Albionian

Albionian (ta Alabenꞅcina or ten Alabenscaì jiezaic) is a Slavic language spoken in Crackfic Irta Scotland. It has phonologically conservative features, such as the retention of the Proto-Balto-Slavic acute as stød, but is meant to be mutually intelligible with our Slavic languages, especially Czech and Slovak. It has as many Brythonic and Goidelic loanwords as Polish has German loanwords. It's notable for having vowel umlaut.

"What if Czech had a mixed OE-Gàidhlig-Icelandic orthography"

Todo

• u umlaut? a > au, e > i
• insular ꞅ for /s/, s for /ʃ/? or should it be the other way round (because Irish ꞅ would often be /ʃ/)
• -owat is sometimes -àliowat, which is the default when verbing new loans when not from Latin or Romance (-áil-ovatь, like Russian -ировать)
  • skoràliowat 'to score', guglàliowat 'to google', etc. but produkowat 'to produce', synkretyzowat 'to syncretize', mnaithowat/pomnaithowat 'to thank'
• Use the grave accent for long vowels like Gàidhlig (and a little bit of a Gàidhlig accent)
• Should be less head-initial than canon Bjeheond; should be a German~Icelandic relex?
• Alabenin = Albionian man, Alabenka = Albionian woman, Alabenie = plural
• soft yer unconditionally causes umlaut (unless analogized away or blocked by /w/) and umlaut caused by i/j is stress dependent (o and lengthened á get umlaut if unstressed)
• the big Celtic things are: unaspirated-aspirated with some preaspiration, θ ð corresponding pretty much 1-1 to Polish c dz, lack of metathesis and some Irish-inspired things like how čelweak is pronounced /tʃʰɛləβɪhk/; articles
• sv, zv > skw, zgw
• Initial stress, vowel reduction of short vowels, some umlaut to get aù, no yer-deletion if syllable is initial
• Changes found in other Slavic languages like vowel length and relative lack of palatalization from Czech (especially Common Czech), PSlav v > /w/, as well as some /l/ > /w/ as in Ukrainian; some /g/ > /ɣ/, also reminiscent of Czech
• the b~β~w allophony
• Made some weird choices in verb forms, like generalizing the PSlav 1st person *-xǔ in imperfect and aorist to all past forms, getting 1sg -ns in present from -m azǔ/-ǫ azǔ

Methavir nalaminyl mekerylide ester axoram:

• Goworins o tej milausti al o taì nenauwisti.
• Ci charniꞅ tai to dlamnie?
• Miluêm mai jej, tož čtim mai jeo prichod.

Phonology

Consonants

Standard Albionian in Albion has a slightly larger-than-average consonant inventory of about 27 consonants.

(Albionian orthography is fairly deep; the orthographic values in the table shouldn't be taken completely at face value.)

→ PoA ↓ Manner		Labial	Dental/Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/		ň, ni /ɲ/	ng /ŋ/
Plosive	voiced	b /b/	d /d/	(dž /dž/)	ď, di /J/	g /g/
	voiceless	p /pʰ/	t /tʰ/	č /tʃʰ/	ť, ti /cʰ/	k /kʰ/
Spirant	unvoiced	f /f/	th /θ/			ch /χ/
	voiced	w /β/	ð /ð/			[ɣ]
Non-spirant	unvoiced		s /s/	ꞅ /ʃ/	ꞅci, /ɕː/		-t etc. /h/
	voiced		z /z/	ġ, zġ /ʒ/
Resonant		-w, -g etc. /w/	l /l/	ꞃ /ɾ/	j, -i, -g etc. /j/, l̇, li /(Slovak ľ)/	[ɤ̃ˤʶ]

• Voiceless stops are usually at least as strongly aspirated as Japanese voiceless stops and at most as strongly as English ones. Voiced stops are fully voiced or partially devoiced.
  • preaspiration of postvocalic aspirated stops in coda or before a consonant; in natural speech, -t weakens all the way to [h] in this environment, as in skweatlo [ˈskwɛːh(t)ɫo~ˈskwɛːɬˠːo] 'light'. Thus some analyze /h/ as a phonemic consonant appearing in clusters such as /hp hl/ and word-finally. However, the 2nd person plural verb ending -t is always pronounced as [tʰ].
  • Word-final c is never preaspirated.
  • Consonant assimilations:
    • unaspirated stops voice before or after any voiced sound (vowel, resonant or voiced fricative)
• h is silent as in Romance languages (when not used in a digraph).
  • w has many allophones:
    • [w] or [ʍ] when it follows a consonant, according as whether the consonant is aspirated or not: skweat [skwɛ:h] 'world', kweat [kʰʍɛ:h] 'flower'.
    • [w] when not before a vowel: e.g. staw [staw] '(flowery) state, condition', o wꞅich was [ɔwˈʃɪχʍas] 'about all of you'. However, between words it may still be dropped: o wꞅich was [ɔˈʃɪχʍas].
    • [b] word-initially before a vowel and after /n/, thus merging with /b/: wečer [ˈbɛtʃʰɪɾ] 'evening'.
    • When not after a vowel but before a consonant, it becomes [χʷ], [ʍ] or silent: wčera /χʷtʃɛrə~ʍtʃɛɾə~tʃɛɾə/ 'yesterday'.
    • w as [v~f] is a feature of some dialects, which may be transcribed as vv, vf, or ff in eye dialects.
  • */nk/ assimilates to /ŋk/ (cf. Czech).
  • Medial g (when it is not ng) lenites and has complex pronunciation rules, similar to rules for writing the hamza in Arabic. These rules are listed in the order of decreasing priority (i.e. attempt to apply a rule if the conditions for the rules above it are not met):
    1. After /j/ or /w/, g is always silent: sag [saw] 'ledge', töga [tʰœjə] 'honey' (term of affection for spouse; a doublet of tunga [tʰuŋə] 'desire').
    2. After /r/ or /l/, g vocalizes to [ʊ] when non-prevocalic, and is pronounced [w] when prevocalic: darga /ˈdarwə/ 'a road'; darg /ˈdarʊ/ 'of roads'.
    3. After other consonants, g is pronounced /k/ and devoices a preceding fricative: mozg /mɔsk/ 'brain'.
    4. Unstressed go is pronounced /w/: jagoda 'berry' = [jawdə].
    5. Before the past tense affix -l-, it is silent: beagl [bjɛ:ɤ̃ʶ], beagla ['bjɛ:ɫə], beagli ['bjɛ:l'ɪ] 'he/she/they ran (ipfv)'.
    6. After back monophthongs, it is [w] and after front monophthongs, it is [j]. For example: rog [ɾɔw] 'horn; corner', beag [bjɛːj] 'running; race course', nogai [nɔwɪ] 'legs'.
    7. After a and diphthongs ie ů:
       • If the g is not prevocalic or precedes /a ə a:/, it is silent and a preceding /a/ is lengthened to /a:/: sarchag /saɾəχə/ 'coffin'. In the case of ga, the following schwa /ə/ is dropped as well: braga [pɾa:] 'yeast'.
       • If the g precedes a front unrounded vowel /ɛ ɪ/, it is pronounced /j/: bragai [pɾajɪ] 'yeast (gen. sg. or nom. pl.)'
       • If the g precedes a front rounded vowel /œ ʏ/, it is pronounced /β/: sarchagum [saɾəχəβʏm] 'coffins (dat. pl.)'
       • If the g precedes a back vowel /ɔ ʊ/, it is pronounced /w/: brago [prawʊ] 'yeast (voc. sg.)'
       • If the g precedes an unreduced /a/, then it is pronounced [ʕ]: prebiega ['pʰɾɛbiəʕa] 'it is in progress'.
• The letter ṙ for formerly palatalized /r/ was used inconsistently in Early Modern Albionian and quickly fell out of use. It corresponds to the Czech ř sound, voiceless /r/ or trilled /r/ in dialects.
• th ð = /θ ð/ in Standard Albionian. Nonstandard accents of Standard Albionian have various realizations for these sounds, such as [f v], [ts dz], slit fricatives or retroflexes: se nauth 'tonight' [sɨ'nœf~sɨ'nœθ̠~sɨ'nœʂ~sɨ'nœts].
• /l/ is velarized before back vowels. It is vocalized to a nasalized pharyngealized uvular approximant in coda: postel 'bed' [pʰɔstɤ̃ˤʶ].
• Voiced fricatives are not devoiced at ends of words.

