Bretonese
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| Bretonese | |
|---|---|
| breçoneix | |
| Pronunciation | [breˈθoneʃ] |
| Created by | Tardigrade |
| Native to | Spain, Portugal |
Early form | |
Bretonese (breçoneix) /breˈθoneʃ/ is a Brittonic Celtic tongue spoken in the Spanish autonomous communities of Galicia, Asturias and in northern Portugal. It is spoken by 30% of the population in these areas. Of these, 75% are in Spain and the remainder in Portugal and in diaspora communities.
Phonology and Orthography
Bretonese Consonants
The consonant inventory for Bretonese is as follows:
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | ɲ ⟨ñ⟩ | ŋ ⟨ng, ngu⟩ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p ⟨p⟩ | t ⟨t⟩ | t͡ʃ ⟨ch⟩ | k ⟨c, qu⟩ | ||
| voiced | b~β ⟨b⟩ | d~ð ⟨d⟩ | d͡ʒ~ʒ ⟨g, j⟩ | ɡ~ɣ ⟨g, gu⟩ | |||
| Fricative | voiced | v ⟨v⟩ | z ⟨z⟩ | ||||
| voiceless | f ⟨f⟩ | θ ⟨ç⟩ | s ⟨s⟩ | ʃ ⟨x⟩ | x ⟨h⟩ | ||
| Approximant | central | j ⟨y⟩ | w ⟨u⟩ | ||||
| lateral | l ⟨l⟩ | ʎ ⟨ll⟩ | |||||
| Trill | r ⟨rr⟩ | ||||||
| Tap | ɾ ⟨r⟩ | ||||||
Vowels & Diphthongs
The monophthongs are represented by the following inventory:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ 〈i, í〉 | /u/ 〈u, ú〉 | |
| Close-mid | /e/ 〈e, é〉 | /o/ 〈o, ó〉 | |
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ 〈e, è〉 | /ɔ/ 〈o, ò〉 | |
| Open | /a/ 〈a, á〉 |
All of Bretonese's true diphthongs are falling and consist of a vowel + either /i̯/ or /u̯/.
| + i̯ | + u̯ | |
|---|---|---|
| Near-close | ɪu̯ | |
| Mid | əi̯ | |
| Open-mid | ɛi̯ ɔi̯ | ɛu̯ ɔu̯ |
| Open | au̯ |
Sound Changes
Consonant Mutations
As with all modern Celtic languages, Bretonese makes extensive use of initial consonant mutations to help signal grammatical and syntactic information. Bretonese has three main mutations: lenis (meyel), spirant (cravel) and nasal (truinel).
The changes caused by the mutations are summarised in the following table.
| Radical | Nasal | Lenis | Spirant |
|---|---|---|---|
| p /p/ | b /b/ | f /f/ | |
| t /t/ | d /d/ | ç /θ/ | |
| c, qu /k/ | g, gu /g/ | h /x/ | |
| ch /t͡ʃ/ | j, g /d͡ʒ/ | x /ʃ/ | |
| b /b/ | m /m/ | v /v/ | |
| d /d/ | n /n/ | ∅ | |
| z /z/ | ñ /ɲ/ | y /j/ | |
| g, gu /ɡ/ | ng, ngu /ŋ/ | ∅ | |
| gu, gü /ɡw/ | ngu, ngü /ŋw/ | v /v/ | |
| j, g /d͡ʒ/ | ñ /ɲ/ | y /j/ | |
| ll /ʎ/ | l /l/ | ||
| m /m/ | v /ṽ/ | ||
| ñ /ɲ/ | n /n/ | ||
| rr /r/ | r /ɾ/ |
Lenited g becomes v before words in go-, gu-, e.g. gou "smith" → i vou "his smith", gur "man, husband" → i vur "his husband".
Examples:
- Lenition: i beñ "his head", di dad "your dad", i gi "his dog", a reg "the woman", de Varselen "to Barcelona".
- Spirantisation: i feñ "her head", tri çad "three dads", ter haç "three cats".
- Nasalisation: no ngreg "nine women", i Marselen "in Barcelona"