Cumbraek

Cumbraek
Cumbraek
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|kʌmˈbɾaːk]]
Created by	–
Native to	England, Scotland
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Brythonic Cumbraek
Early form	Common Brythonic

Cumbraek /kʌmˈbɾaːg/ 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.

History

Development

Cumbraek started life in 2007 as an attempt to validly reconstruct the lost language of Cumbric as it was spoken before its demise in about the 12th century. Cumbric was the descendant of Common Brittonic spoken in the region known in Welsh as Yr Hen Ogledd "The Old North", which covers much of modern day Scotland south of the Firth-Clyde isthmus and parts of England north of the Humber-Mersey line. That language, believed to have been closely related to Welsh, has been completely lost and comes down to us only through secondary sources, the most significant of which is the place names of the region. However, it was at one time a thriving language which produced some of Britain's earliest literature including the works attributed to the 6th/7th century bards Taliesin and Aneirin, whose words come down to us through Medieval Welsh manuscripts, and it must have been a language of power and the law at least until the demise of Strathclyde in the 11th century.

At the start of the reconstruction project it was hoped that the information available to us about historical Cumbric would be enough to create a valid picture of the language, which would illuminate the world of the Old North and stand alone as an academic work of value. Though there are no direct sources of Cumbric, there is a significant amount of secondary evidence from place names, personal names, dialect words and the Medieval Welsh poetry that is capable of yielding clues about Cumbric's phonology, grammar and lexis. By comparing this to the related Medieval languages of Welsh, Breton and Cornish (and to a lesser extent Old Irish) a picture of Cumbric began to develop, though it was perhaps closer to early Medieval Welsh than originally anticipated. This early incarnation, a Medieval language, was called Cymbraġec.

As work on Cymbraġec continued, however, it became clear that the actual evidence of Cumbric was too limited and often too opaque to permit an accurate reconstruction. As the project progressed more and more relatively arbitrary (though informed) decisions had to be taken about vocabulary and syntax and as the language became more detailed it also moved further away from the original aim of the project. Eventually, it had to be admitted that Cymbraġec could not be considered an accurate estimation of the historical language of Cumbric. The evidence we have is simply not sufficient to create anything more than a very broad picture of Cumbric.

At this point, with a considerable amount of research undertaken, it was decided that the Medieval, reconstructed language of Cymbraġec should be abandoned in favour of a more creative Modern language, which was eventually named Cumbraek. Whilst the basis for Cumbraek remained rooted in the historical evidence for Cumbric and it was developed with constant reference to the other Celtic languages (particularly Welsh), this was a far more creative and personal endeavour than Cymbraġec was ever intended to be. As such Cumbraek can only really be described as a constructed language and it cannot claim to be an accurate representation of the historical language in any real sense.

With greater creative freedom, Cumbraek developed gradually over the years. Two major milestones in its development were the (online) publication of the first Geryadour (Dictionary) and the first comprehensive grammar, both in 2015. It also has an online presence with its own website and Facebook page.

Neither Cumbraek nor its predecessors have ever been intended to facilitate a language revival along the lines of Cornish or Manx, which have seen varying degrees of success. The creation of the language has no political motivations whatever and it does not presuppose the existence of a shared 'Cumbrian' identity. The fact is that our knowledge of Cumbric is far too limited to permit a revival and, unlike in Mann or Cornwall, there has been no genuine continuity of the historical 'Cumbrian' community up to the present day so there is no common identity which would act as a catalyst for revival.

Internal History

Cumbraek's predecessor, Common Brittonic, was spoken across much of Great Britain from prehistory up until the coming of the English and Gaels in the 5th century. That language underwent substantial phonological and syntactic changes in the first half of the first millennium AD, resulting in an entirely new form of Brittonic which subsequently diverged into the languages of Cumbraek, Welsh, Cornish, Breton and (arguably) Pictish.

In the 6th century, the emergent Cumbraek was spoken across much of central Britain between the Forth-Clyde isthmus and the Humber-Mersey line and it was within this linguistic sphere that the Priv Verdh ("great bards") Aneirin (Cu. Aneyrin) and Taliesin (Cu. Talyessin), among others, composed their great works of literature. But within a relatively short space of time the political advance of English-speaking kingdoms pushed the Cumbraek heartlands back towards the Kingdom of Al Clout (later Strathclyde), the influence of which waxed and waned over the coming centuries though it remained the strongest pillar of Cumbraek's continued existence. Pressure from the English language to the east and from Gaelic in the north and west eroded at the peripheries but Cumbraek remained very much a living and reasonably thriving language.

In the 11th and 12th centuries Strathclyde was absorbed into Scotland and its southern portion annexed by England, at which time Cumbraek ceased to be a language of law and power but remained vital in the mouths of ordinary people. Events of the following centuries, including the 'Davidian revolution' and wars between Scotland and England, initially threatened Cumbraek's survival but the constant uncertainty of life in the borderlands encouraged the people of that region to disassociate themselves with national politics and to think of themselves as a distinct group. In the west, particularly among the middle-ranking local nobility, the surviving Cumbrian identity and language were used to assert this sense of distinctness and, as a result, Cumbraek was revitalised. The Reiving culture which developed in the borders, based on family ties and cattle raiding, appeared to be reflected in the poetry of the Priv Verdh and a new but considerably less sophisticated period of the bardic craft developed.

