Brithenig

Brithenig
Pronunciation	[/brɪθənˈig/]
Created by	Andrew Smith
Date	1996
Language family	Indo-European Romance Latin Brithenig
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bzt

Brithenig, [brɪθənˈig], was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it.

Brithenig was not developed to be used in the real world, like Esperanto or Interlingua, nor to provide detail to a work of fiction, like Klingon from the Star Trek scenarios. Rather, Brithenig started as a thought experiment to create a Romance language that might have evolved if Latin had displaced the native Celtic language as the spoken language of the people in Great Britain.

The result is an artificial sister language to French, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Occitan and Italian which differs from them by having sound-changes similar to those that affected the Welsh language, and words that are borrowed from the Brittonic languages and from English throughout its pseudo-history. One important distinction between Brithenig and Welsh is that while Welsh is P-Celtic, Latin was a Q-Italic language (as opposed to P-Italic, like Oscan), and this trait was passed onto Brithenig.

Similar efforts to extrapolate Romance languages are Breathanach (influenced by the other branch of Celtic), Judajca (influenced by Hebrew), Þrjótrunn (a non-Ill Bethisad language influenced by Icelandic), Wenedyk (influenced by Polish), and Xliponian (which experienced a Grimm's law-like sound shift). It has also inspired Wessisc, a hypothetical Germanic language influenced by contact with Old Celtic.

Brithenig was granted the code BZT as part of ISO 639-3.

Andrew Smith was one of the conlangers featured in the exhibit "Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond: The World of Constructed Languages" displayed at the Cleveland Public Library from May through August 2008. Smith's creation of Brithenig was cited as the reason for his inclusion in the exhibit (which also included the Babel Text in Smith's language).

Introduction

Brithenig started as a thought-experement to create a Romance language that might have evolved if Latin speakers had been a sufficient number to displace Old Celtic as the spoken language of the people in Great Britain. The result is a sister language to French, Spanish and Italian, albeit a test-tube child, which differs from them by having sound-changes similar to those that affected the Welsh language, and words that are borrowed from Old Celtic, and from English throughout its 'pseudo-history'. Although other Romance languages have Celtic influences, none of them are so thoroughly influenced as Brithenig.

Phonology

Consonants Letter Pronunciation Bb [b] Cc [k], [t͡ʃ] Dd [d] Ff [v] Gg [g], [d͡ʒ] Hh [h] Kk [k] Ll [l] Mm [m] Nn [n] Pp [p] Rr [r] Ss [z], [s] Tt [t] Ww [w]

Vowels Letter Pronunciation Aa [a], [ə] Ee [ɛ], [ə] Ii [i], [ɪ] Oo [ɔ] Uu [ɨ] Ww [u], [ʊ] Yy [i] Diphthongs Letter Pronunciation ae [æ], [aː] ai [aɪ] au [aʊ] ei [ɛɪ] ew [ɛʊ] TBd

The letters j, q, v, x, and z are used in foreign words that have been borrowed into the language, especially modern words that have not been adapted to the Brithenig orthography. They are not included in the traditional alphabet.

Brithenig has final syllables consonants that are pronounced soft rather than hard. This is shown with special combinations of letters in these cases. Certain phrases are treated as diphthongs also. Sa es, 'she is, there is, there are' is pronounced as 'saes'. A es and O es are treated similarly. In the standard dialect of Brithenig, where 'ae' and 'oe' are pronounced as long vowels, instead of diphthongs, these phrases can be contracted to sa's, a's and o's. When it becomes necessary to prevent two sounds from eliding, to avoid confusion or loss of sound or meaning, the ending -dd is added to a word:

ys a-dd abrob, he has nearly...

The letter 'y' at the beginning of a word is often unstressed and when preceded by a word ending in a vowel it often elides.

Some monosyllablic words end with a consonant cluster with r or l as the last letter. It is the case here that the last letter is pronounced as if the vowel in the word is repeated before it. Llifr, book is pronounced as 'llifir'. Sometimes it is spelled this way. With longer words 'r' in this position is silent.

Stress in Brithenig is placed on the ultimate, or last syllable, for example, afur, love, is pronounced as 'a-FUR', not 'A-fur'. In diphthongs, the first vowel is pronounced as a stressed or unstressed vowel depending on whether it occured in the stressed syllable or not

Brithenig sometimes accents words with a circumflex, called a teithith, or little roof. Although the accent is always pronounced as 'long', more often than not it appears to be purely grammatical, for example, la and lâ.

