Aethêllan

Gwythyr is one of my main conlangs and was created out of joy, as linguistic experiment, and also to be the main classical language for my series of Fantasy novels. Gwythyr is spoken by the dominant species of Anmarla and has approximately 15 million speakers. At the time of my main novel series, the language and its native speakers are extinct, however Gwythyr is used as the language of academics, state and religious ceremonies, and record/document keeping. However only the upper class can read and speak it and even then only a minority of the upper classes. The seven languages of the nine different Kingdoms during this time are all descended from Gwythyr. Gwythyr is in turn descended from Vamynouynem.

This is a work of love and I ask any readers that, outside of any accidental grammatical mistakes, that they do not make any edits, however minor, without my permission and that this work is protected by copyright. Your understanding is greatly appreciated.

Background

Gwyhtyr is an SVO synthetic-agglutinative language. The majority of information is placed on the nouns and verbs, and though it is an SVO language technically speaking it does allow for free word order.

Phonology

Romanisation

		Bilabial		Dental		Alveol.		Postalve.		Retrofl.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosives		p (p) pʷ (pw)	b (b) bʷ (bw)	t (t) tʷ (tw)			d (d) dʷ (dw)							k (k) kʷ (kw)		g (g) gʷ (gw)
Fricatives		f (f) fʷ (fw)	v (v) vʷ (vw)	θ (th)	ð (dh)	s (s) sʷ (sw)								x (h)		h (h)
Nasals		m (m)		n (n) nʷ (nw)
Trill				r (r)
Glides	Approxim.	ʍ (hw)	w (w)	ɹ (r)								j (y)
	Lateral Appr.			l (l)						ɭ (l)

Mutations

1. Both Approximants and Lateral Approximants are de-voiced before nasals.
2. /l/ becomes /ɭ/ after vowels.
3. /ɹ/ becomes /r/ before plosives.
4. /h/ becomes /x/ at the end of a word.

Diphthongs

Diphthong	IPA
ao	ɐʊ
ey	eɪ
ôe	ɔː
ŷe	ɪəː
ae	aɪ

Vowels

Vowels	IPA Symbols	Vowel	IPA Symbols
a	ɑ	o	ɒ
â	aː	ô	ɵː
á	æ	ó	əʊː
e	e	i	ɪ
ê	eːə	î	iː
u	u	ÿ	ɐɪː

Grammar and syntax

Syntax

Independent Clauses are SVO, whilst Dependent and Relative Clauses are SOV.

Stress

Gwythyr differs from languages such as English in that every vowel is pronounced fully and with clear distinction. The language does however place stress on the last syllable of a word, however this is not important as stress is considered to be in English and other such similar languages. Any long vowels; those with diacritics or diphthongs, are stressed as well as the last syllable.

• E.g donsênanwê where the stress is on both sên and wê.

Structure

All derivational affixes are prefixes, and all other affixes are suffixes excluding the adverbial marker which is an infix for historical linguistic reasons. In regards to the order of the attaching of suffixes, case takes highest priority, followed by voice, aspect, then agreement, finally followed by any remaining suffixes.

• NB: Adjectives cannot be inflected with comparative and the Gradable sufffix at the same time.

Verbs

Aspect & Tense

Paradigm 1 Example Word - Aedar to Rule, to Lead

Aspect Tense	Aorist	Imperfective	Conative	Habitual	Perfect	Inceptive	Continuative	Terminative
Past	Aedarh	Aedarnd	Aedarâl	Aedaró	Aedarnen	Aedartey	Aedarelon	Aedarmen
Present	Aedar	Aedarn	Aedarâl	Aedaró	Aedarlen	Aedark	Aedarion	Aedarmen
Future	Aedardh	Aedaryn	Aedarymâl	Aedarv	Aedarwolen	Aedarketh	Aedarsan	Aedarwymen

Nouns

Case and Class

In Gwythyr over time Case and Class/Gender have merged into one suffix. When Nouns take their Case and Class marker they now have a far more fusional method unlike its ancestor language Vamynouynem.

Paradigm 1 The Human Noun Class

	Man	Women
Erg.	Gâla	Theyn
Abs.	Gâlam	Thêam
Dat.	Gâlal	Thêas
Gen.	Gâlÿ	Thênîs
Poss.	Gâlâ	Thênâ
Part.	Gâláth	Thênas
Abes.	Gâlthârum	Thênârum
Ins.	Gâlfen	Thênen
Equ.	Gâlanwen	Thênetwem
Voc.	Gâlô	Theyô

• NB Theyn is a weak verb due it to have a short diphthong, thus the first vowel of the diphthong is lengthened. This happens for all nouns with short diphthongs.
• NB The very slight difference here between the Dat. and Part. forms of Theyn are due to Theyn itself, and with other Female Class=Based Nouns this would not occur. (I.E Theyn dropping its n in the Dat. form - this is irregular and only happens in this case with Female Nouns ending in n)

Personal Pronouns

First Person
		Exclusive		Inclusive
Erg.	Wá (I)	Em (We)		Má (We)
Abs.	Dwa (Me)	Nâs (Us)		Hwa (Us)
Poss.	Edh (My/Mine)	Dyn (Ours)		Es (Ours)
Dat.	Myn (to Me)	Rys (to Us)		Thâ (to Us)
Inst	Sâ (by Me)	Bâ (by Us)		Eâ (by Us)
Second Person
	Living			Non-Living
	Singular (Exclusive)	Plural (Inclusive)		Singular
Erg.	Dâ (Thou)	Nen (Thou)		Se (It)
Abs.	Lŷn (Thee)	ŷe (Thee)		Só (It)
Poss.	Blan (Thy)	Yn (Thine)		Som (Its)
Dat.	Of (to Thee)	Dŷm (to Thee)		Mys (to It)
Inst.	Ren (by Thou)	Tar (by Thou)		Sten (by It)
Third Person Singular
	Living & Non-Gendered		Non-Living & Neutral
Erg.	Des (He/She)		Dha (It)
Abs.	Sen (Him/Her)		Dhen (It)
Poss.	Bessen (His/Hers)		Thyr (Its)
Dat.	Gal (to Him/Her)		Elth (to It)
Inst.	Hel (by Him/Her)		Sân (by It)
Third Person Plural
	Living & Non-Gendered		Non-Living & Neutral
Erg.	Mer (They)		Thâl (Its)
Abs.	Mron (Them)		Thyn (Its)
Poss.	Nyr (Theirs)		Thren (Its)
Dat.	Nren (to Them)		Fel (To Its)
Inst.	Neth (by Them)		Falth (by Its)