The Oecumeno-Davanian languages are a Human language family native to
Oecumene and central
Aresra. They have since spread worldwide due to colonialism. It is the most widely spoken language family in the world by both native and total speakers.
A feature of Oecumeno-Davanian languages variously preserved is the case system: Proto-Oecumeno-Davanian (POD) is thought to have recognised eight cases, which were inherited by its offspring languages. These cases were, ordered by most commonly preserved, nominative, genitive, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, vocative, and locative. These cases have been variously preserved. For example, while most
Dvekmenic languages retains seven cases (having lost the locative),
Varaso has lost all cases, though deriving from
Vallaran, which retained five, and a further marginal two. Modern
Tira Vellan retains four cases, though
Agian retains a marginal vocative. Most modern
Davanian languages have lost their cases. Most Oecumeno-Davanian languages, unlike the
Horil language and
Serrenic languages have grammatical gender. POD recognised three grammatical genders: male, female, and neuter (as well as a marginal common gender that could be either male or female). Some languages only preserve male and female, and some only retain gender for pronouns.
History
It was well recognised going back at least to ancient times that certain languages shared certain features or similar words, but a genetic relation between languages deriving from the same parent language was first posited in 2714 by
Tira Vellan scholar Phedos Diralos after studying ancient
Kushan texts and noticing similarities between the ancient language and his own native
Tira Vellan, despite thousands of years and kilometres of separation between the languages.
Urheimat and the Proto-Oecumeno-Davanians
The general consensus is that the Proto-Oecumeno-Davanian homeland was somewhere in the high latitudes of
Oecumene, in the region of the Sayedic Plain. During the Median Warm Period the region would have have a cold steppe climate, as opposed to the tundra that covers the region today, and the Proto-Oecumeno-Davanians likely practiced some sort of nomadic pastoralism or reindeer herding. They began to migrate south around the end of the Median Warm Period, some time during the third or second millenium BCA, around the time of the Dischitic Bronze Age. The reasons for their migration are debated, as besides the climatic pressure, they may have also been driven by expansion or migration of orsid peoples. Most scholars believe the Proto-Oecumeno-Davanians migrated south into Sossis and split from there into its various branches migrating elsewhere into
Eussis,
Tira Vella, and
Aresra.
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