or a sonorant+obstruent.
The Ghost of the Sibilants: Historical sibilants underwent debuccalization and eventual deletion. When this occurred word-medially before a consonant, it triggered compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel (e.g., *\*VsT* > *\*V:T*). However, when sibilants dropped word-initially before a stop (e.g., PIE *\*st-*), there was no preceding vowel to lengthen; instead, it resulted in bare fortis stops (t, p, k) that resist voicing assimilation in modern Olympian.
Prosody: Stress is fixed by weight on a four-tier scale: long vowel (4) > diphthong / nasal (3) > closed-short (2) > open-short (1). Ties resolve to the leftmost heavy syllable. Critically, a word-final closed-short syllable is demoted to light status. This stress system explains why every Othryian -u ending reduces and apocopates: the stress is pulled rightward to the heaviest non-final syllable, leaving the grammatical case suffix weak and vulnerable to erosion.
From Othryian to Olympian: the Ordered Sound Changes
The transition was rapid by historical standards, perhaps four or five generations, and the changes interacted in a strict feeding order. The most consequential are listed below in the order they applied.
- Initial /t/-drop. Word-initial /t-/ before a vowel deleted unconditionally (tiku > iku > ika “craftsman”; tealu > ealu > iaw “standing-stone”). The /tr-/ cluster was protected by its onset partner (triyi > tʁi “three”).
- Geminate simplification. /tt, dd, kk, pp, bb, gg/ collapsed to a single segment, but the resulting stop continued to behave as fortis under apocope (see §6).
- Prosody-conditioned vowel reduction. Stress was assigned by the four-tier weight system above. The final unstressed vowel reduced to schwa (/-ə/, or /-ə̃/ if originally nasal); medial unstressed long vowels and diphthongs centralised toward their first element.
- Palatalisation. Coronals and dorsals palatalised before an unreduced front vowel: t,k → tʃ; d,g → dʒ; θ,x → ʃ; ð,ɣ → ʒ. Before /i, ī/ specifically, n → ɲ and l → ʎ. Crucially, this rule fired after reduction, so a final /-i/ that had already become schwa did not trigger palatalisation. This is why iti “is” surfaces as ia (no palatalisation) while viriθi “carries” surfaces as viʁi (medial /θ/ before unreduced /i/ does palatalise).
- Deaffrication. tʃ → ʃ, dʒ → ʒ, applied iteratively until idempotent.
- Debuccalisation. All voiceless fricatives merged with /h/: f, θ, x, ʃ → h.
- Lenition I. Word-initial /h/ before a vowel dropped. Intervocalically: /h/ → ∅; /ð/ → ∅; /v/ → /w/; /y/ → ∅; /g/ → /y/ between front vowels, /w/ otherwise. Adjacent identical short vowels then contracted.
- Nasalisation. A vowel before a tautosyllabic /n, m/, whether word-final or pre-obstruent, absorbed the nasal: /Vn/ > /Ṽ/, /Vm/ > /Ṽ/.
- Apocope. The final schwa was resolved by context. After a sonorant (or nasal vowel) plus stop, both the stop and the schwa dropped (murt-ə > muʁ; liwk-ə > ʎiw). After /h/, both /h/ and the schwa dropped (/h/ is not a legal coda). After an obstruent, the schwa strengthened to /a/ (tikə > ika; viaʒə > viaʒa). After a sonorant alone, the schwa dropped (iru > iʁ; inu > in). In vowel-vowel hiatus, the schwa dropped unless the prior syllable was a bare short vowel (iə > ia; triə > tri).
- Final stop drop. A word-final /p, t, k, d/ deleted in monosyllabic stems (up > u, nut > nu, poud > pou) and after a homorganic nasal coda (unp > un). Stops were retained after a nasal vowel (pĩp “five”, ʒiãt “ten”) and within /-rd/, /-rt/ clusters (eiʁd “heart”).
- Uvularisation. All /r/ became /ʁ/.
- L-vocalisation. Coda /l/ before a consonant or word-finally became /w/; palatalised /ʎ/ was unaffected.
- Diphthong realignment. Stressed /ea/ raised to /ia/ (ealu > iaw; peati > piā). Stressed /iu/ in a final monosyllable became the front-rounded /ü/ (niu > ɲü); before a coda, /iu/ became /ia/ (wiur > wiaʁ).
