Weddish

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Weddish
Weðisk
Created byRobert Murphy
Native toWales

Weddish is a w:West Germanic language spoken by several small communities within w:Wales. Approximately 50,000 people speak Weddish as their L1. It is of considerable interest to linguists and ethnographers, because of its complex history and unique place in the world.

Weddish appears to have begun as a dialect of w:Old Frisian, which fell under the influence of its Welsh-speaking neighbors (unlike its Anglo-Saxon kin). It was "conquered" by Jews in 1066, and "freed" by the w:Edict of Expulsion in 1290, and so returned to being under Welsh influence.

Design Goals

While I have taken elaborate pains to make Weddish appear naturalistic and give it a rich history, it is nevertheless an auxlang, designed for me to work on my philosophical ideas and methodologies of translations. I welcome feedback and appreciate any advice you might give, but people are often surprised to find out my primary goal is not to avoid artificiality.

My goals are 1) anti-abstraction, 2) marking marriage, 3) lots of Hebrew, 4) close to English, 5) Welsh influence

Anthropology

Early Antiquity

Weddish was born under a different name: Frisian. While there are individual words that cannot be explained under this rubric, the overwhelming majority of Weddish vocabulary is clearly of Frisia – not Anglo-Saxon – ancestry. While the differences are small, the evidence is clear. Unlike the Frisians of the continent, however, and unlike the conquering Anglo-Saxons, the ancestors of the Wedds were heavily influenced by the nearby Celts. The Old Welsh language rubbed off on Old Weddish, winnowing many consonant clusters, producing significant vowel changes, and greatly altering the phonology and phonotactics.

Old Welsh (Proto-Brythonic) also gave Weddish is system of consonantal mutations. Certain words and grammatical processes trigger regular changes in the first consonant of the next word. This is also the only period where Latin words came into the language (until the modern, international terminology).

Late Antiquity

Some time in the eighth or ninth century, a charismatic leader supposedly brought the Weddish community into his quasi-Jewish cult. He also introduced two key elements of the Basque language into Weddish: ergative-absolutive morphosyntax and animate-inanimate distinctions in noun phrases.

1066

Will the arrival of William the Conqueror, actual Jews arrived from the Continent and called the Wedd's bluff. Mandatory Hebrew schools were formed, and a similar situation to the rest of the U.K. developed for two centuries. The elites and leaders spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic. The common folk spoke Weddish.

1290

When Edward I issued the edict of expulsion in 1290, the influence of external Jewry ceased, and all appearance of Judaism had to be removed from the public eye. The Wedds had their own Domus Conversorum set up, and were allowed to create their own monastic order, where the vows of marriage were conjoined with the vows of holy orders. Hebrew school continued in private, with Talmud and Maimonides studies ongoing for several more centuries. Because they were not allowed to officiate over the Mass, Weddish "convents" avoided much of the accreting philosophy, and were among the hotbeds of Protestant theology, until the w:Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542.

Phonology

Consonants of Weddish
Consonant phonemes
Labial Dental Alveolar Post. Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasals voiced m n ŋ
unvoiced ŋ̊
Obstruent voiced b d d͡ʒ g
unvoiced p t͡θ t t͡ʃ k ʔ
Fricative voiced v ð z
unvoiced f θ s ʃ χ h
Trills voiced r
unvoiced
Approximant voiced w l j
unvoiced ʍ ɬ ç

Weddish consonants primarily center around a voiced-unvoiced contrast. Several sounds do not occur in the lexical forms of words, but are nevertheless common as the result of consonant mutation.

Vowels of Weddish
Vowel phonemes
Front Mid Back
High ɪi ɨː ʊu
Near-high ɪ ʊ
High-mid ǝ
Low-mid ɛː ʌ ɔ
Low æ

Weddish vowels are most easily characterized a six-vowel system: the typical five, plus a central vowel. They all occur in "long" and "short" versions, though (as in English) those terms are used colloquially, and not as linguists mean them.

There are also many diphthongs, as in Welsh: eu, ei, au, ai, oi, ui, and the palatalized iu, ie, ia.


Orthography

Weddish is written with the letters of Hebrew abjad and the "points" (Hebrew niqqud). Romanization is unheard of, apart from our linguistics literature.

