Fén Ghír: Difference between revisions
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=====Del, Do & Debh===== | =====Del, Do & Debh===== | ||
These mostly relate to the English use of "To", "From" and "Towards" though there are some exceptions which will be covered as I remark on them. | |||
=====Rel & Cun===== | =====Rel & Cun===== |
Revision as of 17:27, 15 May 2013
"An bhé chuc cún dhér dó gil me dí. Och tel lé gérul del ténan me dí, lú chí lú ba lú lé bhoc del lór me dí cór tol. En gar dí me gon."-Lúdhí Fén Ógil Níradh.
"We take from Iron it's rightful prize. And if we sail to the wide world's end, all know that we'll return from the depths a thousand times. Death cannot keep us."-Old Fén War Song.
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Introduction
This is my first attempt at a conlang, originally conceived as a part of a larger game that never took off. It is the only language from the game that reached anything nearing completion. Inspiration and influence were drawn both from my earliest impression of Irish while falling back on my stronger knowledge of English and French. The grammar was largely completed before I had much experience with linguistic theory or the conlanging community, thus while functional it may be somewhat backwards at times and occaisionally lacks for easy terms to descripe itself.
General information
The language is designed for a conworld and as such aims to be as unique as possible. However as both an early conlang and due to initial worries for aesthetic features as well as content it draws heavily on a few sources;
Irish Gaelic served as the largest inspiration, more obviously in regards to grammatical lenition, Head first and phonology in general. English and French are heavy influences as well due to my stronger knowledge of them.
Some aspects are new, largely aiming towards simplification while remaining unique; the isolating aspect, copula and relative clauses are unique to the language and derived from my desire to keep things as simple and categorical as possible.
Morphemes originally were derived by mixing French, Irish and English words beyond the point of recognition. This was later largely supplanted both with the use of randomized generators and compounds and other mutations derived from these morphemes.
Fén history
Derived from the Galav culture which spread far during the early iron age. The Fén came about as the Galav spread over what would come to be known as Nílíra or the Fén Highlands and eventually spread over the rest of the penisula. The Fén are the only remaining people of the Galav culture that retain complete cultural independance under a High King. They are in turn divided into six petty kingdoms and the northern island colonies, with four major cultural sub-groups and dialects. Culturally, they are adopting the style of their imperial neighbours and loan words along with it.
To do
"Té dégep me gír cur tol fabhen pon éloc léc cíp dó dégep ghír."
"Language is always expanding to meet the needs of an expanding language."
Current Issue: What purpose does accusative serve directly? Having been influenced heavily by Irish, Fén uses "cór", "del", "ce" and "dó" in the same way many languages use accusative. Currently in a lot of cases, it either emulates English or could be made into an adjective in many ways. The Accusative is redundant, it may be wise to elimate another case for the sake of shortening or make Fén into a VSO order.
Also, vocabularly. Always more vocabularly.
Phonology
The following is a rough approximation of Címén Ghír, or "Sacred Fayn" which is used taught and used as a neutral dialect amongst the educated classes;
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Post-Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | |||
Stop | p b | t d | k g | ||
Fricative | f v | s | x | h | |
Affricate | ʒ | ɣ | |||
Approximant | w | ||||
Trill | r | ||||
Lateral app. | l |
Vowels
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i | u |
Near-Close | ɪ | ʊ |
Close-mid | e | o |
Open-mid | ɛ | |
Open | a a: | ɑ ɑ: |
Alphabet
Letter | Consonants | Lenition | Exceptions |
---|---|---|---|
b | /b/ | /w/ | v at the end of the word and before i&e. |
c | /k/ | /x/ | /s/ before i&e. |
d | /d/ | /ʒ/ | |
f | /f/ | (silent) | |
g | /g/ | /ɣ/ | |
l | /l/ | - | |
m | /m/ | /w/ | |
n | /n/ | - | |
p | /p/ | /f/ | |
r | /r/ | - | |
t | /t/ | /h/ |
Vowel | Short | Long |
---|---|---|
A | a | a: |
E | ɛ | e |
I | ɪ | i |
O | ɑ | o |
U | ʊ | u |
Irregularities
The dialect represented here is the formal version of Fén which is resistant to external sandhi and as the dialect from which the written language is derived, most changes are reflected in spelling. However in the case of root words and compounds, it may be seen that some fronted vowels vowels are shifted before sonorants; i (/ɪ/) becomes í (/i/), e (/ɛ/) becomes é (/e/). In these cases an accent is usually added ignoring etymological rules.
