Cwengâr

"Ô tengeffer cwec'han lhe cwarhôn | o telhucwâr perab e ladôn | cwe c'hyshŷn merhôl nâcwem, | ât ffemocw pelhôtŷnàf g'helem."

"Thus rain wept his death | and birch whispered of sadness, | over the King's silent hall | which wolves call home."

Cwengâr
Type
Analytic
Alignment
Direct
Head direction
Initial	Mixed		Final
Primary word order
Verb-subject-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
Yes
Nouns decline according to...
Case		Number
Definiteness		Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice		Mood
Person		Number
Tense		Aspect

Introduction

Background

This is a sibling language to Fén Ghír, I have come into it more familiar with linguistics and language construction and it should hopefully show in the slightly more fluid nature of the language. There is a voiced/unvoiced contrast used for gender which, combined with the mutation of Fén Ghír, makes it a highly shifting language.

General Information

Cwengâr represents a contemporary sibling language to Fén Ghír.

As Fén Ghír draws heavily of Irish Gaelic influence for spelling, phonetics and to some degree grammar, Cwengâr serves as a Bythronic equivalent, drawing heavily on Welsh and Breton. In this regard, an additional mutation was added [hard/nasal mutuation] and consonant agreement.

Root words are related to Fén Ghír, with some changes in connotations. For example, Cún [Fén: Law, Promise, Vow] has become Cwŷn and now mostly fills the Bér in Fén as a general Superlative like "Good". Cún in the sense of Promise has become Cwŷn C'hâr[aff] or "Just Word[s]". Per which is [Cognate to Bér] is basically reduced to meaning "Bright" in Cwengâr.

History of the Cwelhenev. [Cwelhànàf Netar]

Derived from the Galav culture which spread far during the early iron age. The Cwelhàn people occupy the hills and plains at the heart of the Galav expansion to the east of the Fayn Highlands. They are the largest Galavic Culture, by both population and size. Once the various coalitions held formidible sway over the Western part of the continent, however they have declined and ultimately been conquered by the Empire of Toryr. The Northern half of Cwelâr has retained some degree of independance as tribal puppet kings with their armies serving as auxiliaries and mercenaries, while the south is largely pushed to the country under the Toryl speaking aristocracy that has quickly risen up. The divide between the two groups however has not been long enough to be significant and there are no major differences of dialects, with the exception of Loeryr people who have long been considered a unique entity, with their own language influenced heavily by Toryr and the other Pyrittyl Languages, though still somewhat mutually comprehensible with standard Cwengâr.

To do

"Tecwap cwâr cwŷr dol 'ôffan pen et ffelârh dolh tecwab c'hâr ngâbàf."

Language is always expanding to meet the needs of an expanding language.

-Currently many roots relate back to Fén words that should be unique to the language [fén having the meaning of a person, bé[r] having the meaning of "good", etc, etc], the goal for now will be purging these.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n				ŋ
Plosive	b/p			t/d					q/ɢ
Fricative		f/v			ʃ/ʒ				χ/ɣ
Affricate
Approximant												h
Trill				r					ʀ
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.				l					ʎ
Lateral app.
Lateral flap

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	y
Near-close		Y
Close-mid	e				ɤ
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ				ʌ
Near-open
Open	a		ä		ɑ

Phonotactics

Cwengâr avoids vowel and consonant clusters as a general rule. Consonant clusters are resolved by dropping the first consonant while the latter is lenitioned. Vowel clusters are usually separate words.

Orthography

Cwengâr spelling corresponds to IPA with these exceptions;

• /ŋ/ is spelt ng as in English.
• /q/ is spelt cw, /ɢ/ is spelt gw. This is convention based off the Breton, if a Cwengâr script is invented, they will not be digraphs.
• /f/ is spelt ff, /v/ is spelt f, inspired by Welsh.
• /ʃ/ is spelt sh, /ʒ/ is spelt s, based off the above relation. It's tempting to use "ss" but "sh" is more conventional.
• /χ/ is spelt c'h, /ɣ/ is spelt g'h, inspired by Breton.
• /ʎ/ is spelt lh, inspired by Breton.
• /ʀ/ is spelt rh, following after the example of /ʎ/.