Consonants of Weddish
Consonant graphemes
Labial Dental Alveolar Post. Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasals voiced מ m נ n ע ŋ
unvoiced מה mh נה nh עה ŋh
Obstruent voiced בּ b דּ d ג j גּ g
unvoiced פּ p צ x ט t כ k ק q א `
Fricative voiced ב v ד ð ז z
unvoiced פ f ת þ ס s סי sy ח c ה h
Trills voiced ר r
unvoiced רה rh
Approximant voiced ו w ל l י y
unvoiced הו wh ש ł יה yh

Vowels are written (when they are written at all) above or below the consonantal letters as little dots. The stress-pattern of the word typically indicates whether a given syllable should be "long" or "short", except in the case of high-vowels and the center vowel.

vowel gramemes
Forced Long Normal Forced Short
A אַא a` אַ a אֲ ǎ
E אֶה eh אֵ e אֶ ě
I אִי iy ø אִ i
O אֹו ow אָ o אֳ ǒ
U וּ u ø אֻ ǔ
Ə אֱ ɨ אְ ǝ ø

The diphthongs are generally written as expected, except wy (ui) and yw (iu), which are never written with vowel-points, under any orthography.


Phonotactics

Initials

With S
,סק, סמ, סנ and סל. Older versions of the language forbid st-, but it is now permissible. The same could be said of ספּר, סטר, סקר, ספּל, and סקל.
With C
חל, חר, and חו. New words no longer for sl- to change to cl-.
With Þ/X
In a few Semitic words, תנ and צנ begin the syllable.

The bulk of onset consonant clusters are subject to mutation. There are many doubles on this table, but it is important to note the lexical form of a word, and follow the correct mutation path:

mutatable onset clusters
first second Form Soft Nasal Aspirate
p l pl- bl- mhl- fl-
r pr- br- mhr- fr-
t r tr- dr- nhr- þr-
w tw- dw- nhe- bw-
q r


Morphophonology

Mutation


Morphology

Weddish
ודסק
Progress: 60%
 
Type
fusional
Alignment
Ergative-Absolutive
Head direction
Initial Mixed Final
 
Primary word order
Subject-verb-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
3
Nouns decline according to...
Case Number
Definiteness Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice Mood
Person Number
Tense Aspect


Pronouns

Weddish pronouns are split in two groups. The 1st and 2nd person are nominative-accusative. The third person pronouns are ergative-absolutive.


1st and 2nd

Person Number Nominative Accusative Suffixing Dative Genitive
First singular אִח מִח ־מִי מֵה מִין
antinomic/dual וִט אֹוק ־אֹוח אֹוע אֹונְקֵנְז
pl. וִי וס ־וּס וֵה וּסר
Second singular תוּ תִיק ־תִי תֵה תִין
antinomic/dual יְהַט אִינְק ־אִנְך יְהִח אִינְקִנְז
plural יְהִי יְהוּק ־יְהוּ יְהֹו יְהוּור

3rd

Gender Number Absolutive Ergative Suffixing Dative Genitive
masculine singular אֵי אֵיק ־אֵי אֵיס הִיס
feminine הַר
inanimate singular/antinomic אִט ø ־אִט טֹו אִט דְּ־אִט
masculine antinomic פֹו גּוּר ־אִם הִם הִיס
feminine הִי גּוּרַיגּ ־אִיר הִיר הַר
all dual בֵּית בֵּיק ־אֵיר טֹו בֵּית סִיר
all plural יְהַא יְהַק ־יְהַא טֹו יְהַא סִיר

Wh-words

what
וְהַט
who
Absolutive - וְהַא ; Ergative - וְהַק ; Genitive - וְהַמֵס ; Dative - וְהַם
when
וְהֵן
how
וְהֹו
which
וְהִלְך
why
וְהִיד


Nouns

It is important to be aware of case, number, and gender (animacy) when dealing with Weddish nouns.

Animacy

Vowel vs consonant ending ... sometimes

Number

Singular vs. Plural, but also antinomic vs. dual

Genitive

Animate vs דְּ־

Dative

Prepositions טֹו

Ergative

־ק


Determiners

Articles

Anarthrous

Quantifiers

Others

Clauses

Verbs

Adnominals

Adverbials

Numerals

Lexicography

Weddish words are well-defined by historical epochs. From their inception to 1066, the Wedds were warriors, and then farmers. Agrarian words and grammatical words are of Germanic origin, and most illustrate that Weddish came from Old Frisian, though a few look more like Old English. Also, some Welsh words entered in this time, including some Latin words which where already in Old Welsh.

Next, Biblical and religious words came from Hebrew and related languages. These were the words of the ruling class, the educated, and the elite. The end of Jewish dominance may have come in 1290, but new words were still being coined from Hebrew for some time afterwards. Eventually, Welsh served as the conduit for outside influence until the 16th century, at which point English began to enter the scene.

see also Weddish/Swadesh