Grammar

Noun

There are two genders in Brithenig: masculine and feminine. Unlike English where objects can be neuter, all nouns in Brithenig are recognised as being of one gender or the other. The gender of a noun is indicated by the form of the definite article which precedes it: ill (masculine); lla (feminine).

In some dialects the articles, including the plural form, llo are pronounced as if they were written as L instead of LL. While this is not discouraged, it is regarded by native speakers as a foreign or colonial feature and not an indigenous feature. Some dialects, notably the Kernow dialect found in the southern provinces of Cambria, do not have this sound at all.

The masculine article elides with prepositions that end with a consonant:

a to, at + ill → a'll

di of, from + ill → di'll

gwo under, below, beneath + ill → gwo'll

Four features distinguish feminine nouns from masculine nouns:

1. The initial consonant of the noun undergoes mutation after the feminine article, or after a possessive pronoun. The following prepositions are known to cause softening:

di, of, from

gwo, under, below, beneath

• The conjunctions e, and, and o, or both cause softening to following nouns
• Before these parts of speech, ll and rh do not do so before the article.
• The definate articles are exceptional and do not mutate.
• The prepositions tra, through and a, to, at cause spirant mutation rather than softening.
• Prepositions are pronounced in spoken Brithenig as though they were softened, although the written language does not reflect this:

di is pronounced as ddi

gwo is pronounced as wo

tra is pronounced as dra

2. Adjectives following a feminine noun always undergo soft mutation.

3. The demonstrative pronoun 'that' is o masculine nouns and a for feminine nouns. The demonstrative pronoun yst, 'this', is the same for nouns of both genders. The plural forms are ogyn and agyn for 'those' and ystyn for 'these'

O and a are not used as articles before nouns in modern Brithenig. For that the adverbs ci, 'here', and llâ, 'there', are added to the definate noun phrase. For example, 'this man' and 'that man' become ill of ci and ill hof llâ.

4. Feminine nouns are referred to as sa, 'she', masculine nouns as ys, 'he'.

Number

In Brithenig the plural ending has become silent and is no longer written. To indicate when a noun is plural the article changes from ill and lla to the plural form, llo. The plural article also causes spirant mutation:

ill of 'the man' -> llo h-ôn 'the men'

ill of and llo h-ôn is one of the few cases in Brithenig where the singular and plural forms of the same noun are different.

lla gas 'the house' -> llo chas 'the houses'

Among some speakers it seems that llo is loosing is definite quality and it is interpreted only as a plural marker. How, or if, they mark the definite plural noun has not been recorded.

Plural nouns after possessive pronouns also take the spirant mutation.

gwstr gas, your house

gwstr chas, your houses

llo wstr chas, your houses, is also common and grammatically acceptable.

Some words have special plurals created by changing from masculine to feminine gender:

ill bordd, hut, lla fordd, huts

ill busc, wood, lla fusc, woods

ill breich, arm, lla freich, arms

ill cil, eyebrow, lla gil, eyebrows

ill corn, horn, lla gorn, horns

ill ew, egg, lla ew, eggs

ill genygl, knee, lla enygl, knees

ill llafr, lip, lla llafr, lips

ill os, bone, lla os, bones

ill rham, branch, lla rham, branches

Many of these have a collective meaning, lla freich, a pair of arms joined to a body, contrasted to llo freich, arms in a general sense. This is often reinforced in natural pairs by adding dew, two, as a prefix: yn ddewfreich, a pair of arms.

The indefinite singular article is yn, which also means 'one'. It also causes initial consonants to mutate on feminine nouns. The indefinite plural article is the preposition di combined with the definite article: di llo h-on, some men. In the spoken language it is contracted and pronounced as ddlo. The same happens with feminine plurals: ddla. However the creator himself doesn't favor this particular feature.

Common nouns must always have an article. A notable exception is a genitive construction that alternatives with the use of di as possessive marker in Brithenig. Normally the only way to say 'the man's house' in Romance languages is to rearange it to mean 'the house of the man', lla gas di'll of. But there is an alternative form called the genitive construction. The preposition di is omitted along with the definate article of the possessed object. The possessed object comes first, followed by the possessor:

cas ill of, the man's house, the house of the man

cas yn of, a man's house, the house of a man

In this case the possessed object is always understood as being definate, it cannot be understood as 'a house of . . .' It is not uncommon in poetic literature, but can also be translated as lla gas di'll of, or lla gas d'yn of. It is often avoided when the possessed object is plural to avoid confusion, as there is no way to indicate plurality other than context.