The heroic lifestyle of the Reivers was brought to an end following the Union of the Crowns in 1603 but Cumbraek remained in increasingly limited use up until the end of the 18th century, at which point it ceased to be spoken. However, a number of late texts and antiquarian interest prior to and following its demise meant that Cumbraek was able to be preserved.

Phonology, Grammar and Lexis

From the end of the Common Brittonic period (c.6th century AD) to about the 12th century, Cumbraek remained relatively indistinct from its closest relative, Welsh and probably retained considerable intelligibility with Cornish and Breton, though it was isolated from its sister languages from the 8th century.

The main divergences between Cumbraek and Welsh dating from this period are:

• Proto-Brythonic (PBr.) */ɛː/ becomes Cu. /əi̯/, W. /oi/ (cait vs. coed)
• PBr. */ɔː/ remains in Cu. but becomes W. /au/ (moar vs. mawr)
• PBr. */ɔu/ remains in Cu. but becomes W. /əɨ/ ~ /aɨ/ (cogow vs. cogau)
• PBr. */p, t, k/ remain after nasals in Cu. but are assimilated in W. (hanter vs. hanner)
• Word initial PBr. */sC/ remains in Cu. but develops epenthetic /ə/ in W. (strat vs. ystrad)
• Word initial PBr. */l, r/ lose their fortis pronunciation in Cu. but not in Welsh (lann vs. llan, ri vs. rhi)
• PBr. pretonic /i, u/ remain distinct as Cu. /ʌ, ə/ but merge as W. /ə/ (Cumbraek vs. Cymraeg)
• Internal epenthesis is phonemicised in Cu. but not in W. (cenedhil vs. cenedl)
• Conversely, Cu. syncopates originally unstressed vowels between l, r, n, m and another consonant (galnas vs. galanas)
• PBr. */lg, rg/ become Cu. /ɫ(ː), r(ː)/ but W. /lV, rV/ (lorr vs. llory, dall vs. dala, daly)

Also during this early period, Cumbraek is subject to influence (mainly lexical) from Norse, Gaelic and Old English/Scots.

Following this period, Cumbraek diverged considerably from its sister languages, though partly through being more conservative. There was a general trend towards simplification in both grammar and phonology, which resulted to some degree in the loss of distinctions in meaning but since Cumbraek was less a language of government and literature than of everyday communication, a complex literary language was not required.

Some of the features of later Medieval and Modern Cumbraek are:

• the merger of some diphthongs, triphthongs and vowel sequences into long vowels
• the merger of Cu. /i, ɪ, ə, ɛ/ into /i, ɛ/
• the development of some marginal phonemes such as /ʃ, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/, partly through borrowing
• change of word initial /tl/ and /dl/ to /kl/ and /gl/
• simplification of geminate consonants in most environments
• analogical spread of vowel alternation and affection
• loss of the article en in favour of er in all environments
• reduction in number of plural endings and increase in the use of certain endings according to semantics
• loss of numerative noun forms
• loss of almost all plural adjective forms
• reduction in verb conjugation, with almost total loss of the subjunctive, plus analogical levelling of inflexions
• increased borrowing from English and the Classical languages

Phonology and Orthography

Consonants

The consonant inventory for Cumbrek is as follows:

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Plosive	p    b		t̪    d̪				k    g
Fricative		f    v	θ    ð	s	ʃ		x	h
Affricate					t͡ʃ    d͡ʒ
Approximant	ʍ    w					j
Trill				r
Flap or tap				ɾ
Lateral app.				l	ɫ

Vowels & Diphthongs

Cumbrek can be described as having three groups of vowel sounds:

1. the variant vowels, which have long and short forms
2. the long vowels, which arose historically from vowel sequences
3. the diphthongs

The variant and long vowels are represented by the following inventory:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	iː	ʉ(ː)	u(ː)
Near-close	ɪ		ʊ
Close-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Open-mid	ɛ		ʌ    ɔ(ː)
Near-open
Open	a(ː)

All of Cumbrek'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

Variant Vowels

Variant vowels may be long or short according to their environment. In most cases, except /a(ː)/, the short forms are more open than their long counterpart, much as in English. Both long and short sounds are represented by the same graph(s) (a, e, i, o, oo, ou or u) and vowel length must be determined by environment:

• Long vowels occur only in monosyllables where the syllable ends in a single consonant or no consonant (-VC, -V), e.g. da /daː/, tek /teːk/.
• Short vowels occur in all polysyllables; in monosyllables ending in more than one consonant (-VCC(C)) and in proclitics, e.g. gware /gwarɛ/, darn /daɾn/, in (proclitic) /ɪn/.

Additionally, the vowel written u has a third variant form /ʌ/, which occurs in non-final syllables of polysyllablic words and in proclitics, e.g. Cumbrek /kʌmbrek/, du (proclitic) /dʌ/. In other short environments, the sound is /ʊ/, e.g. cumm /kʊm/, parun /paɾʊn/.

Note that the digraphs th, dh and ch are considered to be single letters, so monosyllables ending with these sounds have long vowels, e.g. cath /kaːθ/.

Long Vowels

The long vowels /aː/, /eː/ and /oː/ are always long and derive from the merger of earlier vowel sequences. Where the sequences ae, ee, oe occur in word-final position they take the primary stress.

