Weddish

Weddish
Weðisk
Created by	Robert Murphy
Native to	Wales
Language family	Indo-European Weddish

Weddish is a w:West Germanic language spoken by several small communities within w:Wales. Approximately 50,000 people speak Weddish as their L1. It is of considerable interest to linguists and ethnographers, because of its complex history and unique place in the world.

Weddish appears to have begun as a dialect of w:Old Frisian, which fell under the influence of its Welsh-speaking neighbors (unlike its Anglo-Saxon kin). It was "conquered" by Jews in 1066, and "freed" by the w:Edict of Expulsion in 1290, and so returned to being under Welsh influence.

Design Goals

While I have taken elaborate pains to make Weddish appear naturalistic and give it a rich history, it is nevertheless an auxlang, designed for me to work on my philosophical ideas and methodologies of translations. I welcome feedback and appreciate any advice you might give, but people are often surprised to find out my primary goal is not to avoid artificiality.

My goals are 1) anti-abstraction, 2) marking marriage, 3) lots of Hebrew, 4) close to English, 5) Welsh influence

History

Main article: Weddish/History

Early Antiquity

Weddish was born under a different name: Frisian. While there are individual words that cannot be explained under this rubric, the overwhelming majority of Weddish vocabulary is clearly of Frisia – not Anglo-Saxon – ancestry. While the differences are small, the evidence is clear. Unlike the Frisians of the continent, however, and unlike the conquering Anglo-Saxons, the ancestors of the Wedds were heavily influenced by the nearby Celts. The Old Welsh language rubbed off on Old Weddish, winnowing many consonant clusters, producing significant vowel changes, and greatly altering the phonology and phonotactics.

Old Welsh (Proto-Brythonic) also gave Weddish is system of consonantal mutations. Certain words and grammatical processes trigger regular changes in the first consonant of the next word. This is also the only period where Latin words came into the language (until the modern, international terminology).

Late Antiquity

Some time in the eighth or ninth century, a charismatic leader supposedly brought the Weddish community into his quasi-Jewish cult. He also introduced two key elements of the Basque language into Weddish: ergative-absolutive morphosyntax and animate-inanimate distinctions in noun phrases.

1066

Will the arrival of William the Conqueror, actual Jews arrived from the Continent and called the Wedd's bluff. Mandatory Hebrew schools were formed, and a similar situation to the rest of the U.K. developed for two centuries. The elites and leaders spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic. The common folk spoke Weddish.

1290

When Edward I issued the edict of expulsion in 1290, the influence of external Jewry ceased, and all appearance of Judaism had to be removed from the public eye. The Wedds had their own Domus Conversorum set up, and were allowed to create their own monastic order, where the vows of marriage were conjoined with the vows of holy orders. Hebrew school continued in private, with Talmud and Maimonides studies ongoing for several more centuries. Because they were not allowed to officiate over the Mass, Weddish "convents" avoided much of the accreting philosophy, and were among the hotbeds of Protestant theology, until the w:Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542.

Phonology

Main article: Weddish/Phonology

Consonants of Weddish

Consonant phonemes
		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post.	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals	voiced	m		n		ŋ
	unvoiced	m̥		n̥		ŋ̊
Obstruent	voiced	b		d	d͡ʒ	g
	unvoiced	p	t͡θ	t	t͡ʃ	k		ʔ
Fricative	voiced	v	ð	z
	unvoiced	f	θ	s	ʃ		χ	h
Trills	voiced			r
	unvoiced			r̥
Approximant	voiced	w		l	j
	unvoiced	ʍ		ɬ	ç

Weddish consonants primarily center around a voiced-unvoiced contrast. Several sounds do not occur in the lexical forms of words, but are nevertheless common as the result of consonant mutation.

Vowels of Weddish

Vowel phonemes
	Front	Mid	Back
High	ɪi	ɨː	ʊu
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid		ǝ	oʊ
Low-mid	ɛː	ʌ	ɔ
Low	æ	aː

Weddish vowels are most easily characterized a six-vowel system: the typical five, plus a central vowel. They all occur in "long" and "short" versions, though (as in English) those terms are used colloquially, and not as linguists mean them.

There are also many diphthongs, as in Welsh: eu, ei, au, ai, oi, ui, and the palatalized iu, ie, ia.

Orthography

Weddish is written with the letters of Hebrew abjad and the "points" (Hebrew niqqud). Romanization is unheard of, apart from our linguistics literature.