Many words expressing unspecified quantities, such as asset, 'enough'; mullt, 'many'; tan, 'too much'; are also followed by di.

Brithenig has three suffixes which are used on nouns, two diminutives and one augmentative. -ith is the usual diminutive, teithith, 'little roof, circumflex', -in implies affection, Tomin, 'Tommy'. It is also used on collective nouns, plentin, 'child', from plant, 'children'. The augmentative is -un, ofun, 'big man'. Treat them as very productive.

Brithenig has cases of i-mutation in its history, which cause a to become e, and u to become y. These cases are distinct from the normal letters e and i because they do not cause c and g to become the soft affricate sounds of 'tch' and 'j'. Technically the diminutive suffixes cause these vowels to change, but it is not strictly adhered to in spoken Brithenig.

Pronouns

Pronouns have separate subject and object forms:

eo,	I;	mi,	me
ty,	you;	ti,	you
ys,	he;	llo,	him
sa,	she;	lla,	her
nu,	we;	nu,	us
gw,	you;	gw,	you
ys,	they;	llo,	them
sa,	they;	lla,	them

Brithenig has two ways of saying you: ty', thou', and gw, you. Ty is singular and used for addressing people that the speaker is familiar with, such as an immediate family member, a close friend, a child, an animal, or god. Gw is used as a singular when speaking to a stranger or a less familiar or more formal acquaintance. It is also used to address more than one person no matter the familiarity. Pronouns are subject to consonant mutation in the same way other words are. If ty or ti is mutated it is always written as dy to avoid confusion with the preposition di, which has a different pronounciation. Fi, the mutated form of mi, becomes 'i in the spoken language, especially after consonants.

Sa is used to mean 'they' when 'they' is exclusively feminine. For 'it' use the form appropriate to the gender of the noun. The impersonal pronoun 'it' is always sa: Sa es fel eidd, It is nice today.

There is a third person reflexive pronoun si', himself, themselves (etc.)'; it is used as the object case with the indefinite subject, yno, one', 'people', 'they, derived from yn of, a man.

The direct object form of the pronoun have the option of coming before or after a simple verb, but with a compound tense or an infinitive used in the sentence, it can only come after the past participle or the infinitive, to which it may be hyphenated.

Mi, ti and si also have special disjunctive forms mui or fui, tui or dui or thui, and sui. These are used after prepositions, after the conjunction ca, than, or when a sentence uses two pronouns as objects:

Eo widdef tui e llo in ill castr, I saw you and him in town

The disjunctive pronouns can also be emphatic, repeating the object pronoun:

Eo dy af tui, I love you!

Unlike English, subject pronouns and nouns always go in the order of first person (I, we), second person, (you), and third person (he, she, it, they). The verbusually agrees in number with the nearest subject:

Eo e Badrig gwa a'll castr, Patrick and I are going to town.

Similar is the use of the third person dative pronoun lle in place of llo or lla after a preposition. By itself it means 'to him, her, it, them' and can come before the simple verb or after it like a direct object pronoun, but with a preposition it can only come after the verb. Possessive pronouns precede the noun. Feminine singular nouns take the soft mutation after possessive pronouns, and plural nouns take the spirant mutation, masculine singular nouns do not mutate after possessive pronouns:

mew,	my
tew,	your
sew,	his, her, its
nustr,	our
gwstr,	your
sew,	their

Sew may refer to 'his, her, its or their'. To avoid ambiguity the phrase can be followed with the preposition di and llo, lla to clarify the meaning. With other pronouns this is used to be an emphatic construction:

mew gas, my house

mew gas di fui, MY house

The forms 'mine, yours, his (etc)' are translated into Brithenig as 'my one' or 'my ones' (etc):

mew yn, mew hyn,	mine
nustr yn, nustr hyn,	ours
tew yn, tew hyn,	yours
gwstr yn, gwstr hyn,	yours
sew yn, sew hyn,	his, hers, its, theirs

llo, lla do not mutate, but other pronouns do. The indirect object is often written with a prepostion such as a, to where the mutated forms are used: Ys dun yn llifr a fui, He gives me (to me) a book.

This is the usual order in Brithenig.

