Middle Iopon (jan 1, 320 – jan 1, 600)

Description:

Sound changes between Late Classical Iopon to Middle Iopon:
Vowel Centralization and reduction:
Unstressed vowels reduced to /ə/ or deleted entirely
Mid vowels /e, o/ merge with /ɛ, ɑ/ respectively
Final /a, ɑ/ weaken and drop, especially after sonorants
Exe. (to) that = /ˌsəl.ˈtɑs/ > /səlʦ/; We = /ˈes.xɑ/ > /ɛxə/

Final consonant loss:
Final stops and fricatives often are dropped & final vowel lengthens
/s/, /t/, /k/ > ∅

Voicing and Lenition of Intervocalic consonants
Intervocalic: /p, t, k/ > /β, ð, ɣ/
Land = /pɛntʰi/ > /peⁿʧʲɑ/ > /peɣə/

Merger of Nasals and Laterals
Nasal sequences simplified, sometimes lost
/n/, /m/, /ŋ/ > /n/; /l/ > /ɾ/ in coda
Flesh = /i̯eᵑg/ > /jɛŋ/ > /jen/
Thought = /æsɑlm/ > /sɑlm/ > /sɑɾəm/ ...> /sɑɾ/

Collapse of Case Endings:
Lost due to vowel erosion and merging of forms
Word order changes from SOV to SVO and prepositions are used more
Me = /eɪ̯si̯ɑm/ > /ˈiːsam/ > /is/ (which now is first personal pronoun)
(Of) us = /ɛcmi/ > /ɛʧʲi/ >/eʃ/

Palatal Merger and Glide Loss
Palatal consonants and glides collapse
/j/, /ʲ/, /c/ > /j, ʧ/ or drop
Palatalized stops merge with plain stops
Dipthongs with glides simplify (/i̯ɑ/, /i̯e/)
Iopo = /i̯opɑ/ > /jopə/

Stress Shift and Lexical restructuring
Fixed penultimate stress becomes universal
New paradigms form around stressed roots leading to syncope in pretonic syllables and prefixation of previously suffixal pronouns
Exe. To love = /hɑ.miˈe.ti/ > /həm'je.ti/ > /jeh.ti/

Consonant Gemination Loss
/tt/ > /t, ʧ/; /mm/ > /m, v/
Sometimes leads to lengthening of preceding vowel
Exe. People = /kœttɪm/ > /koːʧʲɛm/ > /koːʧəf/

Loss of Passive morphology
Passive morphology merges with active paradigms
Passive voice begins to be reanalyzed with auxiliaries or becomes rare (often in archaic or church speech)
Exe. I am stabbed = /fɑ̯ʊtkeɪ̯n/ > /fɑ̯ʊkɛːn/ > /fɑ̯ʊkeː viː/

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