Iberic

Iberic хэбьер̀эч йэзок
Pronounced:	Standard: /xɛ.bʲer.ɛt͡ʃ jɛ.zok/ Northern: [xɛ.bʲe.rɛt͡ʃ jɛ.zok] Southern: [x(ɜ)bʲert͡ʃ jzok]
Species:	Human
Spoken:	Mainly around Basque country
Total speakers:	~4,000,000
Writing system:	Cyrillic
Genealogy:	Proto-Slavic Old Iberic Iberic
Typology
Morphological type:	Fusional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Ergative
Basic word order:	Free
Credits
Creator:	Lumi
Created:	December 11th, 2025

Iberic (Iberic: хэбьер̀эч йэзок, /xɛ.bʲer.ɛt͡ʃ jɛ.zok/) is a Slavic language spoken in Iberia, around Basque country, it is notable for the significant amount of influence it has recieved from Basque, especially the shift of the nominative/accusative system into an ergative/absolutive one.

Dialects

Iberic has two main dialects (though they are more accurately called "dialect groups"), those being Northern and Southern. The standard form of the language is based on the Northern varieties, as they tend to preserve vowels better.

The largest difference between Northern and Southern is pronunciation, as grammar stays relatively uniform across all varieties.

Northern

Northern (Iberic: шеврхэбьер̀эч йэзок (formal) or шеврйэзок (usual)) is spoken in the Basque autonomous region of Spain.

Northern is often considered the more prestigious dialect, especially that spoken in and around Vitoria-Gasteiz, though the far north varieties are often considered improper by those farther south, this leads to a stigma around it for some speakers, which causes them to try to use a different variety, often overcorrecting themselves.

Southern

Southern is spoken in Basque country, in the areas south of the Basque autonomous region.

Southern is known for its vowel deletion (affecting reduced /ɛ/ and /ɔ/), which leads to clusters the Northern dialects do not allow, such as [jzok] (Northern [jɜ.zok]), see the phonology section below for further information.

Phonology and Orthography

Phonology

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Plosive	Unvoiced	p	t	c	k
	Voiced	b	d	ɟ	g
Fricative	Unvoiced	f	s̻¹, s̺²	ʃ	x
	Voiced		z	ʒ
Affricate	Unvoiced		t͡s̺	t͡ʃ
	Voiced			d͡ʒ
Approximant		ʋ	ɾ³, r³	j
Lateral			l	ʎ⁴

1: May be realized as [θ] in some Southern varieties.

2: May merge with /ʃ/ or become [s] in Southern varieties.

3: In the far north, these often merge to [ʁ], which has been called the "Northern burr", after the Northumbrian burr.

4: Southern varieties may shift this to [ʝ].