Brithenig has one case of personal prepositions which are derived from cun, with. Sometimes speakers reinforce the prepositions by prefixing cun-, but the first forms are more common:

meg, cunmeg,	with me
nusc, cunnusc,	with us
teg, cunneg,	with you
gwsc, cungwsc,	with you
seg, cunseg,	with him, her, them, it

Adjectives

Adjectives agree with their nouns in gender and number. Plural adjectives take the spirant mutation to agree with plural nouns. Feminine adjectives take the soft mutation when following feminine nouns. Adjectives tend to follow the noun. Only the adjectives bon, good, and mal, bad, can be used without any uncertainty before a noun. When an adjective precedes a noun it has a figurative rather than a literal meaning. This effects only a couple of adjectives: pobr, poor, has the meaning of 'destitute' after the noun, but 'unfortunate' when it comes before the noun. Likewise with gran, big, large, when it precedes the noun it means importance, not size:

Yn gran of, a great man

Yn of gran, a big man

Yn gran ddiwrn, a great day

Note that the initial consonant undergoes softening after a preceding adjective.

sul can come before or after the noun with a difference in meanings. After the noun it means 'lonely', yn blentin sul, a lonely child. Before a noun, it means 'only', yn sul blentin, an only child.

Brithenig can use an adjective as a noun by putting an article in front of it. It then refers to an object that has that quality: ill rhys, the red one; llo phog, the little ones.

For a comparative of an adjective, Brithenig puts the words ply, more and min, less before an adjective, with the spirant mutation of the initial consonant of the following adjective. 'Than' is translated as ca: ply hallt ca yn gas, taller than a house.

The superlative is formed by putting the definate article suitable for the gender of the noun before the comparative adjective: ill ply hallt', the tallest. When a noun is qualified, the definate article goes in front of the noun, replacing yn: lla gas bly hallt, the tallest house. It is omitted if the noun is proceeded by a possessive pronoun:

ill llifr ci es sew ober feilwr di llo, this book is his best work

mew ffradr maer, my older/oldest brother

Following a superlative the preposition di is used:

ill tyr ci es ill ply hallt di lla giwdad, this tower is the tallest in the city

If this is getting too complicated then the suffix -isaf, very can replace the superlative sometimes:

lla giwdad ci es felisaf, this city is very beautiful

Certain adjectives are irregular:

bon	good	meilwr	better
mal	bad	puir	worse
gran	big	maer	bigger
pog	little	min	less
mal	badly	pui	worse (adverb)
ben	well	myl	better (adverb)

The superlative form of these adjectives is the comparative form with the definate article, as per usual.

Most adverbs are derived from adjectives by adding the ending -fent. In spoken Brithenig this is usually pronounced 'fen' but the t is still written:

bel, beautiful → belfent, beautifully.

Adverbs cause soft mutation on following words.

Vocabulary

Most of Brithenig's vocabulary is distinctively Romance, even though it is disguised as Welsh. The following list of 30 words gives an impression of what Brithenig looks like in comparison to nine other Romance languages including Wenedyk, and to Welsh. The similarity of about one-quarter of the Welsh words to Brithenig words (indicated by not being bracketed) is due to their common Indo-European background, although a few others, such as ysgol, were borrowings from Latin into Welsh.