Long /ɔː/, which is sometimes realised as [oa], is usually only permitted to occur in monosyllables and is replaced by /ɔ/ in other environments (e.g. skoat "shadow" /skɔːt/, skodyon "shadows" /skɔdjon/).

Orthography

Cumbraek is written with the Latin alphabet and uses the following letters.

a b c/k ch d dh e f g h 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
Consonants
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/
f	/f/
g	/g/
h	/h/	word-initially
	Ø	between vowels
j	/d͡ʒ/
l	/l/
m	/m/
n	/n/
p	/p/	in most environments
	/b/	word-finally, before a voiced initial
r	/ɾ/
rr	/r/
s	/s/	generally written <ss> between vowels
t	/t/	in most environments
	/d/	word finally, before a voiced initial
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
Consonant Combinations
hw	/ʍ/
ll	/ɫ(ː)/	geminated between vowels when following the stress
lht	[l̩t]	l is devoiced before ht
ng	/ŋ(ː)/	geminated between vowels when following the stress
nng, ngg	/ŋg/
rr	/r(ː)/	geminated between vowels when following the stress
rht	[r̩t]	r is devoiced before ht
sh	/ʃ/
tsh	/t͡ʃ/	mostly borrowed words
Variant Vowels
a	/aː/	long
	/a/	short
e	/eː/	long
	/ɛ/	short
i	/iː/	long
	/ɪ/	short
o	/oː/	long
	/ɔ/	short
oo	/uː/	long
	/ʊ/	short
ou	/ʉː/	long
	/ʉ/	short
u	/uː/	long
	/ʊ/	short, in monosyllables & word-final syllables
	/ʌ/	in non-final syllables and proclitics
y	/ɪ/	in word-final, unstressed syllables only
Long Vowels
ae	/aː/	takes stress in final syllables
ay	/aː/
ee	/eː/	takes stress in final syllables
oa	/ɔː/
oe	/oː/	takes stress in final syllables
uw	/uː/
Diphthongs
ai	/əɨ̯/
aw	/au̯/
ei	/ɛɨ̯/	takes stress in final syllables
ey	/ɛɨ̯/
ew	/ɛu̯/
iw	/ɪu̯/
oy	/ɔɨ̯/
ow	/ɔu̯/

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')

Sound Changes

Consonant Mutations

As with all modern Celtic languages, Cumbraek makes extensive use of initial consonant mutations to help signal grammatical and syntactic information. Cumbraek has three main mutations: lenition (mootthei), spirantisation (anadhlolhei) and nasalisation (troonolhei). There is a fourth type of mutation called aspiration (anadhleth) in which word-initial vowels take an h'- before them.

The changes caused by the mutations are summarised in the following table.

Radical	Lenition	Spirantisation	Nasalisation
p	b	f
t	d	th
c	g	ch
b	v		m
d	dh		n
g	h / w / -		ng
gw	w	(w)	nw
j			ny
m	v

Lenited g disappears before a consonant, becomes w before words in go-, gu-, goo- and becomes h- before other vowels, e.g. gre "flock" → i re "his flock", gur "man, husband" → i wur "his husband", geryadour "dictionary" → i heryadour "his dictionary".

Examples:

• Lenition: i benn "his head", de dat "your dad", i gi "his dog", er vanon "the lady", du Dhin Edin "to Edinburgh", war hat "on a road", i wrek "his wife", a vamm! "mum!".
• Spirantisation: i fenn "her head", tri that "three dads", teyr chath "three cats".
• Nasalisation: naw manon "nine ladies", in Nin Edin "in Edinburgh", mu ngat "my road"
• Aspiration: i h'ewidir "her uncle", an h'oungorn "our unicorn".

For brevity, words routinely causing mutations will be marked with superscript letters in this article: ^L for lenition, ^S for spirantisation, ^N for nasalisation and ^H for aspiration.

Vowel Mutations

Cumbraek also has two vowel mutations, which occur regularly. Feminisation is generally restricted to adjectives and causes an i to become e and a u to become o. Alternation is common in the formation of plurals and in certain verb forms, and causes the following changes:

Radical	Alternate
a	e
e	i
o
ae	ei / ie
ay	ey
oy	oo
a...a	e...e
a...e	e...i
a...o
o...o
a...u

In some cases, these changes work backwards (e.g. gwrek 'woman' has the plural form gwragedh).

Vowel Affection

I-affection and Y-affection are changes caused when a syllable containing either <i> or <y> is added to a word. I-affection causes the following changes to sounds in the original final syllable: a → e, ae → ie, ay → ey and o → e. Y-affection causes only the changes a → e and ay → ey.

Morphology

Articles

There is no indefinite article in Cumbraek, the noun alone is indefinite (e.g. gur 'man, a man', gwrek 'woman, a woman').

The definite article is er, sometimes reduced to 'r after a preposition ending in a vowel or after the locative verb ema (e.g. er gur 'the man', du'r egloos 'to the church').

The definite article causes lenition to feminine nouns (e.g. er wrek 'the woman').

Nouns

Nouns are either masculine or feminine in gender. Grammatical gender is an inherent fact of the noun and cannot always be deduced from the form or meaning of the word. Colloquially, nouns referring to persons sometimes alter their grammatical gender to reflect the natural gender of the person, for example the masculine noun er postidh "the postman, postal worker" could be rendered as er bostidh to mean "the postwoman".