h c q v x ph are used in Latin and Greek loanwords; they're pronounced the same as native ch k kw w ks f. For example: humanismus, calčium, qualita, variant, existowaṫ, philosophia [ˈʊmənʲɪsmʏs, kaltSi.ym, ˈkʰwalɪtʰə, ˈbaɾjənt, ˈɛksɪstoʊhtʲ, ˈfɪɫosofɪjə].

Pleophony

CVrC, CVlC is pronounced as CVrəC, CVləC; cf. Irish and Russian. e.g. smairt 'death' = /ˈsmɪɾəh/, galwa 'head' = /ˈgaɫəβə/, derwo 'tree' = /ˈdɛɾəβo/, welkej 'big' = /ˈbɛɫəkʰej/.

-w in word-final -rw and -lw is vocalized to [ʏ] and -g in word-final -rg and -lg becomes [ʊ]. For example: pozdarw [ˈpʰɔzdərʏ] 'greeting; regards (when signing a letter)'; dàrg /ˈtaːɾʊ/ 'of roads'.

Vowels

Standard Albion Albionian vowels

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i, ai /ɪ/	ì, aì /iː/	[ʏ]		[ɨ]		u /ʊ/	ù /uː/
Mid	e /ɛ/	ea, oe /ɛː/	au /œ/	aù /œː/	[ə]		o /ɔ~o/, l [ɤ̃ʶ]
Open					a /a/	à /aː/
Diphthong	ie /iə~ɪː/						uo /uə/

a e i/y o u/w au (ag) à oe/è ea ì ò/og aù/uê ù au ê/iê ô eo/oeo ìo aị aì/ei/eu = (unreduced) /a ɛ ɪ ɔ u œ aː aw ɛː jɛː iː ow øː uː œj iə uə ɛw~əw ɪw iː ɛj/

• è is used in foreign loans
• cy gy are pronounced /kʰɪ kɪ/, not /kʰɨ kɨ/.
• In standard Albionian, ea is pronounced as palatalizing long /ɛː/ when not reduced: jeat wai [ˈjɛːtʰ ʍɪ] 'y'all (familiar) eat'. After alveolar sibilants /θ ð s z ʃ ʒ/ it becomes /ɛː/.
• /ɛː/ shifts to /iː/ in basilectal southern accents.
• Initial ji jì jê > i ì ê in casual speech. For example, jiezyk /'jiəzɪk/ 'tongue; language' is pronounced ['iəzɪk].
• In noninitial syllables, historical short vowels are reduced and longs are shortened.
  • /a/ reduces to /ə/
  • /ɛ e/ reduces to non-palatalizing /ɨ/
  • /jɛː ɪ/ reduces to palatalizing /ɪ/
  • /ɔ/ reduces to /o/
    • slowo [sɫɔβo] 'a word'
  • /œ ʊ/ reduces to /ʏ/
    • steam deatum 'with the children' [scɪm ˈciətʰʏm]
    • maužnaust 'possibility' [ˈmœʒnʏst]
• /ɛɪ/ reduces to /ɪj/

Stress and tone

Stress is always initial. Vowels have two possible registers: stød and no stød. Stød is marked in dictionaries using the underdot.

Intonation

Similar to Danish or Hiberno-English

Dialects

Albion

In Albion, the relationship between Albionian dialects and Standard Albionian is like the relationship between German dialects and Standard German. Traditionally, nonstandard dialects were used in local everyday speech and Standard Albionian is used in writing, formal or religious contexts or in contexts where speakers from different backgrounds need to understand each other. Today, regional dialects are under pressure due to modern societal conditions, such as public education and mass media. Some Albion dialects even have retroflex stops and resonants /ɳ ɭ ʈ ɖ/.

Crackfic Trician Albionian is much more uniform and closer to the standard, with comparatively minor regional differences in accent and vocabulary.

Various dialectal isoglosses:

• /dl/ (Standard) ~ /ɾl/ ~ /ɭ/ ~ /ɻ/ ~ /l/
  • 'soap': maịdlo (Southern to Midlands) ~ mȳrlo/mȳḷo/mȳzho (Bristol) ~ mýlo (Northern England)
• Liquid pleophony vs metathesis vs none
  • metathesis (Some Scottish dialects)
  • pleophony (Standard British, Midlands and Northern England, some Scottish dialects)
  • no pleophony or metathesis (Southern dialects)
    • r + coronal > retroflex (Bristol area, now only elderly speakers)
      • 'crow': wāṇa /'bǎ:ɳa/ (standard wàrna /'bawɾənə/)
• Common Slavic accent
  • Common Slavic stress retained but not tone (northern and most Scottish dialects)
  • 4-tone system (Shetland, Church Alb.)
  • 3-tone systems (Midlands, Bristol area)
  • 2-tone systems (Modern Standard British Alb.)
  • only length (Wales)
  • new stress accent from length (Standard American Alb.)

Writing

In-universe, Netažin uses a Latin orthography similar to that of Vietnamese. Certain letters can take a palatalizing i which works much like in Italian and Polish: nia, tia, dia, nie, tie, die, ni, ti, di, etc. are read as ň ť ď + ia, e, ê, i, ì. It is traditionally typeset in the Gaelic Uncial type (cf. Fraktur for Czech), a tradition which survives among Crackfic Trician Albionian speakers.

The orthography is based on the relatively conservative southern dialect of ___ of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the pronunciation of the standard koine has absorbed influences from other dialects, such as liquid pleophony from the Talmic-influenced northern dialects. The underdot diacritic indicates the stød in dictionaries.

Morphology

Nouns

Like our Slavic, Albionian has masculine, feminine and neuter genders, and has the same gender markers as our Slavic. Gender-neutral forms are sometimes created by concatenating masculine and feminine endings.