- Lenition II. A second wave of intervocalic weakening reached newly exposed stops: p → b, t → ∅, k → ∅, b → w (iku > ika > ia via this rule, but the irregular form tiku > ika shows the morpheme boundary blocked the deletion).
- Hiatus smoothing. Where two oral vowels remained adjacent without a separating consonant, /y/ was inserted in front contexts and /w/ in back contexts (iūlu > iyūw; cf. the modern clitic boundary rule).
The interaction of stress assignment (3), apocope (9), and final stop drop (10) is responsible for the dramatic morphological shape of Olympian: nouns lose their case suffixes wholesale, while finite verbs in -θi retain the /-i/ as a vestigial finiteness marker (palatalisation+debuccalisation+Lenition I yields a regular /-Ci/ that survives the apocope.)
Nouns and Plurality
Nouns occur in a single invariant form. Historically, the Othryian Direct (nominative) -u was prosodically weak and reduced to a schwa, then either dropped completely (e.g., dīwu > ʒīw), strengthened to -a when its onset was an obstruent that needed support (e.g., tiku > ika, viaʒu > viaʒa), or fed irregular contractions (e.g., uni > ũa). The Objective (accusative) endings -un and -um nasalised into a final nasal vowel (e.g., umtun > ũã). The Possessive, Dative, Instrumental, and Vocative endings all reduced or dropped. Olympian speakers eventually reanalyzed these resulting variant surface endings as lexical accidents.
Number is unmarked on most nouns. When necessary, plurality is indicated by numerals, the quantifier muʁya (“many”, from Othryian muriyo), or the enclitic =a in a partitive construction (“of the _”). A fossilized plural -ou survives in a few archaic and ritual forms, such as dīwou (“the gods”), which is used in formal invocations.
Clitics and Case Markers
All five clitics are unstressed and bind phonologically to the preceding word. They participate in the host’s stress domain but do not themselves attract stress. Hiatus across the clitic boundary is resolved by a glide-epenthesis rule: inserting y after front vowels and w after back vowels. The clitic itself maintains a fixed surface form, similar to the Persian ezafe -e/-ye.
- Genitive (=a): Derived from Othryian i (relative). Marks possessor, adnominal modifier, and compound head-marking.
- Differential Object (=nã): Derived from Othryian an (definite marker). Marks specific direct objects, typically definite, human, or otherwise prominent referents, mirroring the Persian -rā and Hindi -ko systems. A bare object is non-specific or indefinite (ʒīw aũ “he sees a god / gods”) versus a marked definite object (ʒīw=nã aũ “he sees the god”). Applies to definite/animate direct objects only.
- Instrumental / Comitative (=miu): Derived from Othryian me (“with”). Indicates instrument, means, or accompaniment.
- Locative / Dative (=ẽ): Derived from Othryian en (“in”). Indicates location, goal, or indirect object.
- Ablative / Source (=aw): Derived from Othryian au (“from”). Indicates source, origin, partitive, or “than”.
Examples:
- uʁeiʒ=a eiʁd (king=GEN heart) “the king’s heart”
- ũa=miu ʒweiʁ vĩ (sword=INS wild.beast strike-3SG) “with a sword he strikes the wild beast”
- ðeʒã=aw piawʁ oua (earth=ABL fire rises=swift) “from the earth fire rises swiftly”
Pronouns
| Form | 1st Sg. | 2nd Sg. | 1st Pl. | Proximal (PROX) | Distal (DIST) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct (DIR) | iʒou | tū | wiy | i | u |
| Objective (OBJ) | mei | twei | nou | ĩ | ũ |
| Possessive (POSS) | miɲ | iw | uya | (Uses =a clitic) | (Uses =a clitic) |
The proximal i (from Othryian i, from Ouranian še) is a demonstrative, relativizer, and the source of the genitive clitic =a. The distal u (from Othryian u, from Ouranian so) is grammaticalizing toward a definite article in formal narrative contexts: u uʁeiʒ “the king (we were speaking of)”.
Olympian requires overt subject pronouns in most contexts. This is the direct structural consequence of verbal syncretism. Because a single present ending -i covers the 2sg, 3sg, and 2pl forms, recovering person from context alone became unreliable. Therefore, pronouns placed directly in front of the verb carry the necessary grammatical weight.