Plurals may be formed in one of several ways:

• by adding an ending, most commonly -ow, -yow, -yon, -on, -edh, -ot (e.g. cadow 'battles', dinyon 'people, men', cathot 'cats')
• by alternation (e.g. bran 'raven' → bren, oyn 'lamb' → oon)
• by adding an ending plus alternation (e.g. gwrek 'woman' → gwragedh, map 'boy, son' → mebyon)
• irregularly (e.g. ci 'dog' → cun, didh 'day' → diow, ti 'house' → tei, hwair 'sister' → hwioredh, broadur 'brother' → brodir)

A number of words, including many plant and tree names and many animals, have a base form with a collective meaning to which the singulative endings -inn (masc.) or -enn (fem.) are added (e.g. deriw 'oak trees' → derwenn 'oak tree', moch 'pigs' → mochinn 'a pig').

Nouns are not formally marked for case, but the following observations may be noted:

• the genitive of possession is shown by placing the genitive noun after the thing possessed (e.g. ti Neven 'Neven's house', gwrek mu tat 'my father's wife')
• some intransitive verbs such as devot 'come' and munet 'go' permit the indirect object to behave as if it were the direct object of a transitive verb, allowing the preposition to be dropped (e.g. compare mi carav Yowann 'I love John' with mi av Lounnen 'I am going (to) London').
• nouns in the vocative are preceded by the particle a^L (e.g. a Vathow! 'Matthew!'). This particle may be dropped in speech, particularly before a vowel, but lenition is always retained (e.g. oucher da, Vathow 'good evening, Matthew').

Adjectives

Most adjectives follow the noun they qualify and must agree in gender and number with that noun.

A few adjectives are regularly preposed, notably hen^L "old" and penn^L "chief, head". These adjectives always cause lenition to a following noun (e.g. hen wur "old man").

Adjectives following feminine singular nouns undergo lentition (e.g. gwrek voar 'large woman'). Monosyllables containing either i or u as their main vowel also undergo Feminisation, i.e. the change of i → e and u → o (e.g. ci gwinn, cath wenn "white dog, white cat", gur druk, gwrek dhrok "bad man, bad woman'"). Certain adjectives with i resist this change, e.g. gwir "true", dir "certain", hir "long", trist "sad".

A few adjectives retain old plural forms, used following a plural noun. These are bechan "small" pl. bechen, yowank "young" pl. yowenk and maruw "dead" pl. meriw.

An exclamative adjective can be formed by adding -het to the positive (e.g. gwinnhet "how white!, so white!", glanhet "how clean!, so clean!"). The adverb mar "how, so" can also be used with longer adjectives to produce an exclamative (e.g. mar dhiwedhar "so late").

Comparison

The equative is formed with the adverb cen^L "as" + the positive adjective (e.g. cen winn ag err "as white as snow").

The comparative adjective is formed by adding -ach "-er" to the positive adjective, and the superlative takes -hav "-est" (e.g. gwinnach "whiter", gwinnhav "whitest", caledach "harder", calettav "hardest").

The following adjectives are compared irregularly:

	Positive	Equative	Comparative	Superlative
near	agos	cen agos	nes	nessav
small	bechan	cen vechan	le	lehav
good	da	custadhul	gwell	gorow
bad	druk	cunruk	goeth	goetthav
old	hen	cen hen	hin	hinhav
large	moar	cumment	moy	moyhav
young	yowank	cen yowank	yow	yohwav

Pronouns

Personal

	Subject	Object	Possessive	Infixed
1sg.	mi	-m	mu(n)N	'mN
2sg	ti	-thL	deL (jeL)	'thL
3sg m.	ev	-yH	iL	'yL
3sg f.	hi	-sH	iSH	'ySH
1pl	ni	-nH	anH
2pl	hwi	-ch	ach
3pl	oo	-sH	owNH

The subject pronouns are used:

• optionally before a personal verb to express the subject (e.g. mi carav 'I love')
• as auxiliary pronouns, added to the end of a verb by a hyphen for clarity (e.g. eth welas-ev 'he saw you')
• as auxiliary pronouns, in conjunction with possessive adjectives (e.g. i nen-hi 'her grandmother')
• independently following prepositions and conjunctions (e.g. mi a thi 'me and you')
• as the object of an imperative verb (e.g. ladh oo 'kill them')

The object pronouns indicate the direct object of the verb and must be attached to a preverbal particle (e.g. eth garav 'I love you').

The possessive pronouns are used:

• as possessive adjectives, before the noun they qualify (e.g. i thi 'her house', ow nwely 'their bed')
• as the object of a verb noun (e.g. de welet 'seeing you', i gano 'singing it')
• with -houn to produce reflexive pronouns (e.g. mu-houn 'myself', an-houn 'ourselves')

NB: mu is used before a consonant and mun before a vowel. The form je is a colloquial spelling of de, representing a more general pronunciation.

The infixed pronouns are contracted forms of the possessive pronouns used following prepositions and conjunctions ending a vowel (e.g. a'm tat 'and my father', o'y wlat 'from his country').

Possessive pronouns proper only exist in the first and second person singular: mow 'mine' and tow 'your'. The so-called 'genitive particle' now is used with the subject pronouns to produce possessive pronouns in the other persons (e.g. now-hi 'hers', now-ni 'ours').

Demonstrative

The demonstrative pronouns display a three-way distinction, with hunn referring to objects close at hand, hunnedh referring to objects out of sight or abstract and hunnunt referring to objects in sight but distant. Each of these has masculine, feminine and plural forms.