Orthography

Letter	Transcription	Name	Pronunciation
			Phoneme	North	South
А а	A a		/ɑ/	[ɑ~ɐ~ä]	[ɑ~ɐ~ä]
Б б	B b		/b/	[b]	[b~β̞]
В в	V v		/ʋ/	[ʋ]	[ʋ]
Г г	G g		/ɡ/	[ɡ]	[ɡ~ɣ̞]
Ѓ ѓ	Ď ď		/ɟ/	[ɟ]	[ɟ~ʝ̞~j]
Д д	D d		/d/	[d]	[d~ð̞]
Е е	E e		/e/	[e~ɘ]	[e~ɘ~ə]
Ж ж	Ž ž		/ʒ/	[ʒ]	[ʒ]
З з	Z z		/z/	[z]	[z]
И и	I i		/i/	[i~ɨ]	[i~ɨ]
Й й	Y y		/j/	[j]	[j]
К к	K k		/k/	[k]	[k]
Ќ ќ	Ť ť		/c/	[c]	[c~kʲ]
Л л	L l		/l/	[l]	[l]
Л́ л́	Ľ ľ		/ʎ/	[ʎ~ʝ]	[ʝ]
М м	M m		/m/	[m]	[m]
Н н	N n		/n/	[n]	[n]
Н́ н́	Ň ň		/ɲ/	[ɲ]	[ɲ]
О о	O o		/o/	[o~ɵ]	[o~ɵ~ə]
П п	P p		/p/	[p]	[p]
Р р	R r		/ɾ/	[ɾ~r]	[ɾ]
Р̀ р̀	Ř ř		/r/	[r]	[r]
С с	S s		/s̻/	[s̻]	[s̻~θ]
Т т	T t		/t/	[t]	[t]
У у	U u		/u/	[u~ʊ]	[u~ʊ]
Ф ф	F f		/f/	[f]	[f]
Х х	H h		/x/	[x]	[x]
Ц ц	Č č		/t͡s̺/	[t͡s̺]	[t͡s̺~t͡ʃ]
Џ џ	J j		/d͡ʒ/	[d͡ʒ]	[d͡ʒ]
Ч ч	Ć ć		/t͡ʃ/	[t͡ʃ]	[t͡ʃ]
Ш ш	Ś ś		/ʃ/	[ʃ]	[ʃ]
Щ щ	Š š		/s̺/	[s̺]	[s̺~ʃ]
Ъ ъ	Ǫ ǫ		/ɔ/	[ɔ~ɞ]	[ɔ~ɞ~∅]
Ь ь	Y y		/ʲ/	[ʲ]	[ʲ]
Э э	Ę ę		/ɛ/	[ɛ~ɜ]	[ɛ~ɜ~∅]

Allophony

• /i/ is often close to [ɨ] word initially, and always such after palatal consonants (as in "žima" - /ʒi.mɑ/ [ʒɨ.mɐ])
• /ɑ/ can be [ɐ] when following a cardinal vowel (/i, u, e, o/, /i/ includes [ɨ]), unless before a rhotic, where it is always [ä].
• /i̯, u̯/ are closer to [ɪ̯, ʊ̯] in diphthongs, and /ɑ-/ is realized closer to [ä].
• Word initial /e/ may be [je] in far north varieties, this is especially common among younger speakers.
• /s̻/, when clustered with palatals (as in /sɲ/), becomes [ɕ].
• Word finally, voiceless stops are aspirated.
• /eR, ɛR/ and /ɔR, oR/, where /R/ is a coda rhotic, are always [ɛR] and [ɔR], /uR/ is variable, [uR] is most common in Northern varieties, though the far north uses [ʊR], and the south often uses [əR] or [uR], but /ur/ is often [r̩] in all varieties.
• /xʋ/ is almost always realized as [ʋ̥].

Grammar

Morphology

Roughly speaking, Iberic is a fusional language with ergative/absolutive alignment, though the system is far more in depth than that.

Nouns

Nouns have six cases, those are: Ergative, Genitive, Dative, Absolutive, Instrumental, and Locative. Some elder speakers may retain a vocative, but it has often merged with the ergative form-wise.

As the ergative/absolutive alignment was a new innovation, the dictionary form is the ergative, not the absolutive.

Nouns have several patterns, they are:

Short o — From Proto-Slavic's O stems.

Short o, plain — From Proto-Slavic's Hard O stem.

Short o, palatal — From Proto-Slavic's soft O stem.

ę — From Proto-Slavic's Soft O stem

Long ę — Formed from a contraction, acts like an irregular form of the ę stem

ǫ — From Proto-Slavic's Hard O stem

a — From Proto-Slavic's A stems

i — From Proto-Slavic's I stems

(list not complete)

The following is a set of tables to display the noun inflections.

агн́эт (Short o, plain)

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Ergative	агн́эт	агн́эда	агн́эдэже
Genitive	агн́эда	агн́эбу	агн́эт
Dative	агн́эбу	агн́эдъма	агн́эдъм
Absolutive	агн́эт	агн́эда	агн́эдо
Instrumental	агн́эдъмь	агн́эдъма	агн́эдо
Locative	агн́эдэж	агн́эбу	агн́эдэжэ