Cwengâr

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Blackbird's Song Ôsha nCwec'hyr Péladí ba Gécir
A Blackbird sings Tengec'hyrh ôsha, Gécir di ba édhí
To me of my youth, dulh su gwe su n'ashâ, del di me pél adhí
For my loaf of bread. pen legw du nanâr. pon di ba tenira.
It is a song of youth Te ât ashâ ngec'hyr. Té ítibh cu éndhí ba gécíra,
Of flowing white rivers Negw fêrâr cwâ lanàr, Cór nég bérad lenár,
Of high, dark caverns Pel lelycw cwâ c’hylàr, Cór níl pél nilár.
So long as the harp sings Tengec'hyrh ôsha ô ôrhôdon, In gécir tol ítibh me aradon,
I shant forget these things o afongâm du en c’hon. Tel calím me di ce én chon.


Background

Cwengâr represents a contemporary sibling language to Fén Ghír. As Fén Ghír draws heavily of Irish Gaelic influence for spelling, phonetics and to some degree grammar, Cwengâr serves as a Bythronic equivalent, drawing heavily on Welsh and Breton. Root words are unique and Grammar is fairly simple sharing much still with Fén Ghír. However, words are slight more prone to mutation and grammatical compounding in Cwengâr.

Vocabularly is largely similar, though words have different connotations. For example, Cún [Fén: Law, Promise, Vow] has become Cwŷn and now mostly fills the Bér in Fén as a general Superlative like "Good". Cún in the sense of Promise has become Cwŷn C'hâr[af] or "Just Word[s]". Per which is [Cognate to Bér] is basically reduced to meaning "Bright" GCengâr.

This is my first project for creating a related language and in general, I hope that it surpasses the original to some degree.

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive b/p t/d q/ɢ
Fricative f/v ʃ/ʒ x/ɣ
Affricate
Approximant h
Trill r ʀ
Flap or tap
Lateral fric. l ʎ
Lateral app.
Lateral flap


Vowels

Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close y
Near-close Y
Close-mid e ɤ
Mid ə
Open-mid ɛ ʌ
Near-open
Open a ä ɑ

Phonotactics

Cwengâr avoids vowel and consonant clusters as a general rule. Consonant clusters are resolved by dropping the first consonant while the latter is lenitioned. Vowel clusters are usually separate words.

Orthography

Cwengâr spelling corresponds to IPA with these exceptions;

  • ŋ is spelt ng as in English.
  • q is spelt cw, ɢ is spelt gw. This is convention based off the Breton, if a Cwengâr script is invented, they will not be diaphongs.
  • f is spelt ff, v is spelt f, inspired by Welsh.
  • ʃ is spelt sh, ʒ is spelt s, based off the above relation. It's tempting to use "ss" but "sh" is more conventional.
  • x is spelt c'h, ɣ is spelt g'h, inspired by Breton.
  • ʀ is spelt rh at the beginning of the word, rr elsewhere for aesthetic reasons. Rh at all points is acceptable but looks off to me personally.
  • ʎ is spelt lh, inspired by Breton.
  • y is spelt ŷ
  • Y is spelt y
  • e is spelt â
  • ə is spelt à or a.
  • ɛ is spelt e
  • a is spelt a
  • ɤ is spelt ê
  • ʌ is spelt u
  • ä is spelt ô
  • ɑ is spelt o


Grammar

Pronouns

  • 1S: Du, Ty
  • 2S: Rhà, Ra
  • 3S: Lho, Le
  • 1P: Ês, Ŷsh
  • 2P: Ôrhaf, Yraf
  • 3P: Ulhaf, Âlaf

Genders

Cwengâr bases masculine/feminine distinctions on the first vowel in a word, which modifies the preceding consonant of the word [if any] and the final consonant of the word preceding it.

Masc Fem.
ê ŷ
u â
ô y
o e
à a

a is usually feminine, but is prone to exceptions, particularly when it is representing the ə/à sound.

If the vowel is masculine, the preceding consonant is unvoiced. If Feminine, the consonant is voiced. r and l also agree with feminine vowels, while rh and lh agree with masculine ones. Nasal consonants are wholly neutral.

The primary relevance of this is in personal names and occaisionally in assigning genders to titles and animals, where the first vowel is changed to the corresponding letter on the table above.

The use for titles is generally rare and will occur mostly etymologically rather than grammatically, "Cwŷsyn" [King] for example is technically a feminine term, but relates to law and legitimacy over the land which is traditionally feminine. Cwŷson is a variation which occurs when the last syllable is made masculine but Cwŷsyn presedes the discintion and is usually left alone unless relevant.

For animals, the distinction usually defaults towards feminine or the roots of the term but when an animal's gender is relevant, the first letter will be changed; merygw "Sheep" becomes "morygw" or "ram".

