Froturn Halfling language

The Froturn Halfling language is a standardized variety of Halfling, based on the Western dialects spoken in Froturn. While many speakers still speak their respective dialects, a lot of its speakers have learned it as a second language, and are thus picking it up for overall usage. In 810, as part of the reforms initiated by Consul Sim'vara, the Halfling language was finally given official status as a recognized minority language.

In Froturn
In the beginning - before the Kingdom of Etrand was founded -, Halflings were in absolute majority in North-Eastern Froturn, and they all spoke Halfling, with possibly only the community leaders and the clergy being bilingual in High Elven. They had a special status that historians now call "silent autonomy": they were taxed less, they were denied representation in the senate, but as a form of compensation, they had nearly complete autonomy over all matters, save for religion and foreign affairs. Aside from matters of spirit and diplomacy, the halflings were left to their own devices to deal with all of their internal matters which meant that despite a whole millennium of High Elven rule and missionary work, the Halflings have managed to keep their language. The fact that Halflings also conducted a lot of the inland trade between Etrand and Froturn also helped to preserve their language by keeping it important.

During the late 3th century AEKE and early 4th century AEKE, large number of High Elves began to migrate to parts once claimed by the Halflings, making it necessary to treat North-Eastern Froturn as an actual province of the kingdom rather than just a chunk of land populated by tributary tribes - a province taxed like every other, and a province that has representation in the senate like every other one. There was also the issue of prestige: High Elves speaking the one and only official national language of the kingdom were unwilling to learn a minority language, which meant that the Halflings were essentially forced to learn the language of their new neighbours. The days of silent autonomy were over: North-Eastern Froturn became a fully integrated part of Froturn proper.

After this came the issue of language and the senate representation they were promised. As the days of silent autonomy were over, the Halflings started facing crossroads: either stubbornly refuse to learn the national language, forfeiting the senate representation they were promised and forfeiting any possibility to represent themselves in the government, or learning High Elven for the sake of being able to represent themselves in the senate. As we know, the Halflings chose the latter: they began switching over to the High Elven language, and the Halfling language began to decline.

By 650 AEKE, only roughly 30-35% of all Halflings living in Froturn could even speak the Halfling language to begin with, let alone have it as their native language: the rest was most likely monolingual in High Elven. As this decline was noticed, several charismatic Halflings began to act immediately, ringing the alarm bells kicking off their nameless movement to revive the Halfling language. Truth be told, even before 650, there were several Halfling senators who were frustrated with the decline of their mother tongue and made a case for the Halfling language in the senate, only to get dismissed as an irrelevant issue compared to all the other allegedly more relevant matters at hand. But after 650, they began banding together, raising awareness about the decline of their beloved ethnic language, teaching their children Halfling and asking others to do the same. At the same time, they also made failed attempts at convincing the government to grant the Halfling language a status as officially recognized minority language and help them preserve the language. As part of their campaign to revive the Halfling language, they also reformed it, creating a written standard variant based on the local dialects.

Needless to say, despite the success of the language revival - raising the percentage of Halfling-speakers within the global Halfling population from the 40% of 650 to today's % by 800 - their representatives in the senate failed to gather enough support to win their beloved language official recognition... until something unexpected happened. The Froturnish Civil War of 809 ended with victory for the King's loyalists, who were led by the reform-minded and progressive Consul Sim'vara, who, after one and a half century of begging, has finally granted the Halfling language revival scholars their wish - giving the Halfling language official recognition as minority language and co-official status with High Elven in the North-Eastern province.

Halflings rejoiced, and ever the number of Halflings who speak Halfling proudly has been increasing at an even faster rate ever since.

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 (the only exception being loanwords that end with ). In cases of a type clash, the clusters must harmonize.
 * 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 High Elven 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.

Vowels

 * The open front vowels have been absent traditionally, but are being reintroduced and starting to replace  as a result of enroaching High Elven influence.  remains untouched, however.
 * 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.