Modern Standard Netažin nouns and adjectives have retained five of the seven Proto-Slavic cases: nominative, dative, genitive, allative from the PSlav accusative after prepositions, and vocative. (Dialects differ in the number of cases; some conservative dialects retain all 7 Proto-Slavic cases, while some dialects, particularly in Cualand, have lost case entirely.) The nominative is used for both subjects and direct objects; the dative fills the role of dative nouns and of the locative after some prepositions in our Slavic languages. The instrumental (instrumentaùl) is semi-productive in forming adverbs and expressions, e.g. prawdau 'really'; beagom 'during'; wuzglaindom 'owing to, in view of'; pomauthi 'with, using'; inaìmi slowai 'in other words'.

The instrumental has been replaced with the dative in the following way:

• Instruments use the preposition se + dative (just like the comitative).
• After prepositions where our Slavic languages use the instrumental, such as nad 'above'.
• Predicate nouns and adjectives that denote becoming or change of state.

Some nouns have different stems for zero and nonzero endings: den 'day (nom.)' > dnea 'days (nom.)'; caùn 'horse (nom.)' > caunea 'horses (nom.)'.

Some hard stem declensions

	wailc (m.) = wolf		galwa (f.) = head ġena (f.) = woman		perdseada (m.) = chairman		slowo (n.) = word
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	wailc	wailthi	galwa ġena	galwai ġenai	perdseada	perdseadi	slowo	slowa
Genitive	wailca	wailcow	galwai ġenai	galw ġen	perdseadai	perdseadow	slowa	slow
Dative	wailcu	wailcum	galwe ġenie	gaulwum ġinum	perdseadie	perdseadum	slowe	slowum
Allative	wailc	wailcai*	gaulwu ġinu	galwai ġenai	perdseadu	perdseadai*	slowo	slowa
Vocative	wailċe!	wailcai!	galwo! ġeno!	galwai! ġenai!	perdseado!	perdseadai!	slowo!	slowa!

* Sometimes -owea for humans.

Some wailc nouns drop intervening e or ai (from PS hard and soft yer respectively) when adding endings: pes 'dog' > gen. psa; cauthec 'kitten' > gen. cauthca.

In wailc nouns, -u is used for nouns ending in velars and -e for others.

The ending -e in the above declensions causes second palatalization: n ng t c d g ch become ṅ nn ṫ th ḋ ð s, for example:

• stàrna 'side' > na taì stàrnie 'on the side'
• dàrga 'road' > na taì dàrðe 'on the road'
• tônga 'desire' > se tônne 'with desire'
• uċitelca 'teacher (f.)' > taì uċitelthe 'to/for the teacher'

Some soft-stem declensions

Some nouns like list 'leaf' and caust 'bone' end in a hard consonant in the nominative.

	muġ (m.) = man list (m.) = leaf		caust (f.) = bone nauth (f.) = night		zemea (f.) = earth		saiꞃthe (n.) = heart		zdaùniê (n.) = fact
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	muġ list	muġowea, muġea listea	caust nauth	causti nauthi	zemea	zemi	saiꞃthe	saiꞃtha	zdaùniê	zdaùnia
Genitive	muġea listea	muġì listì	causti nauthi	caustì nauthì	zemi	zemì	saiꞃtha	saiꞃth	zdaùnia	zdauṅ
Dative	muġi listi	muġim listim	causti nauthi	caustum nauthum	zemi	zemim	saiꞃthi	saiꞃthim	zdaùnì	zdaùnim
Allative	muġ list	muġi listi	caust nauth	causti nauthi	zemi	zemi	saiꞃthe	saiꞃtha	zdaùniê	zdaùnia
Vocative	muġi! listi!	muġea! listea!	causti! nauthi!	causti! nauthi!	zemie!	zemi!	saiꞃthe!	saiꞃtha!	zdaùniê!	zdaùnia!

-ê nouns

	imê (n.) = name		zgwêrê (n.) = animal
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	imê	imena	zgwêrê	zgwêrenta
Genitive	imenia	imen	zgwêrentia	zgwêrent
Dative	imeni	imenum	zgwêrenti	zgwêrentum
Allative	imê	imena	zgwêrê	zgwêrenta
Vocative	imê!	imena!	zgwêrê!	zgwêrenta!

Nouns with pseudo-duals

	oco (n.) = eye		ucho (n.) = ear		runca (f.) = hand, arm
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	oco	auci	ucho	uꞅi	runca	runthe
Genitive	oca	aucì	ucha	uꞅì	runcai	runthì
Dative	othe	aucim	uꞅe	uꞅim	runthe	runcum
Allative	oco	auci	ucho	uꞅi	runcu	runthe
Vocative	oco!	auci!	ucho!	uꞅi!	runco!	runthe!

Miscellaneous

	ċelweac (m.) = human, person
	singular	plural
Nominative	ċelweac	lidea
Genitive	ċelweaca	lidì
Dative	ċelweacu	lidum
Allative	ċelweaca	lidi
Vocative	ċelweaċe!	lidea!

	aùteth (m.) = father
	singular	plural
Nominative	aùteth	aùthai
Genitive	aùtha	aùthow
Dative	aùthu	aùthum
Allative	aùtha	aùthi
Vocative	aùċe!	aùthai!

	sluġineth (m.) = child
	singular	plural
Nominative	sluġineth	deati
Genitive	sluġintha	deatì
Dative	sluġinthu	deatum
Allative	sluġintha	deati
Vocative	sluġinthe!	deati!

archaic singular: diềtiê, diềtintia, diềtinti; diêtiê is still used as a vocative like "child" is in English (but is mainly literary).

Loan declension

Masculine and neuter words from Latin, Greek and Lithuanian remove their original nominative singular endings when declined.

• Second-declension nouns follow the wylc declension: for example, soċialismus 'socialism', mỳthos 'myth', Mindaugas 'Mindaugas (Lithuanian name)'.
• There is a tendency to keep nominative and oblique stems separate where the original languages do; this includes nouns such as thema, themata, thematu, thematu.
• Second-declension words in -um or -on follow the slowo or saiꞃthe declension: for example, practicum 'internship'; critèrion 'criterion'.
• Nouns in -oe (for example, Athoenoe 'Athena') decline as feminine -e nouns; -ia nouns are a declension class of their own.
• More unusual declensions are normatively treated as having one of the regular native declensions. The plural of oethos is oethosy; using forms such as oethy would be hypercorrect.

Newer foreign -u names decline like slowo and -i names decline like -e nouns (allowed by Albionian vowel reduction). Female names ending in a consonant decline like caust: Ester becomes Esteri in the non-nominative cases. Names that don't fit into native patterns are indeclinable, and simply add the definite article: the female name Hanako becomes ta Hanako. The definite article declines when the name needs to be declined: ty walsy taì Hanako 'Hanako's hair'.

	mìthos (m.) = myth		practicum (n.) = internship		critèrion (n.) = criterion		geometria (f.) = geometry
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	mỳthos	mỳthai	practicum	practica	critèrion	critèria	geometria	geometrii
Genitive	mỳtha	mỳthow	practica	practic	critèria	critèriì	geometrii	geometriì
Dative	mỳthu	mỳthum	practicu	practicum	critèrii	critèriim	geometrie	geometriim
Allative	mỳthos	mỳthy	practicum	practica	critèrion	critèrii	geometrii	geometrii
Vocative	mỳthe!	mỳthai!	practicum!	practica!	critèrion!	critèria!	geometrio!	geometrii

The only irregular loan has a mixed Slavic-Latin declension (Christus 'Christ' is declined as a regular -us loan):

	Jèsus (m.) = Jesus
	singular
Nominative	Jèsus
Genitive	Jèsu
Dative	Jèsu(i)
Allative	Jèsum, Jèsu
Vocative	Jèsu!

