Verse:Irta/Judeo-Anbirese

Al-Qayljiyyah (the Arabic name for the language; the native name is a Ᵹaeiliᵹ /ə 'gəɪlʲɪc/) is a descendant of Old Irish that has been heavily influenced by Arabic. It is written using the Arabic script. Qaylji may be used in English as the related adjective. It has lost mutations and grammatical gender.

A Ᵹiumhúirie Ᵹaelaċ Isleámaċ

The Gaelic Islamic Republic (a Ᵹiumhúirie Ᵹaelaċ Isleámaċ /ə ɟʊmˈhuːrʲjə ˈgeːlˠəχ/) is a Goidelic-speaking, historically Muslim country comprising the northern part of Iberia. It's often shortened to an Ᵹiumhúirie by its inhabitants. The indigenous Celtic speaking peoples converted to Islam around 11th century AD.

Phonology

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar		Retroflex	Palatal	Dorsal	Glottal
			broad	slender
Nasal		m	n̪ˠ	nʲ			ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t̪ˠ	tʲ		c	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d̪ˠ	dʲ		ɟ	g
Fricative	voiceless	f	s̪ˠ	ɕ	ʂ	ç	χ	h
	voiced	v	z̪ˠ	ʑ			ɣ
Resonant		w	r̠ˠ~ɹˠ, lˠ	rʲ, lʲ		j

Especially in educated, careful and formal speech, vowel-initial words are pronounced with a glottal stop.

Obstruents are subject to Auslautverhärtung.

Vowels

/a ɪ ʊ ɔ ə ɐ a: (e:) ɵ:~o: i: ʉ:~u: əj əw iə uə/

• "Conjugation by imāla": OIr /a:/ after non-velarized consonants merges with OIr /e₂ː/ and is pronounced [a:~ä:] in young urban secular speech e.g. Gaibd ar Raħmán [ɐbdʲəɹˠəh'ma:n]; سْكال scéal [ɕcaːlˠ] 'news; story'. After velarized consonants [ɔː] is used.
• Our Irish broad /e:/ becomes /əj/, and /e:/ in some monosyllabic words become /əj/ too: sé /ɕəj/ [ɕeɪ] 'six'.

/ɐ/ is found as an "ayin-colored" reduced vowel in words of Arabic origin: e.g. Gaizíz /ɐˈʑiːɕ/ (male name)

Intonation

Lifted from German

Orthography

Al-Qayljiyyah is written with the Arabic script. Native Gaelic words have established spellings but cannot always be read unambiguously in the orthography, as broadness is unwritten in many cases. Siuiciún, šeidde and (generally) long vowels are always written.

Final schwa is spelled with final teá marbúta except in proclitics such as le or do, called marbúta for short. (final /h/ is spelled with há)

Final -(a)idh and -(a)igh are spelled with ى

Romanized spelling

Based on our Irish orthography, but:

• Lenition is always spelled with an overdot, never with h. This is because of Arabic clusters with /h/.
• /g/ (broad or slender) is spelled ⟨ᵹ⟩.

Spelling Arabic loans

The spelling of Arabic loans strives to be simultaneously as etymological as possible and as faithful to Gaelic orthographical rules as possible. Where conflict exists, this section will specify what to choose. The Arabic article is transliterated ail (except (1) when assimilated, and (2) in Alláh when pronounced with a broad L in Arabic), usually regardless of case endings preceding it. e.g. Gaibd ail Ceirím 'Abdul Kareem'.