Consonants of Weddish

Consonant graphemes
		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post.	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals	voiced	מ m		נ n		ע ŋ
	unvoiced	מה mh		נה nh		עה ŋh
Obstruent	voiced	בּ b		דּ d	ג j	גּ g
	unvoiced	פּ p	צ x	ט t	כ k	ק q		א `
Fricative	voiced	ב v	ד ð	ז z
	unvoiced	פ f	ת þ	ס s	סי sy		ח c	ה h
Trills	voiced			ר r
	unvoiced			רה rh
Approximant	voiced	ו w		ל l	י y
	unvoiced	הו wh		ש ł	יה yh

Vowels are written (when they are written at all) above or below the consonantal letters as little dots. The stress-pattern of the word typically indicates whether a given syllable should be "long" or "short", except in the case of high-vowels and the center vowel.

vowel gramemes

	Forced Long	Normal	Forced Short
A	אַא a`	אַ a	אֲ ǎ
E	אֶה eh	אֵ e	אֶ ě
I	אִי iy	ø	אִ i
O	אֹו ow	אָ o	אֳ ǒ
U	וּ u	ø	אֻ ǔ
Ə	אֱ ɨ	אְ ǝ	ø

The diphthongs are generally written as expected, except wy (ui) and yw (iu), which are never written with vowel-points, under any orthography.

Phonotactics

Initials

With S

,סק, סמ, סנ and סל. Older versions of the language forbid st-, but it is now permissible. The same could be said of ספּר, סטר, סקר, ספּל, and סקל.

With C

חל, חר, and חו. New words no longer force sl- to change to cl-.

With Þ/X

In a few Semitic words, תנ and צנ begin the syllable, e.g. צנוע (modest), or תנוך (earlobe).

The bulk of onset consonant clusters are subject to mutation. There are many doubles on this table, but it is important to note the lexical form of a word, and follow the correct mutation path:

mutatable onset clusters

first	second	Form	Soft	Nasal	Aspirate
p	l	pl-	bl-	mhl-	fl-
	r	pr-	br-	mhr-	fr-
t	r	tr-	dr-	nhr-	þr-
	w	tw-	dw-	nhw-	bw-
q	r	qr-	gr-	ŋhr-	cr-
	l	ql-	ql-	ŋhl-	cl-
	w	qw-	gw-	ŋhw-	cw-
b	l	bl-	vl-	ml-
d	r	dr-	ðr-	nr-
g	r	gr-	jr-	ŋr-
	l	gl-	jl-	ŋl-
	w	gw-	jw-	ŋw-

Morphophonology

Mutation

Weddish ודסק
Progress: 60%
Type
fusional
Alignment
Ergative-Absolutive
Head direction
Initial	Mixed		Final
Primary word order
Subject-verb-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
3
Nouns decline according to...
Case		Number
Definiteness		Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice		Mood
Person		Number
Tense		Aspect

Pronouns

Main article: Weddish/Pronouns

Weddish pronouns are split in two groups. The 1st and 2nd person are nominative-accusative. The third person pronouns are ergative-absolutive.

1st and 2nd

Person	Number	Nominative	Accusative	Suffixing	Dative	Genitive
First	singular	אִח	מִח	־מִי	מֵה	מִין
	antinomic/dual	וִט	אֹוק	־אֹוח	אֹוע	אֹונְקֵנְז
	pl.	וִי	וס	־וּס	וֵה	וּסר
Second	singular	תוּ	תִיק	־תִי	תֵה	תִין
	antinomic/dual	יְהַט	אִינְק	־אִנְך	יְהִח	אִינְקִנְז
	plural	יְהִי	יְהוּק	־יְהוּ	יְהֹו	יְהוּור

3rd

Gender	Number	Absolutive	Ergative	Suffixing	Dative	Genitive
masculine	singular	אֵי	אֵיק	־אֵי	אֵיס	הִיס
feminine						הַר
inanimate	singular/antinomic	אִט	ø	־אִט	טֹו אִט	דְּ־אִט
masculine	antinomic	פֹו	גּוּר	־אִם	הִם	הִיס
feminine		הִי	גּוּרַיגּ	־אִיר	הִיר	הַר
all	dual	בֵּית	בֵּיק	־אֵיר	טֹו בֵּית	סִיר
all	plural	יְהַא	יְהַק	־יְהַא	טֹו יְהַא	סִיר

Wh-words

what

וְהַט

who

Absolutive - וְהַא ; Ergative - וְהַק ; Genitive - וְהַמֵס ; Dative - וְהַם

when

וְהֵן

how

וְהֹו

which

וְהִלְך

why

וְהִיד

Nominals

Main article: Weddish/Nominals

It is important to be aware of case, number, and gender (animacy) when dealing with Weddish nouns.