Pluralia tantum

Neuter pluralia tantum in -a, such as ùsta 'mouth', warta 'door', nebesa 'sky', slowesa 'speech, words' (as opposed to slowa which is used for individual words), data, agenda are colloquially often feminine singular. (Propaganda is sometimes treated as neuter plural, which is hypercorrect.)

Articles (Articulai)

Like Irish and Welsh, Albionian has a definite article but no indefinite article; ġàba means 'a frog', and ta ġàba means 'the frog'.

tet 'the; that'

	m. sg.	f. sg.	n. sg.	plural
Nominative	ten	ta	to	ti** (m/f), ta (n)
Genitive	teo	taì	teo	teach
Dative	tom	taì	tom	team
Allative	teo	tu	to	tai

** The article and demonstrative tai is aspirated /tʰɨ/; the second-person pronoun tai is unaspirated /tɨ/.

Prepositions (Preposiċii)

Prepositions have meanings similar to their cognates in our Slavic languages: na, o(b), od, u (+gen), cu (+dat), do (+gen), wu, po, za, se (+dat), bez (+gen), dla (+gen), perz, pri, nad, pod, perd, ... The prepositions na, nad, o, po, pod, za, pers, perd, pri, wu take the nominative/accusative when they denote motion, and the dative when they denote location (depending on the preposition; the dative is used where our Slavic languages would use the instrumental or the locative). Unlike in our Slavic languages, there's no difference between comitative and instrumental; the preposition sâ is used for both.

o is ob before a vowel.

Possession is indicated using the preposition u, as in Russian: Les umne prìclad. 'I have an example.'

Some things that look like prepositions are not: e.g. the se in fixed time expressions se den, se jitro, se weċer, se nauth 'today, this morning, this evening, tonight' is actually a fossilized demonstrative from Proto-Slavic *sŭ.

Preposition + pronoun combinations

If the prepositional object is a pronoun, the preposition + pronoun is written and pronounced as one word: Bunde weċerca u Catheriny, ċi poidem my cunì ċil ne? /pʊndɨ bɛtʃʰɪɾkʰə ʊ ˈkʰaθɨɾɪnɨ, tʃɪ ˈpɔɪdɨm mɨ ˈkʰʊnʲiː tʃɪw nɛ/ 'There's a party at Catherina's, are we going [to her house] or not?'. If a preposition combines with a personal pronoun, -e- may be added between the preposition and the pronoun: for example: nademnau, nadetau, podemnau, podetau, yzemnie, yzetwe, yzese, semnau, stau.

Preposition + article contractions

o, pri, na, cu, wu, po, za, se + tom > om, prim, nam, cum, wum, pom, zam, stom

se + team > steam

Adjectives (Adjectìva)

Predicative forms of -scaì adjectives are in -scai. Hard stems:

dobr 'good'

		m. sg.	f. sg.	n. sg.	plural
Predicative		dobr
Adverbial		dobre, dobro
Attributive	Nom., Voc.	dobraì	dobrà	dobroe	dobrì (m), dobrê (f), dobrà (n)
	Genitive	dobroeo	dobraì	dobroeo	dobraìch
	Dative	dobroem	dobraì	dobroem	dobraìm
	Allative	dobroeo	dobrau	dobroe	dobrê (m/f), dobrà (n)

Soft stems:

ostateṅ 'remaining'

		m. sg.	f. sg.	n. sg.	plural
Predicative		ostateṅ
Adverbial		*ostatnie
Attributive	Nom., Voc.	ostatnì	ostatnià	ostatniê	ostatniê (m/f), ostatnià (n)
	Genitive	ostatnìo	ostatnì	ostatnìo	ostatnìch
	Dative	ostatnìm	ostatnì	ostatnìm	ostatnìm
	Allative	ostatnìo	ostatnì	ostatniê	ostatniê (m/f), ostatnià (n)

Possessive adjectives

In colloquial language, only nouns denoting family members have possessive adjective forms.

aùteth 'father' > aùthow, -owa, -owo 'father's'

matca 'mother' > matċin, -ina, -ino

For example: aùthow lewr /œ:θoʊ lɛʊr/ 'father's book'

In formal language, inherited possessive adjectives are used to denote concepts named after people (like German -sche); e.g. zcusitelnaust Bayesowa 'Bayesian probability'; functiä Wesselowa 'Bessel function'.

Verbs (Verba)

Verbs retain the Proto-Slavic aspectual distinction. There are a number of analytic tenses like in English and modern Celtic languages, but often only one of the two aspects allow the constructions.

The conditional form is a bit unusual from the perspective of our Slavic; it continues the PS 1sg -xŭ and 1pl -xomŭ imperfective and aorist form, analogized to other persons and numbers. It corresponds to the L-participle + by construction in Russian, Polish, etc.. There is no distinction between present and past conditional, unlike in English; the Albionian conditional makes an aspect distinction rather than a tense one.

• present habitual: imperfective
• present progressive: imperfective
• present perfect: perfective
• past imperfect: imperfective
• past progressive: imperfective
• preterite: perfective
• future imperfective: imperfective (formed with a (fused) auxiliary)
• future perfective: perfective (formed like present)
• conditional can be either

3pl forms of verbs are only used with the plural pronoun ꞅi (...nt wꞅi 'they all...'). Plural nouns and demonstratives take the 3sg form.

Special emphatic forms exist in the first person in formal language: senseꞅ 'it's me'.

Negation

Verbs are negated using the circumfix ne VERB als (etym. *ne ... wals 'not a hair of'), or colloquially, often just with VERB als. (als is pronounced /aws/) Als precedes the absolutive argument of a negated verb, as well as any absolutive argument of any lexical verb, UNLESS it is a subject personal pronoun for an intransitive verb (Chaudil sty als tam nicdy? = 'Have you never been there?').

• For intranstive verbs, especially ones that denote motion or a change of state, als precedes the subject (cf. German verbs that use the auxiliary sein).
• Otherwise, als precedes the direct object (cf. German verbs that use the auxiliary haben).

A noun preceded by als is required to be in the genitive: Cdoġ sparuê eaðeniê mynso? Ne sparuêns als eaðenia mynsa. [kʰtoʃ 'spaɾœ 'jɛðɪnʲiə 'mɨnsʊ || nɪ 'spaɾœns əws 'jɛðɪnʲə 'mɨnsə] (also eaðeniê mynsa in more informal contexts) = 'Who condones eating meat? I don't condone eating meat.' In the following tables, grayed-out forms are used in formal or literary language.