• Geminates are always reflected: e.g. Ħaiᵹᵹ /hac/ 'Hajj'.
• /dʒ q k x t θ d ð tˁ s sˁ dˁ ðˁ/ are borrowed as /ɟ k c x tʲ tʲ dʲ zʲ tˠ sʲ sˠ zˠ zˠ/.
• ra ru rØ becomes broad /rˠ/ (unless the r is word final); ri is slender /rʲ/.
• Arabic /z ʃ ʔ ʕ h ħ/ are transliterated ⟨z š ' g h ħ⟩ /zʲ ʃ ʔ ʔ h h/; the resulting z and š are always slender.
• Arabic labials /m b f w/ ⟨m b f v⟩ are considered to be broadness; these consonants have lost palatalization even in native Qaylji words.
• Arabic /j/ is always ⟨j⟩ initially: jagъní /ja:nʲi:/ 'i.e., namely'
• /a i u a: i: u: aj aw/ become (b_b, b_s, s_b, s_s): a/ai/ea/ei, oio/oi/io/i, u/ui/iu/iui, á/ái/eá/eái, oío/oí/ío/í, ú/úi/iú/iúi, ae/é/aei/éi, ó/eo/ói/eoi.
• In Arabic loans, final consonant is always slender unless laryngeal, /r/ or emphatic (This is because of the genitive ending -i)
• Iotation in Arabic loans is spelled with an extra i before the vowel: ᵹiumhúirie /ɟʊmˈhuːrʲjə/ 'republic'. It palatalizes the preceding consonant unless preceded by o.
• Arabic 3ayn is spelled ⟨g⟩, but only acts as vowel coloring in Qaylji. It turns neighboring schwa to /ɐ/, and makes diphthongs /aj ai: ae: aw au: ao:/. and turns preceding /a i: u:/ to /a: iə uə/: mavdúg /məw'dˠuə/ 'spurious'.
• In Arabic clusters that violate leathan le leathan agus caol le caol, the Cyrillic hard sign ъ is used where the broadness switch happens. e.g. ceisъra /ˈcɛsʲrˠə/ 'kasrah (Arabic vowel sign)'. The hard sign is not necessary when a broad consonant is followed by /j/: šeaċsoie /ˈʃaxsˠjə/ 'character, personality', from Arabic šaxṣiyyah.

Grammar

Due to language contact, Qaylji grammar is more analytic than Irish, Gaelic or Welsh.

article = a (sg), na (plural); no mutation, no gender

Verbs

Qaylji verbs have three forms:

• imperative (aimir): إه iṫ! 'eat! (sg)', إهف iṫibh! (pl)
• verbnoun (masъdeir): إهة iṫe (also a number-neutral imperative)
• passive participle (isim mafgúil): إتة ite (only used adjectivally)

The older imperatives are currently losing ground to the verbnoun-based imperative.

Native -(a)iᵹ̇ verbs have the following forms:

• imperative: كنّى ceannaiᵹ̇! كنّيف ceannaíbh! 'buy!'
• verbnoun: كنّو ceannú
• passive participle: كنّهة ceannaiṫe

Arabic verbs are borrowed in their VN forms:

• imperative forms كتْبى ceitbiᵹ̇ 'write' (< katb, vn of kataba), صلاتى saileáitiᵹ̇ 'pray' (< ṣalā™, vn of ṣallā)
• verbnoun forms كتْب ceitb, صلاة saileá
• passive participle forms كتْبهة ceitbiṫe and صلاتهة saileáitiṫe

Nouns

Arabic broken plurals applied to native Gaelic words: madra 'dog' > mudar 'dogs'; caṫaoir 'chair' > cuṫuir 'chairs'. The regular plural of native -e/-a nouns is -(a)id, influenced by Arabic -āt.

Possession is indicated with aᵹ, rather than with the genitive case or preposed possessive pronouns: a maisᵹíd aᵹ a caṫair ᵹainne /ʔə məsʲˈciːdʲ ʔəg ə ˈkahərʲ gənʲə/ 'our city's mosque'. "Possessive pronouns": ᵹam, ᵹat, aiᵹ/ᵹe (after C/after V), ci, ᵹen, ᵹainne, ᵹaibh, cu (the emphatic form ᵹainne replaced older *ᵹainn in the 1pl form)

3rd person pronouns are se, sí, sin ('he, she, it')

Wordlist

• já (literary) 'O'
• vacъt 'time'
• seága [sʲa:] 'hour'
• deacaíoca [dʲəˈki:kə] 'minute'
• teáinie ['tʲaːnʲjə] 'second'
• caidear 'fate; destiny' (< qadar 'divine predestination')
• anna (formal) 'complementizer' (from Arabic)