Sídhish

Sídhish
Pronunciation	[’ʃi:ɪʃ]
Created by	–
Native speakers	Unknown (estimated in the tens to hundreds of thousands) ({{{date}}})
Language family	Sídhic Sídhish
Early form	Old Sídhish

Sídhish language

Sídhish (/’ʃi:ɪʃ/, Sídhish, SHE-ish; Sídhelge /’ʃi:əlʲɡə/) is the language of the people of the Sídhe, spoken in the continent of Nider, as well as in the islands of Maramónnen to the north. Its earliest form was spoken in the northern regions of Ammu, by the clans of the Bronze-heads and Gold-heads. Originally, it was Néirin the Mother who put the knowledge of speech in the Sídhe’s hearts, so that they could name all things in her creation and express the desires of their mind. She devised it to be distinct from the language of their brothers, the Black-heads. It is one of the most widely spoken languages of Nider, second only to Niderian, a descendant of Sídhish spoken by the other peoples. Along with being the Sídhe’s language, Sídhish has also become the language of academics and science.

Its earliest form, known simply as Old Sídhish, was spoken by the first Sídhe to awake during the First Epoch. It is unknown for how long this form was spoken, but it had begun its morphing into modern Sídhish (otherwise known as Classical Sídhish) early on in the Darkness Epoch. By this time, the language had already begun splitting into at least 2 recognizable dialects: western and southern. The other most widely spoken language, Maramónnean Sídhish (spoken in the islands of Maramónnen) is thought to have split during the Old Sídhish period, and thus some grammarians may consider it a different language. It is unknown how many speakers of Sídhish there are, but estimates puts them in the hundreds of thousands.

In real life, Sídhish was heavily inspired by the Irish language in its morphology, grammar, and orthography, with a degree of influence from the grammar of the Welsh language.

Name

The common name of the language in modern Sídhish is Sídhelge. This in turn is a descendant of the earlier old Sídhish form Sídelgach [sʲiðʲelɣax]. The other forms of Sídhish, western, southern, and Maramónnean, are referred to as Sídhelge at lór, Sídhelge at mhoir, and Maramónnelge or Sídhelge ad Mharamónnen, respectively.

History

Old Sídhish

The earliest form of the language was spoken originally in the northern regions of Ammu, between the valley of the river Fairenen and the continent of Nider. Its original speakers were the clans of the Gold-heads and Bronze-heads, collectively known as the Gaeilge or Sídhe. This language was innate to these peoples, as it was originally devised by Néirin the Mother when she first made them, to contrast with the speech of their Black-head brethren. Upon migrating into Nider, the language spread quickly all across the continent, given the lack of inhabitants of the region up until that point. The language is relatively poorly attested, given that most written texts of the era were destroyed during the Darkness Epoch, and only survive in later manuscripts transcribed in Modern Sídhish. Some of these however present certain features lost in the later forms of the language (namely its case system). This form is known as late-Old Sídhish.

Modern Sídhish

Its earliest attestations come from the early-to-mid Darkness Epoch, when it became the most widespread form of the language across Nider. This in turn gave rise to the several dialects spoken today within the continent (divided into Western and Southern). Its literary form is known as Classical Sídhish.

Phonology

The most notable feature of the language is that consonants (except /h/) come in pairs, one "broad" (velarized, pronounced with the back of the tongue pulled back towards the soft palate) and one "slender" (palatalized, pronounced with the middle of the tongue pushed up towards the hard palate). These have a grammatical function.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial		Coronal		Dorsal		Glottal
		broad	slender	broad	slender	broad	slender
Stop	voiceless	pˠ	pʲ	t̪ˠ	tʲ	k	(c)
	voiced	bˠ	bʲ	d̪ˠ	dʲ	ɡ	(ɟ)
Fricative/ Approximant	voiceless	fˠ	fʲ	sˠ	ʃ	x	(ç)	h
	voiced	w	vʲ			ɣ	j
Nasal		mˠ	mʲ	n̪ˠ	nʲ	ŋ	ɲ
Tap				ɾˠ	ɾʲ
Lateral				l̪ˠ	lʲ

Broad (velarized) consonants have a noticeable velar off glide [ɰ] before front vowels. Thus caoill /ki:l̪ʲ/ ('to hear') is pronounced [kɰiːl̪ʲ]. This velar off glide is labialized as [w] after labial consonants, so mualar /mˠuələɾˠ/ (‘home’) is pronounced [mˠwələɾˠ]. Similarly, slender (palatalized) consonants have a palatal off glide [j]; before back vowels, e.g. bliú /bˠlʲiu:/ (‘flower’) is pronounced [bʲlʲjuː].

