Naeng/Classical

Classical Windermere
Created by	IlL, Praimhín
Setting	Verse:Tricin
Language family	Lakovic Ashanic Classical Windermere

Classical Windermere (native name: brits Dămè /brits dəˈmeə/; Skellan: a brits Dymée Yfẃr /ə prits təˈmɛi əˈfur/ or /ə prits təˈme əˈfur/ 'Noble Windermere') was a standardized variety of Windermere spoken in the Imperial Windermere territories (Wen Dămea), based on the language of Windermere texts from ca. fT 0-500. A classical language of Talma, it lent many words to other Talman languages. A related language Tseezh was used in other parts of the Windermere Empire, and as a result Windermere borrowed many Tseezh words.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/			ng /ŋ/
Plosive	voiced	b /b~β/	d /d~ð/			g /g~ɣ/
	voiceless	p /p⁼/	t /t⁼/			c /k⁼/	' /ʔ/
Affricate			ts /ts̪/	tł /ts̺~ʈʂ/
Fricative	spirant	f /f/	th /θ/			ch /x/
	nonspirant		s /s̪/	ł /s̺~ʂ/	ș /ʃ/		h /h/
Resonant		w /w/	r /r/	l /l~ɫ~ɭ/	y /j/

The glottal stop is not transcribed word-initially.

Vowels

Classical Windermere had breathy voiced vowels à è ì ò ù ǜ /aʱ eʱ iʱ oʱ uʱ yʱ/ which became ä ea ie oa ua üe in Middle Windermere.

Classical Windermere had more vowel contrasts in preinitial syllables: it had two reduced vowels, ă /ə/ and i /ɪ/, which merged to ă in Classical Windermere. This contrast is retained in Pradiul as palatalization.

Morphophonology

Sandhi

Classical Windermere had a complex sandhi system (somewhere between Biblical Hebrew and Sanskrit) which is no longer productive in Modern Windermere; most notably it affected plurals and verb forms, making them less predictable.

• fth, fch > -pt-, -pc-
• th + fric → fric + t
  • ths → st, as in sèf 'go' → *thsèf → stèf 'to drive' (Modern binsteaf 'energy', sămteaf 'to energize')
  • thf → ft, e.g. tăfi 'laugh' → *tithfi → tifti 'to mock' (Classical and Modern Wdm. tăfi, tifti)
  • thch → cht e.g. Proto-Windermere àrθχa → răchta 'to die'
  • thł, thș → łt, șt
• ch + f, s, th, ł, ș → chw, ??? ??? ??? ??? ???
• s + f, th, ch → sp, st, sc
• rC, lC > Cr, Cl
• ps pn png → sp fn fng
• tp thp tsp kp chp → tw thw tsw cw chw; Proto-Windermere breathy vowel + tp tsp kp > dw tsw gw
• tsc cts tsp pts sts ts > sc sc sp sp st st

Initial Consonant	Final Consonant
	f	p	b	m	th	t	d	n	ch	c	g	ng	s	ts	ł	tł	ș	h	'	l	r	w	y
f	f	p	sp	fn	ft	ft	ft	fn	pc	pc	pc	fng	ps	fts	pł	ftł	pș	f	f'	fl	fr	fw	fy
p
b
m
th
t
d
n
ch
g
c
ng
s
ts
ł
tł
ș
h
'
l
r
w
y

Grassmann's law

Grassmann's law was productive in Classical Windermere: when there were two spirant consonants before a stressed vowel in a word, the first was despirantized. e.g. *chăfol > căfol 'to turn'.

Morphology

Nouns

Classical Windermere had many irregular plurals due to the effects of sandhi.

Examples:

Regular plurals:

• cnul 'leaf' > nălcnul 'leaves'

Sandhi plurals:

• drong 'kernel' > tăngrădong 'kernels'

Suppletive plurals:

• croth 'person' > hingüs 'people'

Verbs

Trigger infixes and certain aspects had become derivational in Classical Windermere, but not other aspects or tenses.

Pronouns

Pronouns were similar to later Windermere, but with feminine plural pronouns.

• 1sg: rì
• 2sg: łen (m), łes (f)
• 3sg: in (m), is (f)
• 1pl exclusive: tsa
• 1pl inclusive: ăbang
• 2pl: łinam (m), łisam (f)
• 3pl: inam (m), isam (f)

Derivation

(Anything else?)

• *th- (causative; denominal verbs)
• pi- (agentive; triggers voicing of following voiceless stops p t c to b d g)
  • da (know) -> pida 'sage' (Classical păda, Modern pda)
  • tüth (to grasp) -> pidüth 'meaning, intention'
• ha- (passive)

Classical Windermere also used breathy voice ablaut to denote tools: snar (capture) -> snàr (trap, snare) which survives in Modern Windermere as snär.