This rule is also followed in the case of a and á, which are pronounced as /ɑ/ and /ɑ:/ respectively when prior to a sonorant with "a" indistinguishable from "o". This is the only Sandhi which is not recorded as some dialects offer alternate pronunciations which keep "a" distinguishable from "o".
Phonotactics
Compounds in Fén are constructed with strict sandhi rules, which reflect the fundamental phonotactic laws of Fén;
When the initial word ends with a consonant and the second begins with one, the consonant is dropped from the initial word and the consonant in the latter is lenited, if possible.
When the initial word ends with a vowel and the second begins with a vowel, the vowel is dropped from the initial word.
When the initial word ends with a consonant and the second begins with a vowel, the consonant and vowel become a few consonant.
When the initial word ends with a vowel and the second begins with a consonant, the structure remains unchanged.
Initial Word | Latter Word | Final Word |
---|---|---|
CVC | CVC | CV(C)-LVC |
V | V | (V)V |
CVC | V | CV-CV |
V | CVC | V-CVC |
In the above table, C represents a consonant, V a verb and L represents a lenitioned consonant when possible. Finally, bracketed letters are dropped.
Typical syllabic structure of a Fén word then is;
(V)-(CV)-(CV)-CVC-(V)
Lenition in these occurs in non-initial [and occaisionally initial] consonants due to historic merging and thus cannot necessarily be predicted.
Exceptions occur rarely due to independant consonant vowels, where CVC-V-CVC structure can occur. This is rare however. Further exceptions may occur due to common endings such as én, on or an which serve more as suffixes and thus do not interfere with syllable structure.
Similarly, there are exceptions outside of these words, typically amongst words who merged prior Pyrittyl-Galavic split. These are sometimes visible due to a lack of internal lenition, though that may occur for other reasons.
Grammar
Pronouns
Pronoun | Fén |
---|---|
1st Sing. | di |
2nd Sing. | re |
3rd Sing. | lo |
1st Pl. [excl.] | dí |
1st Pl. [incl.] | rí |
2nd Pl. | ré |
3rd Pl. | ló |
Determiners
Fén Determiners | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proximal Determiner | Distal Determiner | Alternative Determiner | Proximal Determiner (Pl) | Distal Determiner (Pl) | Alternative Determiner (Pl) | Interrogative Determiner | Relative Determiner | Interrogative Determiner (Pl) | Relative Determiner (Pl) |
Ít | Ítá | Ítin | Ítibh | Ítábh | Ítina | At | Ét | Atibh | Étibh |
This | That | This Other Thing | These | Those | These Other Things | What? | Which | What? (pl) | Those things which... |
Ígel | Ígelá | Ígelin | Ígelibh | Ígelábh | Ígelina | Agel | Égal | Agelibh | Égalibh |
This Person | That Person | This Other Person | These People | Those People | These Other People | Who? | Who | Who Are They? | Those Ones Who... |
Bhoci | Bhocá | Bhocin | Bhocibh | Bhocábh | Bhocina | Abéc | Ébéci | Abécibh | Ébécibh |
Now | Then | This Other Time | These Times | Those Times | These Other Times | When? | When | Which Time? | Those Times When... |
Íc | Ícá | Ícin | Ícibh | Ícábh | Ícina | Acá | Écá | Acábh | Écábh |
Here | There | This Other Place | These Places | Those Places | These other places | Where? | Where | Which Places? | Those Places Where... |
Íloc | Ílocá | Ílocin | Ílocábh | Ílocibh | Ílocina | Aloc | Éloc | Alocibh | Élocibh |
This Reason | That Reason | This Other Reason | These Reasons | Those Reasons | These Other Reasons | Why? | The Reason Which | Why? | Those Reasons Which... |
Íd | Ídá | Ídin | Ídábh | Ídibh | Ídina | Ad | Éd | Adibh | Édibh |
This Way | That Way | This Other Way | These Ways | Those Ways | These Other Ways | How? | How | Which Ways? | Those Methods Which... |
In Fén, Determiners double as pronouns if the meaning is of them is made clear. relative pronouns precede relative clauses, as in English. ex. "I will give my word to whoever merits it."