• /y/ is spelt ŷ
• /Y/ is spelt y
• /e/ is spelt â
• /ə/ is spelt à or a.
• /ɛ/ is spelt e
• /a/ is spelt a
• /ɤ/ is spelt ê
• /ʌ/ is spelt u
• /ä/ is spelt ô
• /ɑ/ is spelt o

Grammar

Essentials

Pronouns

Cwengâr pronouns are gendered, while the inclusive/exclusive We not been developed as in Fén. Unlike Fén, Cwengâr preserves the Proto-Occidens pronouns which Fén eliminates.

Pronoun	Fem.	Masc.
1S	Ty	Du
2S	Ra	Rhà
3S	Le	Lho
1P	Ŷsh	Ês
2P	Yra	Ôrhà
3P	Âla	Ulhà

Broad & Slender

In Cwengâr there is a necessary accord between vowels and consonants, which can be paralleled to the Gaelic terms of "Broad" and "Slender";

• Front-Closed vowels tend toward the Slender category and the preceding consonants will always be Unvoiced. R or L may also precede them.
• Back-Open vowels tend toward the "Broad" category and preceding consonants will be Voiced. Rh or Lh may also precede them.

An exception to this rule of accord is Nasal consonants which do not have a voiced/unvoiced distinction.

Broad	Slender
ê	ŷ
u	â
ô	y
o	e
à	a

This division has also taken on secondary relevance in regards to gender as Broad syllables are considered more masculine and Slender more Feminine [and in some dialects diminuitive]. Thus personal names as well as some titles, placenames and animals may be either made Broad or Slender by switching to the corresponding vowel above.

Most inanimate objects or nouns being used in general conversation, when gender is not in question, will simply use the etymological origin which predates this distinction. Thus most dialects prefer the very masculine title of "Cwŷdyn" [King] rather than Gwêdyn or Gwêdynôn.

Even with animals, the distinction usually to the roots of the term for a gender neutral term but when an animal's gender is relevant, the syllable may be changed to emphasize gender; merygw "Sheep" becomes "morygw" or "ram".

To emphasize gender in a noun which defaults to the gender, a suffix if added; Female is usually signaled with an addition at the end or "-ŷn" or "-yn". "-ul" may be used at times to emphasize age. Male in turn is signified with "-on" or "-àn". "-àl" is a paternal counterpart to "-ul" but is used more rarely usually only for people seen actively serving as guardians.

Thus merycwŷn is an "ewe" while merycwul would be an "old-ewe" or "mother-sheep", while morygwàl might be used to refer to an old male-sheep.

Consonant Agreement Between Words

The Broad-Slender Consonant Distinction carries over between words as well as within them; Unless the word is a noun, verb or determiner, then the final consonant will shift according to the gender of the word after it, thus, the example;

focw tânycw merygw ta ty.

The noun "fo'gw" agrees with the slender syllable ["tâ-"] in the preceding adjective by becoming unvoiced ["focw"], similarly, the adjective becomes feminine; [tânygw-> tânycw]

However, the ending of merygw [sheep] which is masculine remains so, despite the next word starting with an unvoiced "t" [-gw remains -gw].

If an ending would cause the sound to be doubled, then the final consonant of the first word is silent.

" lyreff ffetan?"
/lyrɛ fɛtan/
lyreff	ffetan
fretful	N\peace
"An uneasy peace"

Mutations

Cwengâr has two kinds of mutations which can occur depending on the function of the word in the sentance that either "strengthens" or "weakens" the initial consonant.

A "Hard" Mutation occurs in either verbs which are modifed by auxilaries or else a possessed object which are possessed.

A "Soft" Mutation occurs in objects and in vocative case.

Unmutated	Soft	Hard
m	f/ff
p	ff	m
b	f	m
ff	'	b
f	'	p
n	sh/s
t	sh	n
d	s	n
sh	h	t
s	h	d
ng	c'h/g'h
cw	c'h	ng
gw	g'h	ng
c'h	h	cw
g'h	h	gw

Other Mutations

When a word that ends with a vowel and the next begins with one, a "h" is prefixed to the beginning of the latter word. This also occurs when soft mutation would occur in a noun.

The combination of these two may make it difficult to distinguish the direct object from the subject in the sentance, thus when a word beginning with a vowel or a sonorant are the direct object, "e" is added before it.

An "n" is use for hard mutations in a word beginning with a vowel.