Verbs
Othryian iθi (3sg, and 2pl) and -ī (2sg) both yielded Olympian -i after undergoing palatalization, deaffrication, and apocope. The response, mirroring the evolution of French and Middle English, was to promote subject pronouns to an obligatory status.
Modern Olympian Conjugation: viʁi- “carry”
| Person | Present | Past |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Sg. | viʁou | viʁã |
| 2nd Sg. | viʁi | viʁ |
| 3rd Sg. | viʁi | viʁt |
| 1st Pl. | viʁum | viʁã=wiy (Periphrastic) |
| 2nd Pl. | viʁi | viʁã=tū-wiy (Periphrastic) |
| 3rd Pl. | viʁũ | viʁũt |
Because the present 2sg, 3sg, and 2pl are identical (viʁi), they must be disambiguated by the subject pronoun: tū viʁi “you (sg) carry”, u viʁi “he/she carries”, tū-wiy viʁi “you (pl) carry” (using the innovative plural-marking clitic -wiy). The “finite marker” -i has effectively been reanalyzed as a general present-tense inflection. Similarly, -t (from the old 3sg past -it) has generalized as a past-tense marker carried by most persons.
The Periphrastic Plural Past: The historical 1st and 2nd person plural past forms were lost during the apocope shift. To fill this gap, modern speakers developed a periphrastic construction fusing the active participle with the plural enclitic. Thus, “we carried” is rendered as viʁã=wiy (literally “carrying-we”) and “you all carried” as viʁã=tū-wiy.
Historical Etymology
| Person | Othryian Ancestor | PIE Ancestor |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Sg. | virou / virun | *-ō / *-om |
| 2nd Sg. | virī / viri | *-esi / *-es |
| 3rd Sg. | viriθi / virit | *-eti / *-et |
| 1st Pl. | virumu | *-omos |
| 2nd Pl. | viriθi | *-ete |
| 3rd Pl. | virunti / virunt | *-onti / *-ont |
Imperative: The 2sg is the bare stem: viʁ! “carry!”, vĩ! “strike!” (< vin-), ʒnou! “know!”. The 3sg imperative survives strictly in archaic ritual commands: viʁü! “let him carry!” (< Othryian viriθu, with iu monophthongizing to ü).
Participles: The active participle is -ã (< Othryian -unt), producing forms like viʁã “carrying, one who carries”. The passive participle is a zero-morph -ø (< Othryian -tu), producing forms like viʁ “carried, borne”, which is homophonous with the 2sg past.
Syntax
SOV word order is required in neutral discourse: wiy ʒweiʁ=nã vĩum (1PL beast=DOM strike-1PL) “we strike the beast”. OSV is employed to topicalize the object.
The noun phrase is strictly head-final. Modifiers precede the head: adjective + noun (muʁ wīʁ “dead hero”), numeral + noun (tʁi ʒweiʁ “three beasts”), and genitive + head via clitic (uʁeiʒ=a eiʁd “king’s heart”). A demonstrative + noun uses the distal u in a weak-article role: u uʁeiʒ “the (aforementioned) king”.
- miɲ pueiʁ=a ũa tū=nã vĩ (1SG.POSS father=GEN sword 2SG=DOM strike-3SG) “my father’s sword strikes you”
Relative clauses are head-final, using i as the relativizer. The relative clause precedes its head noun: [i vĩ] wīʁ “the hero who strikes”, translating literally to “[who strikes] hero”. This structure mirrors the Persian pattern ([ke mizanad] pahlavān).
Yes/no questions are formed by sentence-final rising intonation with no overt marker. Content questions use interrogative pronouns (kwa “who?”; kwi “what?”) in situ, fronted only for emphasis.
The negative particle ɲi (< Othryian ne < PIE *ne, palatalized before the front vowel) precedes the finite verb: u ɲi vĩ “he does not strike”. Clause-initial ɲi delivered with emphatic stress expresses absolute denial: ɲi! kwa ʒnou “No! Who knows?”.
Sample Text
nu=a ɲiw=a ueiʁ,
“Star of the night, of the cloud-sky,”
uʁeiʒ=a uyha ia.
“the king’s oath stands firm.”
ʎiw unmuʁ ia, ʒīw ia.
“glory is immortal, the sacred endures.”