	Masc.	Fem.	Plural
this	hunn	honn	hinn
that	hunnedh	honnedh	hinnedh
that yonder	hunnunt	honnunt	hinnunt

The hunn and hunnedh forms may be used as demonstrative adjectives following a definite noun (e.g. er gur hunn 'this man', er cestill hinnedh 'that castle'). Hunnunt is replaced by hunt 'yonder' in this function, which does not change for gender or number (e.g. er wragedh hunt 'those women').

Interrogative

what	peth pebeth	pronouns	+ a + verb / + copula
	peL	adjective	+ noun
who	puwL		+ a + verb / + copula
which one(s)	p'oun	singular	+ a + verb / + copula
	p're	plural	+ a + verb / + copula
how many	petL		+ singular noun
where	cuS, cud		+ verb
when	p'oar		+ e(dh) + verb
how	pe dhel'		+ e(dh) + verb
why	per		+ verb
how much	pe vent		+ e(dh) + verb / oL + noun

Verbs

Verbs are conjugated for person, number, tense/aspect, and mood. Regular verbs have 4 simple tenses in the Indicative (i.e. Present, Imperfect, Preterite, Pluperfect) plus an Imperative mood. The irregular verb bot "be" also has a conjugated Future Indicative and a Subjunctive Present and Past. Bot may be used as an auxiliary to form Present and Past Continuous tenses and, less commonly, Future and Subjunctive Past tenses for regular verbs.

Regular Verbs

The conjugation of regular verbs follows the pattern of caro (stem: car-) "love":

	Indicative				Imperative
	Present	Imperfect	Preterite	Pluperfect
1sg 2sg 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl Imp	carav ceridh* car caren caret carant cerir*	carun carout care carem carewch carent cerit*	ceres* cerest* caras carsam carsawch carsant carat	carsun carsout carse carsem carsewch carsent cersit*	- car caret carem cerit* carent -

Notes:

• Verbs with a in the stem undergo I-Affection in forms marked with *, including the Preterite endings -es, -est.
• The Present tense can also convey a future sense, e.g. mi canav "I'm singing" and "I will sing".
• Some verbs undergo alternation in the 3sg. Present, e.g. per "causes" < par-, ettip "answers" < atteb- etc.
• A number of verbs do not follow the regular pattern of conjugation in the Preterite singular:
  • Some verbs with a in the stem take -is in the 3sg and undergo I-Affection, e.g. peris "caused", levris "spoke".
  • A few verbs have Preterite singular forms in -t or -th. These follow the pattern of either cano "sing" or cumbrit (stem: cummer-) "take":
    • cano: cent "I sang", centost "you sang", cant "he/she/it sang".
    • cumbrit: cummirth "I took", cummirthest "you took", cummerth "he/she/it took".
  • A few verbs with a stem ending in -ed or -edh have a 3sg Preterite ending in -ot or -odh. The most important of these are dewot "said", gwoat "said" (< gwedo), estodh "sat", gorwodh "lay down".
  • The verb cluwet "hear" has an irregular 3sg Preterite ciglow beside regular cluwas.
• Verbs with stems ending in a vowel undergo contraction with the endings, e.g. glanháv "I clean", troes "I turned".

Bot "Be"

The most important irregular verb is bot "be":

	Indicative					Subjunctive		Imperative
	Present	Future	Imperfect	Preterite	Pluperfect	Present	Past
1sg 2sg 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl Imp	oov oot iw, ais, ema imm ich int, emant is	bidhav bidhidh bidh bidhen bidhet bidhant bidhir	aidhun aidhout aidh aidhem aidhewch aidhent aidhit	boum bouest bou bouam bouawch bouant bouat	boussun boussout bousse boussem boussewch boussent boussit	bov boi bo bóm boch bónt boer	beun beout be beem béwch beent beit	- bidh bit bidhem bidhit bidhent -

Notes:

• There are three separate words for the 3sg of bot:
  • iw is the copula used with definite subjects whenever the complement precedes, e.g. Hen iw Dewidh "David is old"
  • ema means "there is" and is a locative verb used whenever a subject is linked to an adverbial phrase indicative location, including with the interrogative cud "where", e.g. Ema cath war er loar "There is a cat on the floor", Cud ema'r egloos? "Where is the church?". Ema is also used in the progressive idiom (see below).
  • Ais is used in negative, interrogative and conditional sentences with an indefinite subject, e.g. Ned ais cath war er loar "There is not a cat on the floor".
• 3pl emant is used as a locative verb when the subject is the 3pl pronoun "they".
• Impersonal is is used as a copula with a definite subject when the complement follows the verb, e.g. Dewidh is hen "David is old".
• Bot has a special present relative form, essidh "who is/are", used when the antecedent is the subject, e.g. Er din essidh mu mroadur "The man who is my brother".
• Unlike with regular verbs, the Present tense of bot is present in meaning only, the Future tense being required to indicate future time.
• The Present Subjunctive is rare to the point of obsolescence but does occur in archaic, particularly religious, texts and idioms.

Other Irregular Verbs

Goobot "know (a fact)" has a very irregular Present tense: gunn, gudhost, goor, gudhen, gudhet, gudhant, gwis. The Imperfect is formed from goodh- with regular Imperfect endings (goodhun, goodhout etc). The Preterite, Pluperfect and Imperative are formed with goo- + the relevant form of bot (gooboum, gooboussun, goobidh etc.).

