Māryanyā

Māryanyā is an a posteriori conlang, meaning it’s developed from the grammar and vocabulary of a real-world language. In this case, it’s developed as a fictional descendent of reconstructed Proto-Indo-Aryan, the unwritten ancestor of Sanskrit, attempting to simulate the natural processes of language change.

Māryanyā is set in real-world Syria, in the Bronze Age kingdom of Mitanni. It has long been theorized that the names of the kings of Mitanni were in an Indo-Aryan language spoken by a class of charioteers called the Maryannu – the name itself has a cognate in Sanskrit, मर्य​ marya – who brought horses and military horse training techniques to the ancient Middle East. This language is only attested in personal names and equestrian jargon found in documents in other languages, so I sought to make my own historical fiction realization of it.