Pluralization

Words are pluralized by adding "-àf" if the last vowel is masculine and "-aff" if feminine.

Noun Forms

Genitive Form

In Cwengâr, the possessive is expressed with a hard declension on the possessed object.

A series of possessive pronouns in a row results simply in a long line of hard mutations. Adjectives are avoided if possible in favour of relative terms [My ball which is red rather than my red ball] though both forms are acceptable.

"Cwŷlyc'hâm rhà hês nâd gwuf rhà ngarhôn,"
/qʏnɛlyxem ʀə hɤs ned ɢʌv ʀʌ ŋaʀän/
Cwŷ-	-lyc'hâm	rhà	h\ês	n\âd	gwuf	rhà	ng\arhôn,
Should-	-Know	2S	SBJ\1P	Poss\This	Before	2S	POSS\Death
"Before you die, you should know this of us."

"E hâd"
/ɛ hed/
E	h\âd
inq	this
"What [is this that I should know]?"

"Te rhà su nàl nàlhun nulàlrynŷnŷnon nàlàlylân fon nôlamon."
/tɛ ʀə sʌ nəl nəʎʌn nʌʎəlrynəlʏnɑn nələlylen vɑn nälamɑn/
Te	rhà	su	n\àl	n\àlhun	n\ulrynàlŷnon	n\àlàlylân	fon	n\ôlamon
Be	2S	1S	POSS\Father	POSS\[Paternal] Brother	POSS\[Mother's Father's Daughter's Husband's Daughter's Son] Nephew	POSS\[Father's Father's Daughter's Son] cousin	Former	POSS\Housemate
"I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate."

""E cwân âd lho?""
/ɛ qen ed ʎɑ/
E	cwân	âd	lho
inq	make	this	us
"What does this make us?"

""Cwân âd a hen shad êrô hed dôngân du dulh rhà."
/qen ed a ɛn ʃad ɤrä hɛd däŋen dʌ dʌʎ ʀə/
Cwân	âd	a	h\en	sh\ad	êrô	h\ed	dô-	-ng\ân	du	dulh	rhà
Make	This	Neg	one	SBJ\Thing	Like	SBJ\REL.DET	FTR-	-Make	1S	From	2S
"This makes nothing, as I will make of you."

Vocative

A person may be addressed directly with  followed by their lenitioned name;

"John, go to the store please."

"Â Hon, ffeLhô dy lhotenan"

Unlike Fén Ghír, the location of this is in a sentance is fairly flexible;

"Â Hon, ffeLhô dy lhotenan pen shecwan ô shanyr"

"FfeLhô dy lhotenan, â Hon, pen shecwan ô shanyr."

"FfeLhô dy lhotenan pen shecwan ô shanyr, â Hon."

An Alternate Interpretation

To those more acquianted with declining and conjugating languages and less interested in historical interpretation of Cwengâr's grammar could consider the these mutations and accords as filling a similar niche to cases. It is rare that a single word may be used in all of these senses in common situations and in this case "Clothing" has been used even if Adjectival and Adverbal forms are rare.

Neutral:

• Gwotad - /ɢɑtad/ - Subject Form for "Clothing".
• Gwota(d)- /ɢɑtad/, /ɢɑtat/, /ɢɑta/- Consonant Accord- This occurs in Adjectives and Adverbs, in many it occurs in Verbs as well, thus "Clothing-like", "Clothingly" and "To Clothe", others dialects treat verbs as nouns.. Whether these consonants are voiced is determined by the initial consonant of the next word. If there the next word begins with a vowel, most dialects will leave it as it is, others will default to voiced and some

Soft Mutation:

• G'hotad: /ɣɑtad/ : Object Form for "Clothing", may also occur when a present tense verb is preceded by an adjective.
• Â g'hotad : /e ɣɑtad/ : Vocative Form.

Hard Mutation:

• Ngotad : /ŋɑtad/ : Genitive Object "My Clothes".
• Ngota(d) : /ŋɑtad/, /ŋɑtat/, /ŋɑta/ : Subordinate Genitive "My Clothes' Cleaner".
• [A/Te/Dô/Cwŷ/Ma/Gwô]-ngota(d): Conjugated Verb "[Un/Was/Will/Must/May] Clothes

Verbs

Prefix	Meaning
A-	Negative
-Te-	Progressive/Past
-Dô-	Future
-Cwŷ-	Should
-Ma-	Would
-Gwô-	May

• Te on its own usually implies an action that has taken place consistantly over time. If it is a thing that happened but is not happening currently, a time is specificed after, or else "gwô 'ogw" [at another time] is used.

