Cumbraek
Cumbraek is a modern reconstruction of the lost medieval language of Cumbric, a Brythonic Celtic tongue once spoken in parts of southern Scotland and northern England.
Phonology and Orthography
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | |||||
| Fricative | f v | θ ð | s (z) | ʃ | x | h | ||
| Affricate | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | |||||||
| Approximant | w | y | ||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Flap or tap | ɾ | |||||||
| Lateral app. | l | ɫ |
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iː y(ː) | u(ː) | |
| Near-close | ɪ | ||
| Close-mid | eː | oː | |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ʌ ɔ(ː) | |
| Near-open | æː | ||
| Open | a(ː) |
Vowel Length
Pure vowels have long and short forms, with vowel length being determined by environment:
- Long vowels occur in monosyllables where the syllable ends in a single consonant or no consonant (-VC, -V)
- Short vowels occur in all polysyllables; in monosyllables ending in more than one consonant (-VCC(C)) and in proclitics
Note that the digraphs th, dh and ch are considered to be single letters.
Orthography
Cumbraek is written with the Latin alphabet and uses the following letters.
a b c/k ch d dh e f g gw h hw i j l m n o p r s t th u v w y
The table below shows the correspondences between letters and pronounciation.
| Graph | IPA | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| a | /a(ː)/ | |
| ae, ay | /æː/ | takes stress in final syllables |
| ai | /əɨ̯/ | |
| aw | /au̯/ | |
| b | /b/ | |
| c, k | /k/ | c occurs word initially and in the digraph ck, k occurs everywhere else |
| /g/ | word-finally, before a voiced sound in the next word | |
| ch | /x/ | |
| d | /d/ | |
| dh | /ð/ | |
| e | /eː/ | long |
| /ɛ/ | short | |
| ea, ee | /eː/ | takes stress in final syllables |
| ey | /ɛɨ̯/ | |
| ew | /ɛu̯/ | |
| f | /f/ | |
| g | /g/ | |
| gw | /gʷ/ | |
| h | /h/ | word-initially |
| Ø | between vowels | |
| hw | /xw ~ ʍ/ | the distinction between /xw/ and /ʍ/ is largely a matter of personal choice |
| i | /iː/ | long |
| /ɪ/ | short | |
| iw | /ɪu̯/ | |
| j | /d͡ʒ/ | |
| l | /l/ | |
| l | /ɫ/ | |
| m | /m/ | |
| n | /n/ | |
| ng | /ŋ/ | |
| o | /oː/ | long |
| /ɔ ~ ɒ/ | short (/ɒ/ is more common in the south) | |
| oa | /ɔː ~ ɒː/ | /ɒː/ is more common in the south |
| oe | /oː/ | takes stress in final syllables |
| oo | /uː/ | long |
| /u/ | short | |
| ou | /yː ~ ʉː/ | long; /ʉː/ is the southern form |
| /y ~ ʉ/ | short; /ʉ/ is the southern form | |
| oy | /ɔɨ̯/ | |
| ow | /ɔu̯/ | |
| p | /p/ | in most environments |
| /b/ | word-finally, before a voiced initial | |
| r | /r/ | |
| rr | /r/ | |
| s | /s/ | generally written <ss> between vowels |
| t | /t/ | in most environments |
| /d/ | word finally, before a voiced initial | |
| u | /uː/ | long |
| /u/ | short, in monosyllables | |
| /ʌ/ | in pretonic syllables and proclitics | |
| uw | /uː/ | |
| v | /v/ | v is a weak consonant, liable to be lost in final position unless a vowel initial follows |
| w | /w/ | |
| y | /j/ | before vowels |
| /ɪ/ | in word-final, unstressed syllables only |
Diacritics
Cumbraek makes occasional use of three diacritics:
- the acute accent is used to show an unexpected long vowel (e.g. bónt 'they may be'); when it occurs in the final syllable, it also marks stress (e.g. cantín 'canteen')
- the grave accent is used to show an unexpected stressed syllable (e.g. gràvity 'gravity'); it is also used to mark a short vowel in monosyllables (e.g. bùs 'bus')
- the trema is used to mark diaeresis and is place on the second vowel of a sequence (e.g. troäv 'I turn', troöun 'I was turning')