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.

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'

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|, |r|, |ʁ̃|, |l|, and |w|.

Morphology

Verbs

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

itfə33el

Merge with iff3el?

af3el

The binyan af3el corresponds to Hebrew hif3il.