"I [masc] am able to eat"

Ganegw du.

"I [fem] will not be able to eat this after today"

Anônganecw ty hâd gwof ghôl.

Verb and Noun Phrases

Cwengâr branches leftwards on Verb/Noun Phrases. Adjectives, Adverbs and Possessive precede the Verb/Noun.

Verb Phrase

Adverbs	Quantity Adverb	Verb

+Quantity in this case refers to the number of times an action is performed rather than the number of people performing it; "Hit twice" would be used rather than "Hit two times"

Noun Phrase

Preposition*	Adjective for Poss. Noun	Possessive Noun	Adjective	Quantity	Noun	Determiner

Prepositions

Masc	Fem	English
E	E	Passive
Ngo	Nge	Against
Dulh	Tyl	From
Dà	Ta	To
Dàf	Taff	Towards
Rhàlh	Ral	Than
Êrô	Âra	Like
Rhàlh	Rŷ	By
fà	ffa	With
Gwu	Cwy	Under
Gwê	Cwe	Over
Gwô	Cwâ	In[to]
Lhurod	Lârot	Around
Nêrh	Nŷr	Near
Erac'hôn	Erac'hôn	Opposite
Gwuf	Cwâff	Before
Gwof	Cweff	After
Dôf	Taff	Until
Gwêr	Cwŷr	At/During
Bon	Pen	For/Because of
Gwulh	Cwâl	According

Words which begin with vowels following these are pronounced and written withwith with a "h" preceding them or "n" in the case of possessives.

The "e" preposition is used to mark an object in a sentance where either the subject is omitted or for whatever reason, the object could be confused with the subject, prior to objects beginning with a sonorant in particular as the lack of mutation causes these nouns to be otherwise indistinguishable between adjectival and genitive forms.

The accusative mutation or direct object form is used more than in Fén, primarily with two cases with "Te" which serves a parallel role to "Be" and as the subject of a discussion or sight.

Thus;

• "Cwâr lho ffedàf." could mean either "He speaks lies" or "He speaks on the subject of lying". However, this is typically decipherable from context. An expression which wanted to incorporate both would "ned" as a verb or adverb as well, thus "Ned lho ffedàf" which could translate to "He lies about lies" or "He lyingly speaks about lies".

• Ngo/Nge is a critical term for expressing opposition, "Cwâr lho ffedàf ngesh" would translate as "He speaks lies against me" which would have the same connotations as "prosecute" or "testify against" in English. This is used in many cases in English where a direct object could be used, if the object is one who suffers or is targeted by the verb. Thus one attacks against you, rather than simply attacking you.

• The use of Dulh/Tyl, Dà/Ta and Dàf/Taff are fairly apparent and not unlike their use in English, with some exceptions. Thus, one could say, "Cwâr lho ffedàf ngesh dàrh" or "He speaks lies against me to you".

• Êrô and Ral are comparatives which follow after the noun which they are comparing. "Cwâr lho êrô lhutânŷl ffedàf ngesh dàrh" or "He, like a mercenary, speaks lies against me to you."

Preposition Conjugation

Person	Masc	Fem
1S	-s	-sh
2S	-rh	-r
3S	-lh	-l
1P	-sà	-sha
2P	-rhà	-ra
3P	-lhà	-la
Determiner/Inanimate	-g'h	-c'h

If a pronoun is the object following a preposition, then it may be shortened by adding the above suffix after the preposition. This is not to be done when the pronoun is the possessor.