-aṫ

dealaṫ, zdealaṫ 'to do'

tense	1sg	2sg fam.	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	impersonal
present	dealàns	dealàꞅ tai	dealà	dealàm mai	dealàt wai	dealàn ꞅi	dealà-sê
present prog.	sens dealànth	stai dealànth	les ton dealànth	smy dealànth	swy dealànth	len ꞅi dealànth	dealàmo
past	dealalns, dealalans	dealal(a) stai	dealal on, ona; dealal(a/o) NOUN	dealaï smai	dealaï swai	dealaï ꞅi	dealalo-sê
conditional	dealachas	dealach tai	dealach	dealachum mai	dealach wai, dealachet wai, dealast wai	dealach ꞅi, dealaꞅin ꞅi	dealach-sê
imperative	-	dealei!	-	dealeim!	dealeite!	-	-
present participle	dealànthaì
past participle	dealanaì
verbnoun	dealauniê

-eaṫ, -iêṫ

wideaṫ, uwideaṫ 'to see'

tense	1sg	2sg fam.	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	impersonal
present	wiðuns	widiêꞅ tai	widiê	widiêm mai	widiêt wai	wiðôn ꞅi	widiê-sê
present prog.	sens wiðônth	sty wiðônth	les ton wiðônth	smy wiðônth	swy wiðônth	len ꞅi wiðônth	wiðemo
past	widealns, widealans	wideal(a) stai	wideal on(a/o); wideal(a/o) NOUN	wideai smai	wideai swai	wideai ꞅi	widealo-sê
conditional	wideachas	wideach tai	wideach	wideachum mai	wideach wy, wideachet wy, wideast wy	wideach ꞅi, wideaꞅin ꞅi	wideach-sê
imperative	-	wið!	-	wiðem!	wiðete!	-
present participle	wiðônthaì
past participle	wiðenaì
verbnoun	wiðeniê

-iṫ

nosiṫ 'to carry by foot (multidirectional); to wear; counterpart of nesṫ'

tense	1sg	2sg fam.	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	impersonal
present	noꞅins	nosìꞅ tai	nosì	nosìm mai	nosìt wai	noꞅên ꞅi	nosì-sê
present prog.	sens noꞅênth	sty noꞅênth	les ton noꞅênth	smy noꞅênth	swy noꞅênth	len ꞅi noꞅênth	noꞅimo
past	nosilns, nosilans	nosil(a) stai	nosil on(a/o); nosil(a/o) NOUN	nosii smai	nosii swai	nosii ꞅi	nosilo-sê
conditional	nosichas	nosich tai	nosich	nosichum mai	nosich wy, nosichet wy, nosist wy	nosich ꞅi, nosiꞅin ꞅi	nosich-sê
imperative	-	nos!	-	nosem!	noste!	-	-
present participle	noꞅênthaì
past participle	noꞅenaì
verbnoun	noꞅeniê

Changes in 1sg and 3pl present-system, participle and verbnoun forms: m p b n d t z s st > mj pj bj ṅ ð th ġ ꞅ sċ

• laumiṫ "to break, to split (impf)" > laumins, laumieniê
• taupiṫ "to heat (impf)" > taupins, taupieniê
• slabiṫ "to weaken (impf)" > slabins, slabieniê
• platiṫ "to pay (impf)" > plathins, platheniê
• raudiṫ-sê "to be born (pf)" > rauðins-sê, rauðeniê
• zmeaniṫ "to change (pf)" > zmeanins, zmeanieniê
• rozcaziṫ "to decompose (pf)" > rozcaġins, rozcaġeniê
• zcusiṫ "to try (pf)" > zcuꞅins, zcuꞅeniê
• odpustiṫ "to forgive (pf)" > odpusċins, odpusċeniê

-owaṫ, -naunṫ

The -owaṫ (the ending -owaṫ is pronounced /-oʊc/) verbs are from PSlav -ovati verbs, the perfective counterpart is -naunṫ from -nǫti.

beseadowaṫ 'gather (imperfective)'

tense	1sg	2sg fam.	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	impersonal
present	beseaduêns	beseaduêꞅ tai	beseaduê	beseaduêm mai	beseaduêt wai	beseaduên ꞅi	beseaduê-sê
present prog.	sens beseaduênth	sty beseaduênth	les ton beseaduênth	smy beseaduênth	swy beseaduênth	len ꞅi beseaduênth	beseaduêmo
past	beseadowalns, beseadowalans	beseadowal(a) stai	beseadowal on(a/o); beseadowal(a/o) NOUN	beseadowai smai	beseadowai swai	beseadowai ꞅi	beseadowalo-sê
conditional	beseadochas	beseadoch tai	beseadoch	beseadochum mai	beseadoch wy, beseadochet wy, beseadost wy	beseadoch ꞅi, beseadoꞅin ꞅi	beseadoch-sê
imperative	-	beseadui!	-	beseaduim!	beseaduite!	-	-
present participle	beseaduênthaì
past participle	beseadowanaì
verbnoun	beseadowaniê

beseadnaunṫ 'gather (perfective)'

tense	1sg	2sg fam.	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	impersonal
future perfective	beseadnuns	beseadneꞅ tai	beseadne	beseadnem mai	beseadnet wai	beseadnôn ꞅi	beseadne-sê
present perf.	sens beseadnunꞅi	sty beseadnunꞅi	les ton beseadnunꞅi	smy beseadnunꞅi	swy beseadnunꞅi	len ꞅi beseadnunꞅi	beseadnunto
preterite	beseadnôlns, beseadnôlans	beseadnôl(a) stai	beseadnôl on(a/o), beseadnôl(a/o) NOUN	beseadnôi smai	beseadnôi swai	beseadnôi ꞅi	beseadnôlo-sê
preterite	beseadnuchas	beseadnuch tai	beseadnuch	beseadnuchum mai	beseadnuch wy, beseadnuchet wy, beseadnust wy	beseadnuch ꞅi, beseadnôꞅin ꞅi	beseadnuch-sê
imperative	-	beseadni!	-	beseadnim!	beseadnite!	-	-
past participle	beseadnuntaì
verbnoun	beseadnuntiê

Irregular verbs

prìnṫ 'to get, to obtain (perf. of prìmaṫ)'

tense	1sg	2sg fam.	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	impersonal
present	prìmuns	prìmeꞅ tai	prìme	prìmem mai	prìmet wai	prìmôn	prìme-sê
present perf.	sens prìnꞅi	sty prìnꞅi	les ton prìnꞅi	smy prìnꞅi	swy prìnꞅi	len ꞅi prìnꞅi	prìnto
past	prìl(a)ns	prìl(a) stai	prìl on(a/o); prìl(a/o) NOUN	prì smai	prì swai	prì ꞅi	prìlo-sê
conditional	prijachas	prijach tai	prijach	prijachum mai	prijach wy, prijachet wy, prijast wy	prijach ꞅi, prijaꞅin ꞅi	prijach-sê
imperative	-	prìmi!	-	prìmeam!	prìmeate!	-	-
past active participle	prìnꞅi
past passive participle	prìnt
verbnoun	prìntiê

-ṫ

doert 'to tear'

present: druns, dreꞅ ty, dre, drem my, dret wy, drôn

past: derl

conditional analytic: deroch

past participle: derto

verbnoun: dertiê

d/t-stems go like this:

ċìst, preċìst 'to read' (from a combination of *ċisti and *ċitati):

present: ċituns, ċiteꞅ ty, ċite ton, ċitem my, ċitet wy, ċitôn

past: ċitl

conditional analytic: ċitoch

past participle: ċiteno

verbnoun: ċiteniê

noest 'to carry (unidirectional)':

present: nesuns, neseꞅ ty, nese ton, nesem my, neset wy, nesôn ꞅi

past: nesl(a/o/i)

conditional analytic: nesoch

past participle: neseno

verbnoun: neseniê

imperative: nes! nesem! nesete!

