Bretonese
Bretonese
 | This article is private. The author requests that you do not make changes to this project without approval. By all means, please help fix spelling, grammar and organisation problems, thank you. |
| Bretonese | |
|---|---|
| breçoneix | |
| Pronunciation | [breˈθoneʃ] |
| Created by | Tardigrade |
| Native to | Spain, Portugal |
Early form | |
Bretonese (breçoneix) /breˈθoneʃ/ is a Brittonic Celtic tongue spoken in parts of Galicia and Asturias.
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
Bretonesecan be described as having two groups of vowel sounds:
- the open vowels, which arose from historically short vowels
- the close vowels, which arose from historically long vowels
- the diphthongs
The open and close vowels are represented by the following inventory:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ 〈i〉 | /u/ 〈u〉 | |
| Mid | /e/ 〈e〉 | /o/ 〈o〉 | |
| Open | /ɛ/ 〈ɛ〉 | /a/ 〈a〉 | /ɔ/ 〈ɔ〉 |
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 /k/ | g /g/ | h /x/ | |
| ch /t͡ʃ/ | dj /d͡ʒ/ | x /ʃ/ | |
| b /b/ | m /m/ | v /v/ | |
| d /d/ | n /n/ | ∅ | |
| g /ɡ/ | ng /ŋ/ | ∅ | |
| gu /ɡw/ | ng /ŋw/ | v /v/ | |
| dj /d͡ʒ/ | ñ /ɲ/ | y /j/ | |
| y /j/ | ñ /ɲ/ | ||
| 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 dji "his dog", a reg "the woman", do 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"