Cwengâr

Blackbird's Song	Ôsha nGwecwâr	Péladí ba Gécir
A Blackbird sings	Tengecwâr ôsha,	Gécir di ba édhí
To me of my youth,	ty sy gwe dy n'ashâ,	del di me pél adhí
For my loaf of bread.	pen lecw dy nanâr.	pon di ba tenira.
It is a song of youth	Te ât ashâ angecwâr.	Té ítibh cu éndhí ba gécira,
Of flowing white rivers	Cwâ negw pârôt lanàr,	Cór nég bérad lenár,
Of high, dark caverns	Cwâ pel lelycw c’hylàr,	Cór níl pél nilár.
So long as the harp sings	Tengecwâr ôsha o ôrhôdon,	In gécir tol ítibh me aradon,
I shant forget these things	o afongâm dy en c’hón.	Tel calím me di ce én chon.

Background

Gwengâr represents a contemporary sibling language to Fén Ghír. As Fén Ghír draws heavily of Irish Gaelic influence for spelling, phonetics and to some degree grammar, Gwengâr serves as a Bythronic equivalent, drawing heavily on Welsh and Breton. Root words are unique and Grammar is fairly simple sharing much still with Fén Ghír. However, words are slight more prone to mutation and grammatical compounding in Gwengâr.

Vocabularly is largely similar, though words have different connotations. For example, Cún [Fén: Law, Promise, Vow] has become Cwŷn and now mostly fills the Bér in Fén as a general Superlative like "Good". Cún in the sense of Promise has become Cwŷn C'hâr[af] or "Just Word[s]". Pâr which is [Cognate to Bér] is basically reduced to meaning "Bright" Gwengâr.

This is my first project for creating a related language and in general, I hope that it surpasses the original to some degree.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n				ŋ
Plosive	b/p			t/d					q/ɢ
Fricative		f/v			ʃ/ʒ				x/ɣ
Affricate
Approximant												h
Trill				r					ʀ
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.				l					ʎ
Lateral app.
Lateral flap

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	y
Near-close		Y
Close-mid	e				ɤ
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ				ʌ
Near-open
Open	a		ä		ɑ

Phonotactics

Gwengâr avoids vowel and consonant clusters as a general rule. Consonant clusters are resolved by dropping the first consonant while the latter is lenitioned. Vowel clusters are usually separate words.

Orthography

Gwengâr spelling corresponds to IPA with these exceptions;

• ŋ is spelt ng as in English.
• q is spelt cw, ɢ is spelt gw. This is convention based off the Breton, if a Gwengâr script is invented, they will not be diaphongs.
• f is spelt ff, v is spelt f, inspired by Welsh.
• ʃ is spelt sh, ʒ is spelt s, based off the above relation. It's tempting to use "ss" but "sh" is more conventional.
• x is spelt c'h, ɣ is spelt g'h, inspired by Breton.
• ʀ is spelt rh at the beginning of the word, rr elsewhere for aesthetic reasons. Rh at all points is acceptable but looks off to me personally.
• ʎ is spelt lh, inspired by Breton.

• y is spelt ŷ
• Y is spelt y
• e is spelt â
• ə is spelt à or a.
• ɛ is spelt e
• a is spelt a
• ɤ is spelt ê
• ʌ is spelt u
• ä is spelt ô
• ɑ is spelt o

Morphology

!!Feminine/Masculine Distinction

Gwengâr bases masculine/feminine distinctions on the first vowel in a word, which modifies the preceding consonant of the word [if any] and the final consonant of the word preceding it.

ê, u, o, ô are masculine.

ŷ, â, e, y are feminine.

a is usually feminine, but is prone to exceptions, particularly when it is representing the ə/à sound.

If the vowel is masculine, the preceding consonant is unvoiced. If Feminine, the consonant is voiced. r and l also agree with feminine vowels, while rh and lh agree with masculine ones.

!! Mutations.

A "Hard" Mutation occurs in either verbs which are modifed by auxilaries or else a possessed object which are possessed.

A "Soft" Mutation occurs in a noun that is either described or quantified.

Unmutated	Soft	Hard
m	f/ff
p	ff	m
b	f	m
ff	'	b
f	'	p
n	sh/s
t	sh	n
d	s	n
sh	h	t
s	h	d
ng	c'h/g'h
cw	c'h	ng
gw	g'h	ng
c'h	h	cw
g'h	h	gw

Verbs

• Te*-Present Progressive/Past
• Lô-Will
• Cwyy- Should
• Ma- Want
• A-Negative

• Te on its own usually implies an action that has taken place consistantly over time. If it is a thing that happened but is not happening currently, a time is specificed after, or else "gwô 'ogw" [at another time] is used.

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Relative Clauses

In Gwengâr relative clauses are rather common and often mark another action within the sentance. These begin with a relative determiner, however there are no strict rules on there ending. Verbally this is usually distinguished by tone, while writers may use commas or expect their readers to understand based off of context. 'ci and 'cibh are gaining popularity as verb and written endings in some faster speaking dialects, but are not yet considered standard in Fén.

I shouted at the woman who took my bread.

Terhôlôt dy ta alyn et tengŷcw dy nânar cwê 'ocwâ. .

These relative clauses can sometimes be worked into the shorter form of dependant clauses to express cause which is something rare in English, the result is something like this;

We went to the store to get fishing supplies.

Would said in Fén as;

Telô dy lhotenan pen et lôtan ŷs gwânan c'honaf.

Although, it could also be expressed with depedant coupla dividing it into two sentances;

Tecwâb dy gwânan c'honaf o telô dy lhotenan.

This would translate as something closer to:

We needed fishing supplies so we went to the store.

It is also important to note that these relatively clauses may build on top of eachother, perhaps more often than in English;

I went to the man who sold the boat to the guy who talked to me yesterday.

Telô dy ôlon et telhotan ât cwerêl ta ed tengâr lho ta ny cwê fon gâl..

Prepositional Relations in Gwengâr

Masc width="20%"|Fem	English	Case
[Unchanged]	[Unchanged]		Nomative
[Lenitioned]	[Lenitioned]		Accusative
Ngo	Nge	Against	Accusative/Dative
Du	Ty	From	Accusative/Dative
Dô	Ta	To	Accusative/Dative
Dôf	Taff	Towards	Accusative/Dative
Rhôlh	Ral	Than	Accusative/Dative
Êrô	Âra	Like	Accusative/Dative
Rhàlh	Rŷ	By	Instrumental
Gwu	Cwy	Under	Accusative/Dative/Locative
Gwê	Cwe	Over	Accusative/Dative/Locative
Gwô	Cwâ	In[to]	Accusative/Dative/Locative
Lhurod	Lârot	Around	Accusative/Dative/Locative
Nŷrh	Nŷr	Near	Accusative/Dative/Locative/Temporal
Erac'hôn	Erac'hôn	Opposite	Locative
Gwuf	Cwâff	Before	Locative/Temporal
Gwof	Gwoff	Locative/Temporal
Gwôf	Cwaff	Until	Locative/Temporal
Gwêrh	Cwŷr	At/During	Locative/Temporal
Bon	Pen	For/Because of	Causal
Gwulh	Cwâl	According	Subjective

Possessive

Possessive causes a hard mutation in the possessed word;

He walked to your house.

Tenôlh lho dô rhà melem.