Classical Dwarven language

The Classical Dwarven language - also known as Classical Dwarven Koiné - was a variant of Dwarven language, or rather, a stage during the evolution of the Dwarven Koiné. It was the lingua franca / koiné of the Dwarven region while it was a spoken language (between 1000 BEKE and 100 AEKE) - its spoken form eventually evolved into the contemporary koiné, while its written form merged into and influenced Temple Dwarven.

Evolution from Old Dwarven

 * The nine (eighteen with vowel length distinction) allophones of original three (six with vowel length distinction) vowels of Old Dwarven become phonemic.
 * - previously pronounced as - become the new
 * - previously pronounced as - become the new
 * - previously pronounced as - become the new . They retain their pharengyalized pronounciations. Despite actually being front vowels,  were treated as back vowels in all the shifts that followed.
 * The dorsal approximants become silent when not labialized, but their labialized allophones  are phomenicized. The only exception of  in the coda-position, which is reinterpreted as a vowel.
 * This introduces vowel-clusters to the language. Previously, all syllables had to begin with a consonant - additionally, there were no diphthongs, no consonant clusters. After the dorsal approximants became silent, word-initial vowels and vowel-clusters appeared. Diphthongs did not make an appearence yet, but several vowel clusters were probably pronounced as falling diphthongs in fast speech.
 * The original became postalveolar, leaving only the neutral  as alveolar.
 * The original three categories of consonants - dark, neutral, light - contract to just two: dark and light. Previously neutral consonants become light before front vowels, become dark otherwise. The only exception to this is the dorsal series, where the dark unconditionally merge into the neutral  instead. However, the original  do shift to  before front vowels.
 * The end result was a consonant inventory that consists of


 * Lenition: the original voiced stops developed fricative allophones  in post-vocalic positions. In the same positions, the original voiceless stops  became voiced.
 * Before other voiceless consonants, became fricatives instead . The only exception to this was word-initial consonant clusters like, where the second stop got lenited instead of the first one. For example, the original  became.
 * Certain grammatical contexts also invoked the lenition of voiceless stops to voiceless fricatives instead of voiced stops.
 * All in all, the end result was a consonant inventory consisting of.

Consonants

 * It is important to note, that the dark and light consonants weren't phonemic, did not contrast with each other, but instead were allophonic.
 * Dark consonants could only occour before the vowels and other dark consonants.
 * Light consonants could only occour before the vowels and other light consonants.
 * Consonant clusters were harmonized, so that a cluster could only contain light or dark consonants, never a mix of both.