Anawbot "know (a person)" is relatively regular but formed on two stems. The Present and Imperfect use adoyn- with the regular endings (adoynav, adoynun etc.). The Preterite, Pluperfect and Imperative use anaw- with the relevant part of bot (anawboum, anawboussun, anawbidh).

Devot "come" is similarly formed with regular endings on the stem dow- in the Present and Imperfect (dowav, dowun etc.) and follows the conjugation of bot in the Preterite and Pluperfect, but with v for b (devoum, devoussun etc.). The Imperative is regularly formed on dow-, except for the 2sg. forms dos and deret.

Munet "go" has three separate stems. The Present, Imperfect and Imperative use the stem a-, which is contracted with regular endings (av, aun etc.); the 2sg. Imperative is written á to distinguish it from several other words written a. The 3sg Preterite is ayth and the other persons are formed on this regularly (eythes "I went", aytham "we went" etc.). In the Pluperfect the stem is el- with regular endings (elsun, elsout etc.).

Gwreyth "do, make" follows the conjugation of munet in the Present, Imperfect, Imperative and Pluperfect, using the stems gwra- and gwrel- (gwrav, gwraun, gwra, gwrelsun). The Preterite is formed regularly on the stem gwroug- but with 3sg forms gorow and gwrayth.

Verb Noun

The verb noun is an important feature of Cumbraek grammar with functions of both a noun and a verb. As a noun, all verb nouns are masculine except bot "be" and its compounds (e.g. devot "come", goobot "know", cuvarvot "meet" etc.), which are feminine. Like any other noun, a verb noun may be:

• preceded by a determiner such as the article er "the", a pronoun or a possessive or interrogative adjective, e.g. er dadlo "the arguing", i gluwet "his hearing".
• qualified by an adjective, e.g. cano didon "tuneless singing".
• the subject or object of a sentence, e.g. muko is druk "smoking is bad", a hellidh gano? "can you sing?"

The main function of the verb noun as a verb is in the progressive idiom, which denotes specifically ongoing action. This is formed using the present or imperfect of bot + the particle in + the verb noun, e.g. mi oov in péntya "I'm painting", edh aidh in tuvo "it was growing". 3rd person subjects use ema, emant in this structure, e.g. ema'r gur in dringo "the man is climbing", emant in gwreyth marak "they are making haggis". The future and subjunctive tenses of bot may also be used in this structure, but this is less common.

Another function of the verb noun as a verb is to replace a finite verb when the tense and subject have already been stated, e.g. Ni aytham du'r trayth a novya in er mor ag esset houven-ya "We went to the beach and swam in the sea and ate ice-cream".

The object of a verb noun is in the genitive case, i.e. a noun object follows the verb noun directly and a pronoun object precedes as a possessive adjective, e.g. Mi mennun de welet "I would like to see you" (i.e. "your seeing"), Hi gall lavro Cumbraek "she can speak Cumbraek".

Verbal Particles

Verbal particles are key to Cumbraek syntax, indicating subordination, negation, interrogatives and more.

Affirmative
e edh	'dummy' particle at the start of a sentence	E levir Melik Cumbraek 'Melik speaks Cumbraek'
	infixes object pronouns	Es gweles 'I saw her'
	in place of a relative after adverbials	Ar er mor e trigant '[It is] by the sea that they live'
	meaning 'that' before subordinate clauses	Ema govnok warnav ey prenidh 'I hope that you buy it'
aL	the relative pronoun when the subject or object is antecedent	Er din a garav 'The man whom I love'
	the genitive relative	Er verch a dheskidh i that 'The girl whose father you teach'
	follows a focussed subject or object	Ei ath gar 'I love you'
ruSL	used before the preterite to form the perfect tense: at the start of a sentence (spirantising) in place of relative a (leniting)	Ru chuskus-ev er didh oll 'He has slept all day' Er prit r'edes en newidh 'The meal which I have just eaten'
nuwS	affirmative, somewhat emphatic particle	Nuw adwoynav de dat 'Indeed, I know your father'
Negative
neSL ned	used at the start of a sentence (spirantising)	Ne chassa Yowann Maylok 'John doesn't hate Maylok'
	negative relative (leniting)	Er ti ne leskis du'r loar 'The house that did not burn down'
naS	used before subordinate clauses	Mi medhulyav ne do 'I think he won't come'
naS	used in replies	Am ceridh? Na charav 'Do you love me? No'
	negative imperative	Na sill a-vri 'Don't look down'
Interrogative
aL	used at the start of a direct question	A dhowidh amm Dhiw Gwener? 'Are you coming on Friday?'
	introduces indirect questions	Hi erchis a oot lessowur 'She asked if you are a vegetarian'
ay	used at the start of a focussed sentence	Ay Frankek a lavrant? 'Is is French that they speak?'
paneS paned	introduces a direct or indirect question expecting an affirmative answer	Panem credidh? 'Don't you believe me?'

Prepositions

Many common prepositions are 'conjugated' according to person and number, i.e. there are individual personal forms for each of the personal pronouns (e.g. amdanav "about me", in i vlen "in front of him". There are two forms of preposition which undergo this 'conjugation':

1. simple prepositions, which are single word prepositions that take personal endings
2. compound prepositions, which consist of a simple preposition + a nominal element and are 'conjugated' by infixing possessive adjectives

Simple

The simple prepositions belong to one of three stem classes (a-, o- or i-stem), which govern the endings added to the stem. The preposition du "to" is irregular.