Olympian Lexicon (Alphabetized by Category)
Note on Semantic Shifts: As the Olympians established their rule, older terminology shifted to reflect administrative and theological concepts. For example, ʁiw (raw flesh) became a derogatory term for mortal subjects; uʁyun (war-chief) shifted to mean a sovereign judge; and ʒeimã (custom) formalized into the concept of divine law. Conversely, words like u (life-force) adopted connotations aligned with entropic decay.
Sacred and Ritual
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| alive/living | bīwu | bīw |
| blood | iaur | iauʁ |
| breath/spirit | unimu | uɲim |
| burning/fuel | iyðu | iyða |
| custom / divine law | ðeimun | ʒeimã |
| earthling/mortal | dʒimoun | ʒimoũ |
| fame/glory | liwu | ʎiw |
| fire / administrative hearth | peawur | piawʁ |
| god | dīwu | ʒīw |
| god/divine | ðei | ʒei |
| holy/strong | uwdu | uw |
| immortal | unmurtu | unmuʁ |
| imperishable | undviθun | ũdviũ |
| king | ureiʒ | uʁeiʒ |
| life-force / entropic decay | uyu | u |
| mind/fury | minu | min |
| oath | uyθu | uyha |
| pours/libates | ʒiwθi | ʒiw |
| race/kin | ʒinu | ʒin |
| smoke/incense | ðiwu | ʒiw |
| song/chant | inu | in |
| speech/fame | veamea | viam |
| word/voice | wifu | wü |
Sky and Time
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| dawn | uwou | uwou |
| day | diynu | ʒiyn |
| evening | wipiru | wibiʁ |
| moon/month | meiun | meiã |
| night | nut | nu |
| sky god | dyeiw | ʒyeiw |
| solar | iūlu | iyūw |
| star | uteir | ueiʁ |
| sun | ouwul | ouw |
| wind | weiuntu | weiũ |
| winter | ʒiyoun | ʒioũ |
| year/season | yeiur | yeiʁ |
Nature and Animals
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| barley | ulvit | uwvat |
| beach | veaʒu | viaʒa |
| bear | aurtu | auʁ |
| cloud/sky | nivu | ɲiw |
| cow | bouw | bouw |
| dog | wou | wou |
| earth | ðiʒoun | ʒiʒoũ |
| field | uʒru | uʒʁ |
| fish | pīu | pī |
| grain | ʒurunun | ʒuʁunã |
| horse | iwu | iwa |
| mouse | mū | mū |
| pig/sow | ū | ū |
| sea/marsh | muri | muʁ |
| sheep | uwi | uw |
| snow | nīp | ɲī |
| tree/wood | duru | duʁ |
| water (f.) | ufea | uyia |
| water (n.) | wudur | wuʁ |
| wolf | wulpu | wuw |
| woman/wife | binea | binia |
| dragon | wurmi | wuʁm |
Kinship
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| brother | vreaθeir | vʁiāʁ |
| daughter | ðuguθeir | ðuwueiʁ |
| daughter-in-law | nū | nua |
| father | puθeir | pueiʁ |
| friend/dear | prīu | pʁī |
| grandfather | uwu | uw |
| husband/lord | puθi | pu |
| mother | meaθeir | miāʁ |
| nephew/grandson | nifout | ɲiout |
| sister | wiour | wiouʁ |
| son | ūnu | ūn |
| widow | iwiðiwu | iwiʒiw |
Body and Self
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| arm | veaʒu | viaʒa |
| bone | uti | ua |
| ear | ouw | ouw |
| eye | up | u |
| foot | poud | pou |
| hand | ʒiur | ʒiaʁ |
| heart | eird | eiʁd |
| knee | ʒunu | ʒun |
| liver | yifur | yiʁ |
| man | uneir | uneiʁ |
| nail/claw | unup | un |
| name | inumun | inumã |
| nose | nea | nia |
| tongue | dunʒwea | dũʒwea |
| tooth | udunt | uã |
Verbs
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| asks | prīθi | pʁī |
| becomes/grows | vūθi | vū |
| binds | vinðiθi | vĩʒi |
| carries | viriθi | viʁi |
| comes | bimiθi | bimi |
| conveys | wiʒiθi | wiʒi |