Animacy

Vowel vs consonant ending ... sometimes

Number

Singular vs. Plural, but also antinomic vs. dual

Genitive

Animate vs דְּ־

Dative

Prepositions טֹו

Ergative

־ק

Determiners

Main article: Weddish/Determiners

Every noun that isn't proper must be covered by a determiner.

Articles

The two articles of Weddish are definite and specific.

Definite Article - דֵה

		Singular	Antinomic	Dual	Plural
Animate	Genitive	דֵס		דִיס
	Ergative	דֵק		דִיק
	Absolutive	דֵר	דִיר	דֵור	דַאר
Inanimate	Absolutive	דֵה	דִי	דֵו	דַא

Specific Article - אֵן

		Singular	Antinomic	Dual	Plural
Animate	Genitive	אֵנְס		אִנִיס
	Absolutive	אֵן	אֵנִיר	אִנֵור	אִנַאר
Inanimate	Absolutive	אֵנֶה	אֵנִי	אִנֵו	אִנַא

On the one hand, it is tempting to say that only ðeh is an article. It has more forms (because it can be ergative) and the lexical form is the inanimate singular (unlike the more adjectival specific article). However, both trigger mutation in feminine nouns. 'En is clearly closer to English an than Englih one, so for conventions sake, we say it is an article too.

Anarthrous

Anarthrous clauses might un-adorned vocative phrase, or non-specific and indefinite. That is, they typically refer to an entity not immediately discernible from discourse and not any particular entity.

Quantifiers

Most of the remaining determiner not mentioned heretofore, are quantifiers, determiners that describe the quantity of an item. Weddish very particular with its quantifiers, distinguishing very particularly between determiners and adjectives based on position. Linguists note that these differences are off a very unique kind, what they call 'evidentials'. Quantifiers used as determiners betray a kind of "God's eye point of view" or "omniscient evidentiality" which is not present when used as an adjective.

For example, consider the two following phrases

• all men
• the men all (of them)

While these phrases are synonymous in English, in Weddish they indicate a difference in level of confidence in the information presented: all men is a phrase used when God himself would make, whereas the men, all of them is completely human and normal, allowing for natural exceptions and exceptions.

Others

Distributives, numerals, and possessives make up the remaining determiners (Interrogatives make-up an overlapping category).

Clauses

Verbs

Main article: Weddish/Verbs

Weddish textbooks call their verb conjugations, present, past, and future, and then list all the ways they aren't. It seems better to call then what they are: aspects and moods. The Continuous, the Perfective, and the Subjunctive are available in most verbs. What makes it more confusing is that two verbs -- to be and to have -- do indeed conjugate for tense, and are used extensively at the start of discourses, and at jumps in the relative time.

Adnominals

Adjectives is an open class in Weddish. They follow the noun and need not agree in any way, though they often do so in a way that keeps the trochaic meter going (see Prosody). Prepositional phrases and relative clauses follow adjectives. Verbs conjugated as participles are adjectives, taking the head noun as their absolutive argument. Other uses of verbs require relative clauses.

Nouns can be made adnominal, either by being put into the genitive or by certain suffixes. For example ־סק -(i)sq attaches to nouns or adjectives and makes them into adjectives mean "of or pertaining to x" (cp. English -ish).

Adverbials

Like in English, nouns of time can be used as adverbs with zero-derivation. The suffix ־לך '-lik (cp. English -ly) is the most common adverb-maker.

Numerals

Main article: Weddish/Numerals

Weddish numbers are a true anomaly. The technical description is that they are "sexagesimal, with a duodecimal sub-base". That means, they start off counting by twelves, and then group those into sixties.

Lexicography

Main article: Weddish/Lexicography

For the complete Swadesh list with relative language comparisons, see Weddish/Swadesh

Weddish words are well-defined by historical epochs. From their inception to 1066, the Wedds were warriors, and then farmers. Agrarian words and grammatical words are of Germanic origin, and most illustrate that Weddish came from Old Frisian, though a few look more like Old English. Also, some Welsh words entered in this time, including some Latin words which where already in Old Welsh.

Next, Biblical and religious words came from Hebrew and related languages. These were the words of the ruling class, the educated, and the elite. The end of Jewish dominance may have come in 1290, but new words were still being coined from Hebrew for some time afterwards. Eventually, Welsh served as the conduit for outside influence until the 16th century, at which point English began to enter the scene.