iêsṫ, sêsṫ 'to eat' is irregular:

present: iêns, eaꞅ ty, ea ton, eam my, eat wy, eaðôn

past: eadl(a/o/i)

conditional analytic: eadeach

past participle: eaðeno

verbnoun: eaðeniê

Note: In consonant-stem verbs, the past tense plural ending is -li. eadli smai = we used to eat (cf. arbii smai = we used to work)

-th

boerth, loeth, mœ̀th, biêth, riêth, liênth, poeth, pônth, toeth, tiênth, stoerth, stìth, strìth, toelth, woelth, woerth, wyrth, ġoeth

From PS *-ťi verbs. Two subtypes: the *gti verbs and the *kti verbs.

boerth 'to care for (imperfect)'

tense	1sg	2sg fam.	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	impersonal
present	berguns	berġeꞅ tai	berġe	berġem mai	berġet wai	bergôn ꞅi	berġe-sê
present prog.	sens bergônth	sty bergônth	les ton bergônth	smy bergônth	swy bergônth	len ꞅi bergônth	berġemo
past	berglns, berglans	bergl(a) stai	bergl on(a/o), bergl(a/o) NOUN	bergli smai	bergli swai	bergli ꞅi	berglo-sê
conditional	bergochas	bergoch tai	bergoch on(a/o)	bergochum mai	bergoch wy, bergochet wy, bergost wy	bergoch ꞅi, bergoꞅin ꞅi	bergoch-sê
imperative	-	berð!	-	berðem!	berðete!	-	-
present participle	bergônthaì
past participle	berġenaì
verbnoun	berġeniê

riêth 'say (perfective)'

tense	1sg	2sg fam.	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	impersonal
future perfective	reacuns	reaċeꞅ tai	reaċe	reaċem mai	reaċet wai	reacôn ꞅi	reaċe-sê
present perf.	sens reacꞅi	sty reacꞅi	les ton reacꞅi	smy reacꞅi	swy reacꞅi	len ꞅi reacꞅi	reaċeno
past	realns, realans	real(a) stai	real on(a/o), real(a/o) NOUN	reali smai	reali swai	reali ꞅi	realo-sê
conditional	reachas	reach tai	reach	reachum mai	reach wy, reachet wy, reacost wy	reach ꞅi, reacoꞅin ꞅi	reach-sê
imperative	-	reath!	-	reathem!	reathete!	-	-
past participle	reaċenaì
verbnoun	reaċeniê

baịṫ 'to be'

baịṫ 'to be'

tense	1sg	2sg fam.	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	impersonal
present	sens	stai	les on, os on, los on (colloq.) ġes on (relative), ċis on (interrogative)	smai	swai	len ꞅi, òn ꞅi, lòn ꞅi (colloq.) ġen ꞅi (relative), ċin ꞅi (interrogative), lesun ꞅi, osun ꞅi, ġesun ꞅi, ċisun ꞅi	les-sê
habitual	baìwàns	baìwàꞅ tai	baìwà	baìwàm mai	baìwàt wai	baìwàn ꞅi	baìwà-sê
past	bylns, bylans	byl(a) stai	byl on(a/o); byl(a/o) NOUN	byi smai	byi swai	byi ꞅi	bylo-sê
conditional	bychas	bych ty, byꞅ tai	bych, by	bychum mai	bych wy, bychet wy, byst wy	bych ꞅi, by ꞅi, byꞅin ꞅi	bych-sê
future	bunduns	bundeꞅ tai	bunde	bundem mai	bundet wai	bundôn ꞅi	bunde-sê
imperative	-	bônḋ!	-	bôndiem!	bônḋte!	-	-
present participle	sônthaì
verbnoun	bytiê

Verbs of motion

• to go by foot: ìsṫ (uni); chaudiṫ (multi)
• to go by vehicle: eachaṫ (uni); eazdiṫ (multi)
• to carry (by foot): noesṫ (uni); nausiṫ (multi)
• to carry (by vehicle): woezṫ (uni); wauziṫ (multi)
• to run: biêth (uni); biêgaṫ (multi)
• to swim: plauṫ (uni); plewaṫ (multi)
• to fly: leateaṫ (uni); liêtaṫ (multi)
• to lead: woesṫ (uni); waudiṫ (multi)
• to climb: liêzṫ (uni); laziṫ (multi)
• to chase: gnaṫ (uni); ganiaṫ (multi)

Pronouns (Pronòmina)

case	1sg.	2sg. (Albion; familiar)	3sg.			1pl.	2pl. (familiar in Albion)	3pl., 2 formal in Albion	refl.
			m.	f.	n.
nom. (emphatic)	aseꞅ, -seꞅ	tyꞅ	(t)onꞅ	(t)onaꞅ	(t)onoꞅ (an.), toꞅ (inan.)	myꞅ	wyꞅ	ꞅiꞅ	-
acc.	miê, mnie, -mnie (prep)	tiê, tebe, -twe (prep)	jei, -niei (prep.)	ji, -ni (prep.)	to	nàs	wàs	je, -nie (prep.)	sê, -sê (prep)
gen.	men, -mnie (prep)	teb, -twe (prep)	jeo, -nieo (prep.)	jì, -nì (prep.)	teo	nàs	wàs	jich, -nich (prep.)	seb, -sê (prep)
dat.	mi, mnau, -mnau (prep)	ti, tau, -tau (prep)	jem, mu, -niem (prep.)	jì, -nì (prep.)	tom	nàm	wàm	jim, -nim (prep.)	si, sau, -sau (prep)
poss.	môi	tôi	jeo	jì	teo	nàꞅ	wàꞅ	jich	sôi; walsnaì

The nominative forms ton etc. are used after verb forms ending in a vowel. Otherwise on etc. are used.

The form ꞅi is from *vьśi 'all'. ꞅi (same as the 3rd person plural) is also the standard polite pronoun in Albion. American Albionian uses wai for singular and plural familiar, wàsca for both singular and plural of neutral familiarity in the Americas, and tet pan, ta pani (pl. ty panowea, ty pani) are very polite.

Possessive pronouns

môi 'my'

	m. sg.	f. sg.	n. sg.	plural
Nominative	môi	mà	moe	mì (m), mê (f), mà (n)
Genitive	moeo	maì	moeo	maìch
Dative	moem	maì	moem	maìm
Allative	moeo	mau	moe	mê (m/f), mà (n)

tôi 'thy'

	m. sg.	f. sg.	n. sg.	plural
Nominative	tôi	twà	twoe	twì (m), twê (f), twà (n)
Genitive	twoeo	twaì	twoeo	twaìch
Dative	twoem	twaì	twoem	twaìm
Allative	twoeo	tau	twoe	twê (m/f), twà (n)

sôi is similar to tôi but with s- where tw- is used.

nàꞅ 'our'

	m. sg.	f. sg.	n. sg.	plural
Nominative	nàꞅ	naꞅa	naꞅe	naꞅi (m/f), naꞅe (n)
Genitive	naꞅeo	naꞅì	naꞅeo	naꞅich
Dative	naꞅem	naꞅì	naꞅem	naꞅim
Allative	naꞅeo	naꞅi	naꞅe	naꞅi (m/f), naꞅe (n)

wàꞅ is similar.

