Albionian

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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