	A-Stems	I-Stems	O-Stems		Irregular
stem: 1sg 2sg 3sg m 3sg f 1pl 2pl 3pl	amm 'about' amdan- amdanav amdanat amdano amdeni amdanamm amdanach amdandhou	gant 'with' gan- geniv genit gantho genthi geninn genich ganthou	heb 'without' heb- hebov hebot hebdho hebdhi hebonn heboch hebdhou	is 'below' iss- issov issot isto isti issonn issoch istou	du 'to' du- dum dut dudho dudhi dun duwch dudhou

Other prepositions follow the same patterns:

• A-stems: wodan 'under' (wodan-), a 'of, from' (an-), war 'on' (warn-)
• I-stems: wurth 'against' (wurth-)
• O-stems:
  • like heb: er 'for' (er-), idhir 'between' (idhr-), in 'in' (inn-), rak 'before' (rag-), truw 'through' (truw-)
  • like is: ouch 'above' (ouch-), troas 'across' (tross-)

Compound

Compound prepositions are generally written as a single word divided by an apostrophe and are stressed on the second (nominal) element, e.g. im'misk "amongst", du'vri "up". The word erbinn "against" is an exception to this rule.

Compound prepositions are 'conjugated' by separating the elements and infixing a possessive adjective before the nominal element. The forms of im'misk would therefore be: im mu misk, in de misk, in i visk, in i misk, in an misk, in ach misk, in ow misk. The main compound prepositions are shown below, with their meaning and separate elements:

Compound	Meaning	Element 1	Element 2
amm'gerchin	around	ammL	cerchin
du'bant	down	duL	pant
du'vri	up	bri
du'woeret	down	goeret
er'moon	for the sake of	er	moon
erbinn	against	arL	penn
im'medhun	inside, within	inN	medhun
im'misk	among	misk
im'mlen	in front of	blen
in'le	instead of	le
in'woodh	before	goodh
in'edrip	because of	edrip
o'benn	from against	oL	penn
o'rann	on behalf of	rann
o'vedhun	from within	medhun
o'visk	from amongst	misk
tra'chevin	behind	traS	cevin
war'benn	on top of	warL	penn
war'lorr	after, behind	lorr

Syntax

Simple Sentences

The basic word order for Cumbraek is [Verb] + [Subject] + [Direct Object] + [Indirect Object/Adverbial].

• Gwelas Pedir Neven
  "Peter saw Neven"
• Le Tomas livir amm er Ayr Voar
  "Tomas is reading a book about the Great War"

The verb may be preceded by a particle.

• Ru welas Pedir Neven
  "Peter has seen Neven"
• Edh edew er wrek
  "The woman was leaving"

Pronoun subjects are encoded within the verb itself and may be dropped, affixed to the end of a verb for clarity or placed before the verb (replacing the particle edh) with no particular emphasis:

• E hoolyen avory or E hoolyen-ni avory or Ni hoolyen avory
  "We're sailing tomorrow"

Pronoun objects (direct) must be attached to a preverbal particle:

• Eth dhuges
  "I carried you"
• Rus celas-ev
  "He has hidden her"

Simple sentences are negated with the preverbal particle ne^S (n' before vowels, ned before vowel-initial forms of bot and munet).

• Ned oov ri Alban
  "I am not the king of Scotland"
• Neth gar-hi
  "She doesn't love you"
• Ne cassam er Gral Glan
  "We didn't find the Holy Grail"

Coordinate Sentences

Coordinate sentences consist of two or more simple sentences joined with a^S "and" (ag before vowels), no'^L "or", or eythir "but".

• Car Pedir Neven ag es gwil pownidh
  "Peter loves Neven and he sees her every day"
• Hi sellas truw er fenestir eythir ne welas nebot
  "She looked through the window but didn't see anything"

Focussed Sentences

Cumbraek makes considerable use of the ability to focus information by moving a word or phrase to the beginning of a sentence. This can be used for emphasis, in the same way English uses stress, but it is also a common way to introduce new information into a conversation. For example, a response to the question peth iw de anuw? "what is your name?" would naturally be Riwallon iw mun anuw "Riwallon is my name" rather than the normal order Is Riwallon mun anuw.

When the subject of the verb (a noun or pronoun) is focussed, the order of elements is [Subject] + a^L + [3sg Verb].

• Cundiarn a drigas ing nGlaskow
  "Kentigern lived in Glasgow"
• Hwi a gulm er lovan
  "You are tying the rope"
• Merthin am hurdhas
  "Martin pushed me"

To focus the direct object the order is [Direct Object] + a^L + [Personal Verb] (+ [Subject]). Here the verb must agree with the subject.

• Ev a garav
  "I love him"
• Er gurthdroidhon a worchuvugsant
  "They defeated the rebels"
• Pel a dewlis er map
  "The boy threw a ball"

In sentences like the final one, where there is possibility of confusion over whether the object or subject is being focussed (this sentence could equally be interpreted as "A ball threw the boy"), an object pronoun can be infixed agreeing with the preceding object, e.g. Pel as tewlis er map.

When an indirect object or an adverbial is focussed, the order is [Indirect Object/Adverbial] + e(dh) + [Verb] (+ [Subject] + [Direct Object]).