Uses of sam

Declension of sam

	m. sg.	f. sg.	n. sg.	plural
Nominative	sam	sama	samo	sami (m); samy (f); sama (n)
Genitive	sameo	samaì	sameo	samaìch
Dative	samoem	samaì	samoem	samaìm
Allative	sameo	samu	samo	samy (m/f); sama (n)

When sam is used in X sam (where sam agrees with the gender and number of X), it is an intensifier, meaniing "X himself/herself" or "the very X". Similarly, sie sam (where sam agrees with the subject) is an emphasized reflexive pronoun.

ten sam is a 3rd person pronoun in formal or literary language. They work like the German anaphoric use of dieser and are usually used to refer to the latest noun that has been used.

Demonstratives

Modern Netažin has no words for deictic 'this' or 'that', instead the words seam 'here' and tam 'there' are used for deictic purposes: to seam is used for 'this (thing)' and to NOUN seam is used for 'this NOUN'. For anaphoric use one can simply use a definite article or a third-person pronoun.

The formal language also has (strictly anaphoric) demonstratives tet (NOUN) zde or (pronominal) tet sam which is most commonly used to disambiguate the referent, like similar usage of German dieser.

• person: kto, tet/ta (NOUN) seam, tet/ta (NOUN) tam, nikt, neakto, wꞅekt/každej
• thing: þo, to (NOUN) seam, to (NOUN) tam, niþ, nieþo, wꞅeþ
• modifier: akej/kterej, takej ... seam, takej ... tam, žaden (with negative; aden with negative in flowery language), neajakej, wꞅestek/každej
• when: kdy, nyn, tom, nikdy, neakdy, wꞅewynþ
• where: kde, seam/tundy/tunde, tam, nikde, neakde, wꞅekde
• whither: kam, seam, tam, nikam, neakam, wꞅekam
• whence: od + "where"-words

wꞅestec 'all'

	m. sg.	f. sg.	n. sg.	plural
Nominative	wꞅestec	wꞅesca	wꞅesco	wꞅescai (m/f), wꞅesca (n)
Genitive	wꞅeo	wꞅi	wꞅeo	wꞅech
Dative	wꞅem	wꞅi	wꞅem	wꞅem

acaì 'what kind of, what (used to ask what X, given that it's an X)' tacaì 'such, like that', cteraì 'which (which item in a predetermined set of options)' decline as ordinary adjectives. The relativizer tacaìġ declines as tacaì + ġ. Wehn the relative clause has a copula, the relativizer combines with the copula to form tacaìġes etc.

Numerals (Numeràlia)

(colloquially those are just called ċìsla 'numbers')

0. nula; nultej

1. aden /'adɪn/; pairwaì '1st'

2. dwa /twa/; drugaì '2nd'

3. tri /tʰrɪ/; tretì '3rd'

4. ciri /'tʃʰɪrɪ/; ċcwairtaì

5. piênt /pʰiənt/; piêntaì

6. ꞅest /ʃɛst/; ꞅestaì

7. sedum /'sɛdʏm/; sedmaì

8. ausum /'œsʏm/; ausmaì

9. dewaint /'tɛβɨnt/; dewaintaì

10. desaint /'tɛsɨnt/; desaintaì

11.. 19: adnàst, dwanàst, trinàst, cirnàst, piêntnàst, ꞅestnàst, sednast, ausnast, dewaintnast /'adnast, 'twanast, .../; adnastej, dwanastej, ...

20: dwasti /'twastɪ/; dwastaì

21... 29: dwasti aden, ..., dwasti dewaint

30, 40, ... 90: tridesta, cirdesta, piêndesaint, ꞅesdesaint, sedumdesaint, ausumdesaint, dewaindesaint /'tʰrɪdɨstə, .../; tridestaì, ..., piêndesaintaì, ...

100: sto /'stɔ/; stotaì

200: dwestie

300, ..., 900: trista, cirista, piêntset, ꞅestset, sedumset, ausumset, dewaintset

1000: taisiênth /tʰɨsienθ/

Small numerals decline as follows:

aden '1'

	m.	f.	n.
Nominative	aden	adna	adno
Genitive	adneo	adnaì	adneo
Dative	adnem	adnaì	adnem

dwa '2'

	m.	f.	n.
Nominative	dwa	dwe	dwe
Genitive	dwei	dwei	dwei
Dative	dweam	dweam	dweam

oba 'both' declines the same way:

oba 'both'

	m.	f.	n.
Nominative	oba	obea	obea
Genitive	obei	obei	obei
Dative	obeam	obeam	obeam

tri '3' and ċiri '4'

	tri '3'	čiri '4'
Nominative	tri	ciri
Genitive	trì	cirì
Dative	trim	cirum

Nouns following numbers five and above require the genitive case, in contexts that require the nominative case.

Conjunctions (Conjunctii)

• i(l), a(l) = 'and'
  • Though i and a had different meanings up to EMAlb, the choice between i and a is purely phonetically determined in the modern language. a(l) is used after /i: ɪ ɨ/, y(l) otherwise. The -l (from *li) is used iff a vowel follows.
• ċi, libo, alibo = 'or'
  • àb = (literary) 'or'
• ale = 'but'
• aċcoi tac = 'however'
• estli = 'if'
• zaċ 'why?'
• nebo(ꞅ) = 'because'; can't be used at the beginning of the sentence
• tomże = because (can be used to start a sentence)
• reaċì teo ġe = (formal) 'because'
• dôwodem teo ġe = (formal) 'because'
• staùniêm teo, ġe = (formal) 'because'
• zato(ġ) 'that's why'
• abo(wêꞅ), boI(wêꞅ), nebowêꞅ = (literary) 'for'
• aġ 'so that'
• achġ (literary) 'in order that'
• cdyġ 'when'
• bônḋ... ċi... = 'either... or'
• ne telco... ale pac... = 'not only... but also...'
• neġ = 'than'
• choṫ, chotiaġ = 'although'
  • aċcoi is more formal.
• ċil, ċili = question particle

Derivation

• -skej/-sky deletes a preceding *k (from a *θs~*ts > *s rule), umlauts and/or first palatalizes
  • mod lokriskej = Locrian mode
• -en umlauts and/or 1st-palatalizes
  • podöben 'similar' < podoba 'likeness, appearance'
  • weačen 'eternal' < weak 'age'
• -öst, (i)-stwo, -öta, (i)-ba abstract noun suffixes

Syntax

Strict VSO; other aspects of syntax more SAE

"There is" and "to have"

In the past tense, the verb bylo agrees with the gender of the (first) subject in affirmatives but defaults to masculine singular when negated:

• Byla ġena y piênt deatì unie. = He had a wife and five children.
• Ne byl als teo lewra semnau. = I didn't have the book with me.

To like

Lib X.DAT Y = X likes Y

e.g. Lib mi led wanilowaì. I like vanilla ice cream.

Niêst lib mi... = I don't like...

