Verse:Tdūrzů/Knench

Knench /nɛnt͡ʃ/ (natively /ˈkʰnɔ̃ːnɪð/) is a divergent descendent of Canaanite spoken in Lõis Great Britain. It does not lose Semitic triconsonantal morphology, but it loses older Semitic conjugated verb forms in favor of a construction using the infinitive construct. Knench is the second largest Lõis British minority language after Welsh, in fact its syntax is similar to Colloquial Welsh.

The Knench were druids, kinda, before they converted to Christianity

l and r treated as in British English, Maghrebi-Arabic-like consonant clusters

Lots of nativized Latin loans, as in Welsh

/ʏ/ (more central than front, as in Icelandic) <- unstressed Vw; /ʊ/ <- unstressed Vl; /ə/ <- unstressed Vr

samekh -> /tsʰ/, tsade -> /ts/, zayin -> /z/, sin/shin -> /s/

definite suffix: /-əz/ singular; /-ʊ/, dialectally /-əl/ plural

Heth and he merge

pronouns:

• 1sg /ɪ/, (after vowel) /nɪ/
• 2sg /tʰə/
• 3sg m /hʏ/
• 3sg f /hɪ/
• 1pl /nʏ/
• 2pl /tʰəm/
• 3pl /həm/, (after vowel) /‿m/

Prepositions inflect Colloquial Welsh-style

/-əs/ becomes the default feminine suffix; e.g. /luːh/ 'god/God', /luːhəs/ 'goddess'

h-g-y 'to savor'

ʔ-h-b 'love': /hyːb/ |ʔhyːb| 'dear, beloved'

k-b-r 'big': /kʰəˈpiːə̯/ |kʰəbbiːr| 'big'

g-d-l which has merged with q-T-l means 'tyranny, violence, cruelty': /ktuː/ |gduːl| 'tyrant, tyrannical'

ʔ-š-r (ser sacred tree' -> 'soul')

One derivation I'm proud of is Knench młur ’daily life, waking life’ (hypothetical mâʕôr in Hebrew from biliteral ʕ-r 'awake')

Phonology

Knench phonology is complex, with underlying phonemes resulting in multiple phones depending on the phonetic environment (most importantly, stressed versus unstressed syllables; prevocalic or non-prevocalic for certain laryngeals)

Consonants

Underlying consonants

• |ʔ| from Old Knench /ʔ/
• |b| from Old Knench /b/
• |g| from Old Knench /g/ and /q/
• |d| from Old Knench /d/ and /tˁ/
• |h| from Old Knench /h/
• |w| from Old Knench /w/
• |z| from Old Knench /z/ (from PSem *z and ð)
• |ħ| from Old Knench /ħ/ (from PSem *x and *ħ)
• |j| from Old Knench /j/
• |kʰ| from Old Knench /k/
• |l| from Old Knench /l/
• |m| from Old Knench /m/
• |n| from Old Knench /n/
• |tsʰ| from Old Knench /ts/ (from PSem *s)
• |ʁ̃| from Old Knench /ʕ/ (from PSem *ɣ and *ʕ)
• |f| from Old Knench /p/
• |ts| from Old Knench /tsˁ/ (from PSem *ṣ, *ṣ́, and *θ̣)
• |r| from Old Knench /r/
• |s| from Old Knench /s/ (from PSem *š, *ś, and *θ)
• |tʰ| from Old Knench /t/

Laryngeals

Laryngeals are underlying consonants that have vocalized forms when reduced or manifest as vowel lengthening or closing elements of diphthongs. These are: |ʔ|, |h|, |r|, |ʁ̃|, |l|, and |w|.

Morphology

Verbs

Citation form is the singular imperative (same as the bare infinitive construct)

Knench verbs can be from inherited binyanim (fłul, iffłel, itfəłłel, fəłłel, afłel, istəfłel) or from new noun patterns (Assumes speakers are aware of literal meanings of the syntactic constructions)