Albionian

A language isolate spoken in Irta's Scotland and parts of CF Tricin's Cualand; hypothetical pre-Celtic substrate for Goidelic

Should be weirder from a SAE perspective than Irish or Hebrew; "Korean but head initial and verb-initial"? With classifiers, honorifics and stuff

• classifiers; alienable vs inalienable possession
• no case or construct state; "noun1-3SG noun2" (inalienable) or "noun1 3SG-CLF noun2" (alienable) is used for possession
• prefix mania
• word order is strictly VOS (syntactically ergative; transitive sentences are VOS and intransitive ones are VS); emphasis requires fronting and cleft constructions
  • Differential agent marking; inanimate ergatives require an ergative particle
• No definite articles

pencil 1SG-CLF_long_object 'my pencil'

Phonology

p t̪ k f θ x m n̪ ŋ l̪ r s ʃ h (p t k f θ x h m n z l r s š h)

i e a o u

m n l r can be syllabic; words must end in a vowel -m -n -l (never in a syllabic consonant)

Morphology

vowel length might arise allophonically by dropping h

1st person l, 2nd person p, 3rd person n

A stative verb:

• l-θerhe = 'I stood/stand'
• pe-θerhe = '2sg stood/stand'
• n-θerhe = '3sg stood/stand'
• la-θerhe = 'we stood/stand'
• pa-θerhe = '2pl stood/stand'
• kin-θerhe = 'they stood/stand'

An inalienable noun:

• l-penn = my head
• am-penn= thy head
• m-penn = his head
• illa-penn = our heads
• impa-penn = your heads
• ak-penn = their heads

An alienable noun:

• okrsu l-mie 'my pencil'; okrsu l-miha 'my pencils'
• okrsu am-mie 'your pencil'
• okrsu m-mie 'his pencil'
• okrsu illa-miha 'our pencils'
• okrsu impa-miha 'your pencils'
• okrsu aka-miha 'their pencils'

(number is marked on the classifier)

okrsu m-mie Šahn = Seán's pencil

okrsu = a pencil/pencils; mie okrsu = the pencil; miha okrsu = the pencils; inalienable nouns have to take possessive prefixes and cannot be indefinite