• In er ti em gwelas Yossef
  "Joseph saw me in the house"
• Pop didh e can-hi òpera
  "She sings opera every day"
• War er roudh ey pogyas Youdhas
  "Judas kissed him on the cheek"

All focussed sentences are negated by placing ned at the start.

• Ned Cundiarn a drigas in Nin Edin
  "Kentigern did not live in Edinburgh"
• Ned pel as tewlis er map
  "The boy did not throw a ball"
• Ned pop didh e can-hi òpera
  "She does not sing opera every day

Questions and Replies

Yes-No questions are formed by prefixing a simple sentence with the preverbal particle a^L. A response is made by repeating the main verb in the relevant person and tense. Negative answers are preceded by na^S (nag before vowels).

• A aet Laskow sethoun nessav? Aen
  "Are you going to Glasgow next week? Yes"
• A gant-hi in er egloos? Na chant
  "Did she sing in church? No"
• A vidhidh eman avory? Bidhav
  "Will you be here tomorrow? Yes"

To focus some other part of the sentence, the particle ay comes at the beginning of a focussed sentence. In response, the words ihev "yes" or nagev "no" are used.

• Ay Dewidh a dal? Ihev
  "Is David paying? Yes"
• Ay de vamm a guvarvouam? Nagev, mu hwair aidh
  "Was it your mother we met? No, it was my sister"

Wh-Questions are formed using the Interrogative Pronouns at the start of a focussed sentence; the type of sentence used depends on the pronoun (see above for details).

• Pebeth a vedhidh?
  "What do you say?"
• Puw ay menggis?
  "Who told him?"
• Puw essidh enayth?
  "Who is there?"
• Cud ema i h'archenn?
  "Where is her shoe?"
• Pe vodh em gudhet?
  "How do you know me?"

Negative questions (i.e. those phrased to expect a negative answer) are introduced with a ne^S (a ned before vowel-initial forms of bot/munet). Responses consist of the main verb repeated in the relevant person and tense. Negative answers are preceded by na^S (nag before vowels).

• A nem ceridh, a vaban? Na charav
  "Don't you love me, baby? No"
• A ne devou o Dhin Edin? Devou
  "Didn't he come from Edinburgh? Yes"
• A ned aen? Nag aen
  "Aren't we going? No"

Tag questions may be formed with the addition of ayev? "yes?" or andev? "no?" to the end of a statement. Both may be used with affirmative statements but only ayev can follow a negative statement. In response ihev is used to confirm the original statement as true (whether affirmative or negative), nagev is used to deny the original statement.

• Ti trigidh in Evrok Newidh, andev? Ihev
  "You live in New York, don't you? Yes" (i.e. I live in New York)
• Hi addow henoyth, ayev? Nagev
  "She will come back to night, will she? No" (i.e. She won't come back)
• Nem ceridh, ayev? Ihev
  "You don't love me, do you? No" (i.e. I don't love you)

Indirect questions are formed with a^L "if, whether" followed by a simple sentence or with an interrogative pronoun in a focussed sentence.

• Hi erchis a wunn i mamm
  "She asked if I know her mother"
• Oo mennant woobot cu thrigidh
  "They will want to know where you live"

Conditional Sentences

In Predicative conditionals, where two statements of fact are made, the if-clause is preceded by o^S (od before vowels) and the verb is in the present or perfect tense.

• Od oov lawen, mi carav
  "If I am happy, I will sing"
• O chredidh hunnedh, ti oov ankuwir
  "If you believe that, you are wrong"
• Eth venggav o ruy gwelsamm
  "I will let you know if we have seen it"

The negative is o ne^S.

• O nes gudhet, ti oot vantach
  "If you don't know her, you are stupid"
• Gwra rewbeth o ner essest edoyth
  "Make something, if you have not eaten yet"

In Speculative conditionals, which express hypothetical situations, the if-clause is preceded by pe and the verb of both clauses may be imperfect (present conditions) or pluperfect (past conditions).

• Pes care, ev eryodhe
  "If he loved her, he would stay"
• Pe aidhoun in er ti, mi gwraun voy
  "If I was at home, I would get more done"
• Pe reboudhsout, ey loudhsem
  "If you had warned us, we would have stopped him"

The negative is pe na^S (pe nad before vowel-initial forms of bot/munet).

• Pe nad aidhun glav, mi dowun
  "If I were not ill, I would come"
• Pe na lettrasse-hi mu teyssenn, es carsun edoyth
  "If she had not stolen my cake, I would still love her"

Derivation

Prefixes

Prefix	Mutation	Meaning	Examples
ad-	L	re-, second, again	adverth "he recovered"
an-	N	un-	anvoon "unkind"
ced-	L	together, common, co-	cedvridya "agree"
cuv-	L	equal, with	cuvalht "join"
dad-	L	un-, dis-	dadwreyth "undo"
di-	L	without, -less	digour "careless"
emm-	L	reflexive, mutual	emmeskousso "excuse oneself"
go-	L	sub-, hypo-, under	goredek "jog, canter"
gor-	S/L	super-, hyper-, over	gorlivo "overflow"
gurth-	L	against, opposite, contra-, anti-, counter-	gurthdroidh "rebel"
idr-	L	between, inter-, intra-	idrhilol "interracial"
led-	L	half, semi-	ledlumm "half naked"