Naeng/Classical

Old Windermere
Created by	IlL, Praimhín
Setting	Verse:Tricin
Language family	Lakovic Ashanic Old Windermere

Classical Windermere (native name: brits Dămè /brits dəˈmeə/; Skellan: a brits Dymée Yfẃr /ə prits təˈmɛi əˈfur/ or /ə prits təˈme əˈfur/ 'Noble Windermere') was a standardized variety of Windermere spoken in the Imperial Windermere territories (Wen Dămea), based on the language of Windermere texts from ca. fT 0-500. A classical language of Talma, it lent many words to other Talman languages. A related language Tseezh was used in other parts of the Windermere Empire, and as a result Windermere borrowed many Tseezh words.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/			ng /ŋ/
Plosive	voiced	b /b~β/	d /d~ð/			g /g~ɣ/
	voiceless	p /p⁼/	t /t⁼/			c /k⁼/	' /ʔ/
Affricate			ts /ts̪/	tł /ts̺~ʈʂ/
Fricative	spirant	f /f/	th /θ/			ch /x/
	nonspirant		s /s̪/	ł /s̺~ʂ/	ș /ʃ/		h /h/
Resonant		w /w/	r /r/	l /l~ɫ~ɭ/	y /j/

The glottal stop is not transcribed word-initially.

Vowels

Classical Windermere had breathy voiced vowels à è ì ò ù ǜ /aʱ eʱ iʱ oʱ uʱ yʱ/ which became ä ea ie oa ua üe in Middle Windermere.

Old Windermere had more vowel contrasts in preinitial syllables: it had two reduced vowels, ă /ə/ and i /ɪ/, which merged to ă in Classical Windermere. This contrast is retained in Pradiul as palatalization.

Morphophonology

Sandhi

Old Windermere had a complex sandhi system (somewhere between Biblical Hebrew and Sanskrit) which was no longer productive in Classical Windermere; most notably it affected plurals and verb forms, making them less predictable.

• fth, fch > -pt-, -pc-
• th + fric → fric + t
  • ths → st, as in sehf 'go' → *thsehf → stehf 'to drive' (Modern binsteaf 'energy', sămteaf 'to energize')
  • thf → ft, e.g. tăfi 'laugh' → *tithfi → tifti 'to mock' (Classical and Modern Wdm. tăfi, tifti)
  • thch → cht e.g. Proto-Windermere àrθχa → răchta 'to die'
  • thł, thș → łt, șt
• ch + f, s, th, ł, ș → chw, ??? ??? ??? ??? ???
• s + f, th, ch → sp, st, sc
• rC, lC > Cr, Cl
• ps pn png → sp fn fng
• tp thp tsp kp chp → tw thw tsw cw chw; Proto-Windermere breathy vowel + tp tsp kp > dw tsw gw
• tsc cts tsp pts sts ts > sc sc sp sp st st

Initial Consonant	Final Consonant
	f	p	b	m	th	t	d	n	ch	c	g	ng	s	ts	ł	tł	ș	h	'	l	r	w	y
f	f	p	sp	fn	ft	ft	ft	fn	pc	pc	pc	fng	ps	fts	pł	ftł	pș	f	f'	fl	fr	fw	fy
p
b
m
th
t
d
n
ch
g
c
ng
s
ts
ł
tł
ș
h
'
l
r
w
y

Grassmann's law

Grassmann's law was productive in Old Windermere: when there were two spirant consonants before a stressed vowel in a word, the first was despirantized. e.g. *chăfol > căfol 'to turn'.

Morphology

Nouns

Old Windermere had many irregular plurals due to the effects of sandhi.

Examples:

Regular plurals:

• cnul 'leaf' > nălcnul 'leaves'

Sandhi plurals:

• drong 'kernel' > tăngrădong 'kernels'

Suppletive plurals:

• croth 'person' > hingüs 'people'

Verbs

Trigger infixes, which became derivational in Classical Windermere, still functioned as voice markers.

Pronouns

Pronouns were similar to later Windermere, but with feminine plural pronouns.

• 1sg: rih
• 2sg: łen (m), łes (f)
• 3sg: in (m), is (f)
• 1pl exclusive: tsa
• 1pl inclusive: ăbang
• 2pl: łinam (m), łisam (f)
• 3pl: inam (m), isam (f)

Derivation

(Anything else?)

• *th- (causative; denominal verbs)
• pi- (agentive; triggers voicing of following voiceless stops p t c to b d g)
  • da (know) -> pida 'sage' (Classical păda, Modern pda)
  • tüth (to grasp) -> pidüth 'meaning, intention'
• ha- (passive)

Old Windermere also used breathy voice ablaut to denote tools: snar (capture) -> snàr (trap, snare) which survives in Modern Windermere as snär.