| dares/is bold | ðiriθi | ʒiʁi |
| drinks | pouθi | pou |
| drives | uʒiθi | uʒi |
| eats | itti | i |
| feeds/guards | peati | piā |
| follows | īθi | ī |
| gazes/beholds | diriθi | ʒiʁi |
| gives | douθi | dou |
| hears | liwiθi | ʎiwi |
| holds/has | iʒiθi | iʒi |
| increases | uwdʒiθi | uwʒi |
| is | iti | ia |
| knows | ʒnouθi | ʒnou |
| lies (down) | liʒiθi | ʎiʒi |
| lives | bīwiθi | bīwi |
| pierces/impales | bilti | biw |
| places | ðeiθi | ʒei |
| praises | birti | biʁ |
| sees | wītti | wī |
| sits (in judgment) | idiθi | iʒi |
| sleeps | wifiθi | wi |
| sows | eiθi | ei |
| stands | teaθi | ia |
| strides | tīʒiθi | īʒi |
| strikes/slays | vinti | vĩ |
| thinks | minti | mĩ |
| thunders | tinuθi | inu |
| watches | pīθi | pī |
| weaves | wiviθi | wiwi |
Adjectives
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| black/dark | urnu | uʁna |
| bright/light | liwku | ʎiw |
| bright/white | viriʒu | viʁiʒa |
| dead | murtu | muʁ |
| deep/dark | ðiwbu | ʒiw |
| dry | tiru | iʁ |
| fitted/proper | iru | iʁ |
| free | iliwðiru | iʎiwʒiʁ |
| full | pulinu | puʎin |
| great/mighty | migea | miyia |
| high | virʒu | viʁʒa |
| light (weight) | ilinvru | iʎĩvʁa |
| long | dulɣu | duwɣa |
| middle | miðyu | miʒya |
| naked | nubu | nuwa |
| new | niwu | ɲiw |
| old | inu | in |
| pure/cleansed | piwunu | piwun |
| raw/bloody | oumu | oum |
| red | iruðu | iʁu |
| right (side) | dīnu | ʒīn |
| sharp/keen | uru | uʁa |
| sweet | weadu | wiada |
| swift | oū | oua |
| true/sworn | weiru | weiʁ |
| unconquered | eaviθu | iaw |
| warm/heat | vuru | vuʁ |
| yellow/green | ʒilunu | ʒilun |
Numbers
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| one | uynu | uyn |
| two | dwou | dwou |
| three | triyi | tʁi |
| four | pitwuri | pitwuʁ |
| five | pinpi | pĩp |
| six | wi | wi |
| seven | iptun | iptã |
| eight | utouw | utouw |
| nine | iniwun | iɲiwã |
| ten | diumt | ʒiãt |
| hundred | umtun | ũã |
Things and Culture
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| axle | u | u |
| door | ðwir | ðwiʁ |
| egg | uwyun | uwyã |
| gift | dounun | dounã |
| house | dumu | dum |
| mead | miðu | mü |
| path/way | piθumu | püm |
| plow | urutrun | uʁutʁã |
| salt | eal | iaw |
| silver/shining | urʒuntun | uʁʒũã |
| spring (season) | wiur | wiaʁ |
| stone | umou | umou |
| wheel | piplu | pipla |
| yoke | yugun | yuã |
Sword and Sorcery / Expanded Lexicon
| Meaning | Othryian | Olympian |
|---|---|---|
| arrow | iū | iyū |
| birth/clan | ʒiniθi | ʒiɲia |
| cattle/wealth | piu | pi |
| craftsman/smith | tiku | ika |
| darkness/gloom | iribu | iʁiw |
| fortress | uru | uʁa |
| gold | uwun | uwã |
| hero/man | wīru | wīʁ |
| horn | urunun | uʁunã |
| incantation | wipti | wipa |
| javelin/spit | biru | biʁ |
| metal/bronze | uyu | u |
| orphan/bereaved | urvu | uʁva |
| people/tribe | tiuθea | ü |
| raw flesh / mortal subjects | riwu | ʁiw |
| serpent | uvi | uw |
| shield | pilun | pilã |
| ship/boat | niu | ɲü |
| snake | unvi | ũva |
| spear | ʒeiu | ʒeia |
| standing-stone | tealu | iaw |
| stranger/enemy | ɣuti | ɣua |
| sword | uni | ũa |
| war-chief / sovereign judge | uryunu | uʁyun |
| war-host | uri | uʁ |
| war-levy | leawu | liaw |
| wild beast | ʒweir | ʒweiʁ |
Snapshots of the Labyrinth 