Ashno-Verethian languages
| Ashno-Verethian | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Pre-colonial era: Northern Etzavaz and Southern Ashnan c. 200 million native speakers |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primary language families |
| Proto-language | Proto-Ashno-Verethian |
| Subdivisions | |
 Present-day distribution of Ashno-Verethian languages in Etzavaz and Ashnan:
Ashno-Angkat
Cernian
Kholic
Southern Verethian
Western Verethian | |
 Countries where an Ashno-Verethian language has official status has co-official status is recognized as a minority | |
The Ashno-Verethian languages are a language family native to the northern half of Etzavaz as well as the Eranosphere. Some languages of this family—namely Hashdezi—have expanded through colonialism in the modern period and are now spoken across several continents. The Ashno-Verethian family is divided into several branches or sub-families, of which there are two main groups with languages still alive today: Ashno-Angkat and Verethian; one branch, Arthan, is now extinct. The Verethian sub-family is further subdivided into four groups: Cernian, Kholic, Southern Verethian and Western Verethian.
Today, the individual Ashno-Verethian languages with the most native speakers are Erayi, Dirhassian and Hashdezi each with over 50 million native speakers; many others are small and in danger of extinction.
All Ashno-Verethian are descended from a single ancestor language, linguistically reconstructed as Proto-Ashno-Verethian, spoken sometime in the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. The geographical location where it was spoken, the Ashno-Verethian homeland, has been the object of many competing hypotheses; the common consensus supports the Shtigu hypothesis, which posits the homeland to be the Shtigu River basin in what is now Teshkasta and Menkhemon. By the time the first written records appeared, Ashno-Verethian had already evolved into numerous languages spoken across much of Etzavaz and Western Ashnan. Written evidence of Ashno-Verethian appeared during the late Iron Age in the form of Arthan. The Arthan alphabet is one of the oldest known writing systems across the Four Seas region, descending from Marphat logograms.