The initial determiner or proximal determiner, fills the role of both "this" and sometimes "the" in English, once established in a conversation the proximal determiner sticks and is used in cases even where "that" would be used in English by the other speaker.
The distal determiner serves to emphasize a contrast, thus would be used in sentences with a proximal determiner or shortly afterwards in order to posit some sort of relationship between the two or simple emphasize them in contrast to each other.
The alternative determiner is used in order to switch the proximal or distal determiner. Where in English this doesn't receive any special emphasis, in Fén the first time the subject which the term "this" refers to in a conversation is changed, an "Alternative Determiner" is used, in order to show as much.
Ígelá and ígel see much less use than the simpler pronouns, such as "lo" but in written word, they might follow in the sentence after a relative pronoun, though lo in that case is also acceptable and more common. Ígel may be used in a sense similar to "on" in French or "one" in English.
Quantifying determiners
Fén Ghír | English |
---|---|
Tol Med (ba) [Noun] | Enough (of) |
Tol (ba)[Noun] | All (of) |
Ró Lú ba [Noun] | Too Much of |
Lú (ba) [Noun] | Many/(Much of) |
Ra (ba) [Noun] | Some (of) |
Éna (ba)[Noun] | Few (of) |
Ró Éna ba [Noun] | Too Few |
Ne Én (ba) [Noun] | None |
It should be noted that these do not cause a noun to pluralize.
On their own, these give an amount of something that one possesses, when a possessive ba is inserted then it's a quantity of the total and is used similarly to the difference in English between "A lot" and "A lot of".
There are two import cases that this can precede Cídér and Fabhan.
- If preceding Cídér it is a general statement on how likely something is, literally how much possibility it has. "Éna ba cídér" is "rarely".
- If preceding Fabhan it refers both how long until something occurs and how often something occurs; "(Lé bhé dén dir) Ne Én Fabhan (cur ít)" Means "(This will be done in) No Time" while "(Bhé dén dir) Ne Én ba Fabhen (cur ít)'" means "This was never done" or more literally "This is done none of the time".
Verb and noun phrases
Fén language branches leftwards on Verb/Noun Phrases. Adjectives, Adverbs and Possessive precede the Verb/Noun.
Verb phrase
Temporal Auxiliary verbs | Adverbs | Mood Auxiliary verbs | 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"
Verbs are modified by the adjectives preceding them and since grammatically an adjective can often be used as a noun and vica versa, the noun in a verb phrase has the first possible consonant aspirated and always precedes either a preposition or if it is a part of a list, a subcoupla.
Verbs are followed by the Subject [Accusative Noun]. In cases where the division is unclear [due to the verb doubling as a temporal adverb for example] is when the preposition "ag" is used to make the Accusative.
Noun phrase
Preposition* | Adjective for Gen. Noun | Genative Noun | Genative Preposition | Adjective | Quantity | Noun | Determiner |
---|
Nouns work in a manner similar to verbs. A particular quality in nouns is that they are either preceded by a preposition, a relative determiner, a subcoupla or the end of the sentence.
Lenition
If a noun or verb is preceded by number, adjectives or an adverb, then lenition occurs in the first consonant.
Sight->'Cím'
Dark Sight (A Foreboding Vision)->'Pél chím.'