Determiners

Gender	Current Determiner	Contrasting Determiner	New Determiner	Current Determiner (Pl)	Contrasting Determiner (Pl)	New Determiner (Pl)	Inquistive Determiner	Relative Determiner	Inquistive Determiner (Pl)	Relative Determiner (Pl)
Masc	âd	âdà	âdôn	âdàf	âdànàf	âdônàf	E âd	Ed	E âdàf	Edàf
Fem	ât	âta	âtyn	âtyff	âtaff	âdynaff	E ât	Et	E âtaff	Etaff
	This [Person]	That [Person]	This Other [Thing/Person]	These [People]	Those [People]	These Other [Things/People]	What [person]?	Which [person]	What [people] ?	Those [things/people] which...
Masc	ugwô	ugwà	ugwôn	ugwôf	ugwàf	gwônàf	E ugwà	Egwà	E ugwàf	Egwàf
Slender	ucwy	ucwa	ucwyn	ucwyff	ucwaff	ucwynaff	E ucwa	Ecwa	E ucwaff	Ecwaff
	Now	Then	This Other Time	These Times	Those Times	These Other Times	When?	When	Which Time?	Those Times When...

This is a trickier case for gender as it is not always apparent. Typically it is determined by the gender of the noun which is being refered to by it, however if the gender is unclear [such as when asking a question or with a generality, such as the case of "What is it?"], one would use the Slender form traditionally.

Unlike Fén which has very clearly distinct Determiners, the nature of Cwengâr determiners are determined by preposition often, thus questions such as "Why", "Who", "Where" & " How"are determined by preposition or other auxiliary;

• "Pon [e] hat?" is Why
• "Cwe [e] hat" is Where similarly, though in this case the preposition changes towards the relevant preposition; Towards, In, After, etc.
• "Alŷn [e] at"/"Ôlhon [e] âd" is "Who"

• "How" is usually asked "Târ... rŷ/rhàlh e âd[à]/ât[a]?" or "do... by what?"

Relative Clauses

In Cwengâr relative clauses are rather common and often mark another action within the sentance. These begin with a relative determiner, however there are no strict rules on there ending.

I shouted at the woman who took my bread.

Terhôlhôt du tyl alyn et tengŷcw dy nânar cwê 'ocwâ. .

These relative clauses can sometimes be worked into the shorter form of dependant clauses to express cause which is something rare in English, the result is something like this;

We went to the store to get fishing supplies.

Would said in Cwengâr as;

Telô dy lhotenan pen ed lhôtan ŷs gwânan c'honaf.

Although, it could also be expressed with depedant coupla dividing it into two sentances;

Tengâb du gwânan c'honaf o telô dy lhotenan.

This would translate as something closer to:

We needed fishing supplies so we went to the store.

It is also important to note that these relative clauses may build on top of eachother, perhaps more often than in English;

I went to the man who sold the boat to the guy who talked to me yesterday.

Telô dy ôlon et telhotan ât cwerêl ta ed tengâr lho ta ny cwê fon gâl..

Notable Features

Yes/No

Cwengâr does not have a term for yes or no but rather will reply with an shortened affirmative or negative, most simply, "Te ât" or a suitable determiner depending on the situation.

Practical Use

Phrasebook

“Hello”

• Cwâ!

"Hello" [Resp.]

• Ârâ!

“How are you?”

• E ne ed gwu rhà? [To a man]
• E ne ed cwy ra? [To a woman]

“I am well.”

• Te ât c'hŷn.

"So-so"

• Ffan ô fon.

“What is your name?”

• E ne - gwu rhà?
• E ne - cwy ra?

"It is ______"

• Te _______

Experiments

An example of the shifting language of Cwengâr;

Words

• du/ty "I"
• Pag'hôrh "To help"
• merygw "Sheep"
• âd/ât "That"
• ugwôn "Another Time"

I, [a woman] helped that [male] sheep before.

Temag'hôr ty borycw âd gwê hugwôn.

I[, a man,] helped that [female] sheep before.

Temag'hôrh du perygwyn ât gwê hugwôn.

Jury is Out, PLease leave a Message

Most of these are up in the air questions. Most individual cases both lay out the current problem and the path I think I may take on it. If someone can suggest or advise on these, it will be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I will likely remove them once I have the time to go over what has been written so far.

Pronouns

I may consider including further pronouns, esp. incl. v. excl. "we" since the current form is too indo-european for my liking.

Transitive Copula

Considering adding a shortened form of "nulan" [stand], "lhud" [sit], "ôlhorh" [rest] or "nâg'h" [lie] as a transitive Copula as opposed to "Te" that would serve the function of progressive and fill more temporary states. This would fill the same niche as "Ser" an "Estar" in Spanish or "Is" an "Tá" in Irish.