Eastern Halfling language

The Eastern Halfling language is a collection of mutually intelligible Halfling dialects spoken in the Kingdom of Etrand. It is an oral language without a written form - however, the Antanath Standard is a written standard based off the Eastern Halfling dialects. As a rule of thumb, Eastern Halfling dialects are phonologically more conservative than their Western counterparts.

Consonants

 * The consonantal system of Halfling traditionally divides consonants into two categories: Broad and Slender. The earlier can only appear before and after back and central vowels (never before or after front vowels), while the latter can appear before and after any vowel.
 * There are two exceptions to this rule: and, despite being classified as Broad consonants, also appear before front vowels.
 * Consonant clusters can only be formed from either broad consonants or slender consonants, with no mixing of the two types allowed. In cases of a type clash, the clusters must harmonize.
 * Word-final syllables can only be formed from either broad consonants or slender consonants, with no mixing of the two types allowed. In cases of a type clash, the clusters must harmonize.
 * The voiced fricatives originated from the postvocalic lenition of the corresponding stops, therefore do not appear word-initially or after nasal vowels in native Halfling words. They do appear word-initially and after nasal vowels in loanwords though.
 * and are not distinguished anymore in any variant of Halfling. Both of them are generally pronounced as an approximant  in all positions.
 * Under the influence of other local languages (such as Dwarven and Etrandish), are often pronounced as labiodental  rather than the recommended bilabial.
 * cannot appear word-initially or geminated. Both word-initially and when geminated, they are replaced by
 * can only appear word-initially, or between two vowels. It cannot appear after nasal vowels.
 * Nasal vowel +  clusters are usually pronounced as nasal vowel +   clusters instead. For example,  and  can be respectively pronounced as  and.
 * Some dialects may have a glottal stop or a glottal fricative  as a reflex for the Proto-Halfling . Other dialects will have  or, or have completely removed it.

Monophthongs

 * The open front vowels exist in only a few of the most conservative dialects and have disappeared in every other variant of the language, having shifted to  in all positions, except after, where they became  instead.
 * The front rounded vowels appear only in loanwords from Dwarven and Etrandish. Monolingual speakers have troubles with these sounds, and typically either break them into, unround them to  or back them to . The front rounded vowels are absent altogether from the Antanath Standard, in spite of it being based on Eastern Halfling.
 * Nasal vowels lose their nasalization if they are proceeded by a nasal+vowel cluster.
 * Nasal vowels tend to be dissimilated into vowel + nasal clusters before stop consonants and rhotic consonants, turning, , , , , , , into , , , , , , ,  respectively. This doesn't effect nasal vowels word-finally or before other kinds of consonants.

Comparison with Western Halfling
Eastern Halfling was heavily influenced by Dwarven, Old Etrandish and Middle Etrandish, in contrast with Western Halfling, which was instead heavily influenced by Classical High Elven, Vulgar High Elven and Middle High Elven (though Eastern Halfling did end up borrowing High Elven loanwords indirectly via Middle Etrandish).

This difference also manifests itself in both the vocabulary and the pronounciation.

Vocabulary
As stated previously, Western Halfling have taken on many loanwords from High Elven, in contrast with Eastern Halfling, which was mainly influenced by Dwarven and Etrandish. Western Halfling also created many calques based on High Elven words, while Eastern Halfling took calques from Dwarven. Nevertheless, not all differences in their vocabularies can be attributed to the different sources of loanwords and calques: several words with common origins take on different meanings. As a rule of thumb, Eastern Halfling tends to be more conservative and preserve the original meanings of words, while Western Halfling has evolved more.

Pronounciation
In the Halfling languages, the voiced plosives historically had fricative allophones  in postvocalic positions (but only after oral vowels, not nasal vowels) in both varieties of Halfling. Influences from foreign languages eventually made these sounds phonemic in both varieties. Nevertheless, not all of these new fricatives were preserved forever.

In both varieties of Halfling, merged into. Eastern Halfling preserved the remaining voiced fricatives, while Western Halfling lenited them even further, merging into  and never regaining them, with  being the only remaining voiced fricative in Western Halfling.

Both varieties of Halfling lost the voiceless dental fricatives of Proto-Halfling, but Eastern Halfling eventually regained them via foreign influence, but only in loanwords. Western Halfling never regained the dental fricatives.

Eastern Halfling also has an extra set of front rounded vowels that are only present in Etrandish and Dwarven loanwords. Needless to say, these extra vowels are absent from Western Halfling.

Shtílkolmi †
The Shtílkolmi dialect of Eastern Halfling is extinct. It was historically spoken by the Halfling diaspora in the Autonomous Dwarven Region and Stélhelm, and was the only variety of Eastern Halfling to have a writing system prior to the invention of Antanath Halfling and the Antanath script. It was heavily influenced by Dwarven and (Old) Northern Etrandish, to the point where some considered it more like a Dwarven-Halfling mixed language than a dialect of Eastern Halfling. Among the unique quirks of the dialect were:
 * Monophthongization of to, introducing that foreign vowel to native Halfling vocabulary as well.
 * Heavy Dwarven influenced enabled front vowels after broad consonants without the need for an epenthetic, albeit only in loanwords.
 * During the last centuries of the language's existence, it mimicked the sound shifts taking place in Dwarven, first shifting to, and then shifting  to.

At first, the language prospered, as it was used as a trade language. The mutual intelligibility between Halfling dialects allowed Halfling merchants based in Zorod Koldó im Neuna, Zorod Naugi im Pkhaur and Stélhelm to build up a trade network stretching all the way to Noldó Ranga, thus greatly contributing to the creation of the Mythril Road.

The dialect began to decline, because the various other Halfling dialects also began to decline, which eroded the language's status as a trade language. As the language was more and more heavily influenced by Dwarven - not to mention, the aforementioned vowel shift - it became less and less mutually intelligible with the other, more conservative varieties. As the Halflings in Froturn switched to the High Elven language, and the Halflings in Revel and Ehren transitioning to Etrandish, so did the speakers of the Shtílkolmi dialect eventually began switching to Dwarven, also learning Etrandish as a second language. As a matter of fact, the Shtílkolmi was the first one to go extinct, already dead by the late 5th century AEKE.

Jauli
Traditionally spoken in the Margraviate of Revel, where Halflings still make up the majority, but now mostly speak Western Etrandish, it is the only exant variety of Eastern Halfling. Its major characteristic is turning historical into  - e.g.  into, hence the dialect's name. Otherwise, it's a fairly conservative dialect, as long as one overlooks the heavy Etrandish influence on the vocabulary.

Ehreni †
Historically spoken in the Margraviate of Ehren by the Halfling minority, it is now extinct, with the local Halflings speaking Western Etrandish. It didn't have any noteworthy features, other than an even heavier Etrandish influence than in other varieties of Eastern Halfling - this can be explained by the long history of coexistence with Humans in the region, which, while may not have been always peaceful, did result in a good deal of linguistic exchange from very early on. The dialect was already in decline by the time the Kingdom of Etrand was even founded, albeit it wouldn't become completely extinct until around 600 AEKE, lingering on and surviving in small pockets for that long as it was gradually completely eclipsed by Etrandish.

As a result of the Entrandish influence on the dialect, coda-position rhotics were pronounced as an approximant  or the R-colouring of the preceding vowel, e.g. both  and  were both pronounced as  or ;  were labiodental ; the diphthongs  were monophthongized.