Very dark sight-> ''Bér pél chím"
Copula
A Sentence may begin with a Copula, this gives the context of whether the sentence is positive, negative or comparative.
Copula | English |
---|---|
An | It is that... |
Ach | Is it that... |
En | It is not that... |
Ech | Is it not that... |
In | If it is (...), then it is(...) |
Ich | Is it that if (...), then (...) |
On | If it is (...), then (...) is not. |
Och | Is it that if it is (...), then (...) is not. |
'An' is often dropped if the speaker feels that the sentences are clearly divided by his tone. Someone speaking fast, with an accent or with a complicated sentence and meaning, will use "An". Writers will use it to create a sense of formality, especially in accounts and reports. Sometimes it will be added in order to emphasize the division or contrast with the between to sentences. In English it might be directly translated as "Yet" or "Though", but it can also be used in a formal list prefacing important items, where "Therefore" or "Thus" could be used.
These serve as basic contrasts and correlatives, In and On are often used to imply causality between two sentences though technically only state the correlation of two clauses. Depending on the truth value of a the first sentence, it can either be a causal "thus" statement or a conditional "if" statment.
Subcopula
Subcopula are for individual causes of negatives or causal statements within verb or noun phrases that do not affect the truth value of the entire sentence.
Subcopula | English |
---|---|
Na | It is that... |
Cha | Is it that... |
Ne | It is not that... |
Che | Is it not that... |
Ni | If it is (...), then it is(...) |
Chi | Is it that if (...), then (...) |
No | If it is (...), then (...) is not. |
Cho | Is it that if it is (...), then (...) is not. |
Grammatical order
Fén syntax is relatively flexible in principle; each noun phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun. There is a strong sense of natural order in the language, which is as follows;
Using these terms, the Fén sentence order becomes;
Relative Determiner | Copula | Verb | Direct Object | Indirect Object | Subject | Locative [Clause] | Temporal [Clause] | Causal [Clause] | Perspective [Clause] |
---|
Verbal clauses
Verbs are given tenses in a fashion similar to English; Have, Is or Go precede the verb in various orders to give it a tense.
Tense | Fén | English | Adverb Type |
---|---|---|---|
Present | [Verb] | [Verb] | Temporal |
Present Progressive | Té [Verb] | [Be] [Verb]ing | Temporal |
Simple Past | Bhé [Verb] | [Verb]ed | Temporal |
Past Progressive | Bhé Té [Verb] | Was [Verb]ing | Temporal |
Future Simple | Lé [Verb] | Will [Verb] | Temporal |
Future Progressive | Lé Té [Verb] | Will be [Verbing] | Temporal |
Conditional | Med | Would | Mood |
Subjunctive | Tel | May | Mood |
Obligatory | Cún | Must | Mood |
Passive | Dén | Made to [Verb] | Voice |
All adverbs not listed here are categorized as "Other". These adverbs make up the majority and do not describe the Mood, Voice or Time of an object.
It shoud also be noted in that Adverbal order is important particularly in terms of mood and voice adverbs;
Where adverbs precede the order of the mood adverb, that mood or voice adverb is affected rather than the verb itself.
Perfective verbs are expressed with time [cébh/cóbh]
Rather than exhaustively provide examples over the list,
"Rún re me di." | |||||||
/run rɛ mɛ dɪ/ | |||||||
Rún | re | me | di | ||||
Love | 2S | SBJ.Aux- | -1S | ||||
"I love you." |
"Té rún ít me di." | |||||||
/te run it mɛ dɪ/ | |||||||
té- | -rún | ít | me- | -di | |||
Aux.PRG- | -Love | it | SBJ.Aux- | -1S | |||
"I'm loving it."/"It is the case that I love it" |
"Med bhé rún re me di." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
/mɛd ve run rɛ mɛ dɪ/ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
med- | -bhé- | -rún | re | me- | -di | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Aux.CND- | -Aux.PST- | -Love | you | SBJ.Aux- | -1S | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"I wish I had loved you."
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