Brithenig compared with Romance and Welsh

English	Brithenig	Latin	Portuguese	Galician	Spanish	Catalan	Occitan	French	Italian	Rhaeto-​Romance	Friulian	Romanian	Wenedyk	Welsh
arm	breich	brachium	braço	brazo	brazo	braç	braç	bras	braccio	bratsch	braç	braţ	brocz	braich
black	nîr	nĭger, nĭgrum	negro	negro	negro	negre	negre	noir	nero	nair	neri	negru	niegry	(du)
city, town	ciwdad	cīvĭtās, cīvĭtātem	cidade	cidade	ciudad	ciutat	ciutat	cité	città	citad	citât	oraş, cetate	czytać	(dinas)
death	morth	mŏrs, mŏrtem	morte	morte	muerte	mort	mòrt	mort	morte	mort	muart	moarte	mroć	(marwolaeth)
dog	can	canis	cão, cachorro	can	perro, can	gos, ca	gos, can	chien	cane	chaun	cjan	câine	kań	(ci)
ear	origl	auris, aurĭcŭla	orelha	orella	oreja	orella	aurelha	oreille	orecchio	ureglia	orele	ureche	urzykła	(clust)
egg	ew	ovum	ovo	ovo	huevo	ou	uòu	œuf	uovo	ov	ûf	ou	ów	wy
eye	ogl	ŏcŭlus	olho	ollo	ojo	ull	uèlh	œil	occhio	egl	voli	ochi	okieł	(llygad)
father	padr	pater, patrem	pai	pai	padre	pare	paire	père	padre	bab	pari	tată	poterz	(tad)
fire	ffog	ignis, fŏcus	fogo	lume, fogo	fuego	foc	fuòc	feu	fuoco	fieu	fûc	foc	fok	(tân)
fish	pisc	pĭscis	peixe	peixe	pez, pescado	peix	peis	poisson	pesce	pesch	pes	peşte	pieszcz	pysgodyn
foot	pedd	pĕs, pĕdem	pé	pé	pie	peu	pè	pied	piede	pe	pît	picior	piedź	(troed)
friend	efig	amīcus	amigo	amigo	amigo	amic	amic	ami	amico	ami	amì	amic	omik	(cyfaill)
green	gwirdd	vĭrĭdis	verde	verde	verde	verd	verd	vert	verde	verd	vert	verde	wierdzi	gwyrdd
horse	cafall	ĕquus, cabăllus	cavalo	cabalo	caballo	cavall	caval	cheval	cavallo	chaval	cjaval	cal	kawał	ceffyl
I	eo	ĕgo	eu	eu	yo	jo	ieu	je	io	jau	jo	eu	jo	(mi)
island	ysl	īnsŭla	ilha	illa	isla	illa	iscla	île	isola	insla	isule	insulă	izła	(ynys)
language, tongue	llinghedig, llingw	lĭngua	língua	lingua	lengua	llengua	lenga	langue	lingua	linguatg, lieunga	lenghe	limbă	lęgwa	(iaith)
life	gwid	vīta	vida	vida	vida	vida	vida	vie	vita	vita	vite	viaţă	wita	(bywyd)
milk	llaeth	lac, lactis	leite	leite	leche	llet	lach	lait	latte	latg	lat	lapte	łoc	llaeth
name	nôn	nōmen	nome	nome	nombre	nom	nom	nom	nome	num	non	nume	numię	(enw)
night	noeth	nŏx, nŏctem	noite	noite	noche	nit	nuèch	nuit	notte	notg	gnot	noapte	noc	(nos)
old	gwegl	vĕtus, vĕtŭlus	velho	vello	viejo	vell	vièlh	vieux	vecchio	vegl	vieli	vechi	wiekły	(hen)
school	yscol	schŏla	escola	escola	escuela	escola	escòla	école	scuola	scola	scuele	şcoală	szkoła	ysgol
sky	cel	caelum	céu	ceo	cielo	cel	cèl	ciel	cielo	tschiel	cîl	cer	czał	(awyr)
star	ystuil	stēlla	estrela	estrela	estrella	estel	estela	étoile	stella	staila	stele	stea	ścioła	(seren)
tooth	dent	dēns, dĕntem	dente	dente	diente	dent	dent	dent	dente	dent	dint	dinte	dzięć	dant
voice	gwg	vōx, vōcem	voz	voz	voz	veu	votz	voix	voce	vusch	vôs	voce	wucz	(llais)
water	ag	aqua	água	auga	agua	aigua	aiga	eau	acqua	aua	aghe	apă	jekwa	(dŵr)
wind	gwent	vĕntus	vento	vento	viento	vent	vent	vent	vento	vent	vint	vânt	więt	gwynt

Example

The Lord's Prayer:

Nustr Padr, ke sia i llo gel:

sia senghid tew nôn:

gwein tew rheon:

sia ffaeth tew wolont,

syrs lla der sig i llo gel.

Dun nustr pan diwrnal a nu h-eidd;

e pharddun llo nustr phechad a nu,

si nu pharddunan llo nustr phechadur.

E ngheidd rhen di nu in ill temp di drial,

mai llifr nu di'll mal.

Per ill rheon, ill cofaeth e lla leir es ill tew,

per segl e segl. Amen.

References

• "URUK: The construction of multilingualism in an electronic knowledge management tool". Geolinguistics. American Society of Geolinguistics. 25–26: 255. 1999. ISSN 0190-4671.
• Havliš, Jan (March 2008). "Výlet do Conlangey" (PDF). Interkom (in Czech). 243: 17–21.
• Frawley, William J., ed. (2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. p. 154.
• Parkvall, Mikael (2008). Limits of Language: Almost Everything You Didn't Know You Didn't Know about Language and Languages. Wilsonville: Battlebridge Publications. pp. 91–93, 131. OCLC 70894631.

External links

• Smith, Andrew (23 December 2007). "The Page of Brithenig". Dunedin. http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/introduction.html.
• Brown, Padraic. "Ill Bethisad". http://www.bethisad.com/.
• Fröhlich, Werner. "Romance glossary". http://www.geonames.de/wl-romance.html.