'To hate' simply uses the regular verb nenaùwideaṫ in formal language. In informal language the gnus mi construction is used.

Relative clauses

To form a relative clause, usually the relativizer cde (indeclinable) is used after the noun phrase. Formal or literary writing may use the relativizer tacaìġ, which declines but is not a true relative pronoun; it agrees with the case of the head in the matrix clause (cf. Arabic allaðī). Jeġ is only used archaically. In both cases, a resumptive pronoun is used when the head is not a subject or a direct object in the relative clause:

Baila auwtha tacàġ ne bail unì als wolnai

be.PST-3SG.F sheep-NOM.SG, REL.NOM.SG.F NEG be.PST.3SG.M by-(RES)3SG.F.GEN NEG wool-GEN.SG

There was a sheep which had no wool

Vocabulary

Celtic loans

For Germanic words in our Slavic, Albionian uses Celtic or Latin words instead:

• tet briêntin (PCeltic *brigant-) = king
• tet tauwsàc, ta tauwsàċca (*tovĭsakŭ, from PCeltic *towissākos) = prince (all senses)
• tet draiw = wren

Latin loans

(mainly religious and official words)

• tet lewr (from Latin liber) = book
• wendìthiṫ, po- (from Latin benedico, via Brythonic) = to bless
  • has doublet mnaithowaṫ, po- = to thank
• zamechtìthen (from maledico via Welsh melltithio) = (attributive only) goddamn, bloody
  • zachtìthen is more vulgar.

Proto-English loans

• to melco = Borrowing from Proto-English?

Internationalisms

In Latin loans, vowel lengths are determined by the position of stress; long vowels are used where the Latin has a long vowel in the antepenultimate or the penultimate. In Greek loans, the original Greek length is used to determine the length of every vowel. e.g. misogynen (BrAlb. /ˈmɪsʊwɪnɪn/ AmAlb /mɪˈsɔwɪnɪn/) 'misogynistic' from μισογύνης.

• -iscaì '-ic, -ical' (soemantiscaì 'semantic')
• -aùlen '-al' (mùsicaùlen 'musical', mentaùlen 'awesome, amazing')
• -aùren '-ar, -ary' (militaùren 'military')
• -en '(when the source word does not have a suffix)' (homogenen 'homogeneous', intimen'intimate')
• -aùsen '-ous' (nervaùsen 'nervous')
• -ìven '-ive' (alternatìven 'alternative')
• -tiä '-tion, -ce, -cy'
  • This causes Albionian speakers to sometimes confuse these suffixes in English.
• -tiën '-tional, -tionary'
• -ita '-ity', -itaùren '-itarian' (aùthorita BrAlb /ˈœjθɔɾɪtʰə/ AmAlb /œʏˈθɔɾɪtə/ 'authority', aùthoritaùren BrAlb /ˈœjθɔɾɪtœɾən/ AmAlb /œʏθɔɾɪˈtœɾən/ 'authoritarian')
• -se '-sis' (synthese 'synthesis')
• -tùra (literatùra 'literature')
• -ist '-ist' (noun)
  • -istiscaì '-ist' (adjective)

Phrasebook

• Zdarw (informal), Zdarwte (formal) = Hello
• Tho ġes ta weath? = What's up? (lit. What's the thing?)
• Mnaithi = Thank you
  • Mnaithi stocàrt /mniθi stokha:ST/ = Thank you so much (lit. thank you a hundred times)

Sample texts

Schleicher

Ta auwtha ai tai caunia

Baila auwtha tacàġ ne bail unì als wolnai, il uwideal ona tꞃi caunia: aden taingànth wôz tiêġcaì, aden nesônth noꞅe welcà, il aden nesônth ċelweac boꞃzo. ꞃeala ta auwtha team caunim: "Bolì moe saiꞃthe cdaiġ wiðuns ċelweac na eazdienì na caunia." Odpoweadeali tai caunia: "Sluchoì, auwtho! Bolì naꞅe saiꞃthe cdaiġ widiêm mai to: beꞃe ċelweac, ten gospodin, ta wolna taì auwthai a dealà ton oðeda teplà iznì. I nêst als wolnai u taì auwthai." Uslaiꞅꞅi to, nabeagla ta auwtha do teo pola.

UDHR

Ꞃaudì-sê wꞅescai lidea waulnê i sobie aꞃwnê wu saì dôstauinausti a saìm pꞃàwum. Lesun ꞅi nadàꞃenê ꞅe aꞃzumu i pꞃawoznaùnì, tedai les dolg nanim ċiniṫ aden wuzglaindem teo dꞃugoeo wu duchu teo bꞃatꞃstwa.

Early Modern Albionian

Today some syntactic constructions and endings from Early Modern Netažin still survive in poetic or flowery Netažin, but the register as a whole sounds markedly religious and is thus not used even in modern fantasy or historical fiction.

Accent

• Old acute (modern stød): ạ
• Neoacute (high rising): á
• Dipping-rising: à (resulting from contraction of VjV)
• Grave or circumflex (low): à (long but not acute)
• Unaccented: a (resulting from stress shift to initial)

All of those diacritics (except the flat one for length) are obsolete today, except the old acute in dictionaries; neoacute, old acute dipping rising and grave all merged into length marked with the question-mark diacritic. Only old editions of religious and liturgical texts consistently use tone diacritics.

Morphology

• Instrumental case (instrumentaùl)
• Pseudo-dual dative and instrumental endings in -ma: walsnaìma dweama aucima 'with one's own two eyes'
• Some archaic forms such as ꞃeacl 'he said' for ꞃeal
• Possessive adjectives in -ow or -in more widespread (ty marchogowea Arþyrowai 'Arthur's knights', modern ty marchogowea Arthyra)
• Infinitives in -ti or -thi (e.g. dealati, rieþi)
• Pro-drop when the subject is not 3rd person
• 3sg, 2pl and 3pl present and future perfective forms in -t, -te and -nt (e.g. dealàt, dealàte, dealànt, sometimes for more archaic effect dealaït, dealaïte, dealaïnt); the 3pl form is always used with a plural subject.
• ne used without als.
• est and sunt are used for 3sg and 3pl present of baịt (The modern forms les/os and len/lesun/òn/osun are from gleḋ/ot est 'here is' and gleḋ/ot sunt.)
• definite articles in genitive phrases: a genitive phrase of the form X DEF.GEN Y.GEN is implied to be definite (cf. Hebrew and Irish). On the other hand, Modern Albionian usually requires X to take the definite article as well.
• The use of -li on verbs for interrogatives: znạꞅ-li? 'dost thou know? kennst du?' This still survives as a way to mark conditional clauses in modern formal language.
• -mo is sometimes used instead of -m for dative (but not instrumental) singular masculine and neuter adjectives and pronouns: spiewejte jemo pieseň nowa 'sing unto him a new song', prechodnejmo 'fleeting'. -mo is still found in literary poetry but it doesn't consistently correspond to the Proto-Slavic dative.
• Adjectives may come before nouns.
• Early Modern Albionian disallowed morphological "double negatives":
  • ne... aden X instead of ne... wals ġàdnoeo X
  • ne... weath instead of ne... wals niċeo
  • ne... ċelweac 'not a human' instead of ne... wals niceo