To emphasize gender in a noun which defaults to the gender, a suffix if added; Female is usually signaled with an addition at the end or "-ŷn" or "-yn". "-ul" may be used at times to emphasize age. Male in turn is signified with "-on" or "-àn". "-àl" is a paternal counterpart to "-ul" but is used more rarely usually only for people seen actively serving as guardians.

Mutations

A "Hard" Mutation occurs in either verbs which are modifed by auxilaries or else a possessed object which are possessed.

A "Soft" Mutation occurs in direct objects or in a noun following a preposition.

Unmutated Soft Hard
m f/ff
p ff m
b f m
ff ' b
f ' p
n sh/s
t sh n
d s n
sh h t
s h d
ng c'h/g'h
cw c'h ng
gw g'h ng
c'h h cw
g'h h gw

Pluralization

Words are pluralized by adding "-àf" if the last letter is masculine and "-aff" if feminine.

Verbs

  • Te*-Present Progressive/Past
  • Lô-Will
  • Cwyy- Should
  • Ma- Want
  • A-Negative
  • Te on its own usually implies an action that has taken place consistantly over time. If it is a thing that happened but is not happening currently, a time is specificed after, or else "gwô 'ogw" [at another time] is used.

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Branching

Cwengar is mostly head last language;

Sentance

Verb->Subject->Object

Verb->Subject->Direct Object->Indirect Object

Verb

Adverb->Verb

Noun

Adjective-> Number-> Preposition->Noun

Subject/Object Distinction

The Subject of the sentance follows the Verb and is not mutated unless it follows after adjectives.

The Direct Object of the sentance follows the Subject and undergoes soft mutation regardless of the prescence of adjectives.

Prepositions

Masc Fem English Ngo Nge Against
Dulh Tyl From
Ta To
Dôf Taff Towards
Rhôlh Ral Than
Êrô Âra Like
Rhàlh By
ffa With
Gwu Cwy Under
Gwê Cwe Over
Gwô Cwâ In[to]
Lhurod Lârot Around
Nŷrh Nŷr Near
Erac'hôn Erac'hôn Opposite
Gwu Cwâ Before
Gwo Cwe After
Gwô Cwa Until
Gwê Cwŷ At/During
Bon Pen For/Because of
Gwulh Cwâl According

These are written as separate words, but grammatically often act almost as cases for the words after them and most speakers blur the distinction of words. Words which begin with vowels following these are often pronounced with with a "h" sound preceding them or "n" in the case of possessives. Only the "n" is written however.


Possessive

Possessive causes a hard mutation in the possessed word;

He walked to your house.

Tenôlh lho dô rhà melem.


Vocative

A person may be addressed directly with  followed by their lenitioned name;

"John, go to the store please."

"Â Hon, ffeLhô dy lhotenan"

Unlike Fén Ghír, the location of this is in a sentance is fairly flexible;

"Â Hon, ffeLhô dy lhotenan pen shecwan ô shanyr"

"FfeLhô dy lhotenan, â Hon, pen shecwan ô shanyr."

"FfeLhô dy lhotenan pen shecwan ô shanyr, â Hon."

Determiners

Determiners

Gender Current Determiner Contrasting Determiner New Determiner Current Determiner (Pl) Contrasting Determiner (Pl) New Determiner (Pl) Inquistive Determiner Relative Determiner Inquistive Determiner (Pl) Relative Determiner (Pl)
Masc âd âdà âdôn âdàf âdànàf âdônàf E âd Ed E âdàf Edàf
ât âta âtyn âtyff âtaff âdynaff E ât Et E âtaff Etaff
This [Person] That [Person] This Other [Thing/Person] These [People] Those [People] These Other [Things/People] What [person]? Which [person] What [people] ? Those [things/people] which... ugwô ugwà ugwôn ugwôf ugwàf gwônàf E ugwà Egwà E ugwàf Egwàf
ucwy ucwa ucwyn ucwyff ucwaff ucwynaff E ucwa Ecwa E ucwaff Ecwaff Now Then This Other Time These Times Those Times These Other Times When? When Which Time? Those Times When...

Relative Clauses

In Cwengâr relative clauses are rather common and often mark another action within the sentance. These begin with a relative determiner, however there are no strict rules on there ending.

I shouted at the woman who took my bread.

Terhôlhôt du tyl alyn et tengŷcw dy nânar cwê 'ocwâ. .

These relative clauses can sometimes be worked into the shorter form of dependant clauses to express cause which is something rare in English, the result is something like this;

We went to the store to get fishing supplies.

Would said in Cwengâr as;

Telô dy lhotenan pen ed lhôtan ŷs gwânan c'honaf.

Although, it could also be expressed with depedant coupla dividing it into two sentances;

Tengâb du gwânan c'honaf o telô dy lhotenan.

This would translate as something closer to:

We needed fishing supplies so we went to the store.

It is also important to note that these relatively clauses may build on top of eachother, perhaps more often than in English;

I went to the man who sold the boat to the guy who talked to me yesterday.

Telô dy ôlon et telhotan ât cwerêl ta ed tengâr lho ta ny cwê fon gâl..