Verse:Tdūrzů/Knench
Knench /nɛnt͡ʃ/ (natively /ˈkʰnɔʁ̃nɪ/) 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.
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 verbs) /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'
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)
Vowels
Consonants
Laryngeals
Laryngeals are underlying consonants that have vocalized forms when reduced or manifest in vowel lengthening or diphthongs. These are:
- |ʔ| from Old Knench /ʔ/
- |r| from Old Knench /r/
- |ʁ̃| from Old Knench /ʕ/
- |l| from Old Knench /l/