Aspiration

In western dialects, voiceless stops present a degree of aspiration at the start of a word, while voiced stops may be incompletely voiced but are never aspirated. Voiceless stops are unaspirated after /sˠ/ and /ʃ/ (e.g. scath [sˠkə] ‘general’). In the case of Maramónnean Sídhish, voicing distinction between stops has completely disappeared, instead being replaced by aspirated/unaspirated contrast.

Allophones

The velars /k, g, x/ in southern dialects are often not distinguished in broad/slender pairs, instead having the palatals /c, ɟ, ç/ as allophones before front vowels. In western and Maramónnean dialects, these constitute 2 pairs of broad/slender consonants. Word final /j/ can either be realized as [ɟ] or, in the case it precedes the vowel /i/, elongate it, causing it to become /i:/.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front		Central	Back
	short	long	short	short	long
Close	i	iː		u	uː
Mid-cose	e	eː		o	oː
Mid			ə
Mid-open	ɛ			ɔ
Open			a		ɑː

Allophones

Sídhish is a stress based language, meaning unstressed syllables undergo vowel reduction. Thus, all vowels in unstressed positions will be realized as the mid-central vowel /ə/, with the exception of the short close front vowel /i/, which becomes /ɪ/ in unstressed positions. The long mid-close vowel /e:/ is always diphthongized as [ei] ([əi] in unstressed position). Some dialects present a contrast between open-central vowels /a/ and /a:/, while others may only contrast between /ɑ/ and /ɑ:/.

Diphthongs

The diphthongs of Sídhish are /iə, uə, əi, əu/. However, these do vary in their phonemic realization.

The starting point of /iə/ is consistently [i], while the second element ranges from the mid-central vowel [ə] before broad consonants, to mid-front centralized [ë] before slender consonants. Examples include lien [lʲiənʲ] (‘prudent’) and brian [bʲɾʲiën̪ˠ] (‘kind’). /uə/ consistently starts with close back [u] while the end point ranges from [ɐ] to [ə]. Examples include cruach [kɾˠuɐx] (‘blood’) and tuain [tˠuənʲ] (‘honor’). /əi/ may either start with the open back vowel [ɑ] after broad consonants or [e] after slender consonants. In both cases, the following vowel is always [ɪ]. Examples include báim [bˠɑɪmʲ] (‘loud’) and bréan [bʲɾʲeɪnˠ] (‘maiden’), respectively. The starting point of /əu/ is consistently [ə], while the end point ranges from near-close near-back [ʊ] before broad consonants to a centralized [ʊ̈] before slender consonants. Examples include naur [nˠəʊɾˠ] (‘peace’) and eamhain [əʊ̈nʲ] (‘castle’).

Stress

Stress always falls within the first syllable of a word, e.g. racdún /’ɾˠak.dˠu:nˠ/ (‘dragon’) and Sannachrú /’sˠa.n̪ˠə.xɾˠu:/ (‘The month of July’). In most compound words, primary stress falls on the first member and a secondary stress (ˌ◌) falls on the second member, e.g. unbherdleabh /’unˠˌvʲeɾʲədʲlʲəw/ (‘ancient village’).

Syntax and Morphology

Cases

Most nouns decline on 2 numbers: singular and plural, as well as 2 genders: strong (saoilinn) and weak (spealann). Traditionally, it is considered to have 4 cases: nomino-accusative, vocative, genitive and prepositional-locative (generally referred to as dative).

Nominative

The nominative is used in the following functions:

1. Sentence subject.

As abha is tireadh “The cat is drinking”

2. Sentence object.

Iagh cró ad nasadh. “You broke the oath”

3. Predicate of the copula.

As connan irg “He is a wise one”

4. Object of the prepositions nag ‘without’, é uch ‘(up) to’ and éb (like, as).

Nag ath tiseadh. “Without the money”

É uch ath tsí. “(Up) to the time”

Éb at ladh “Like the wind”

Vocative

The vocative is used in direct address, and is always preceded by the particle a, which triggers lenition (the vocative particle is not pronounced before a vowel sound):

• Fiú bhió cró, a mhic? “Where are you, son?”

• A Shorann! “Sorann!”

Genitive

The genitive indicates possession and material of composition:

• Lathair at dhren. “The man’s sword”

• Can péir. “A stone building”

The object of a compound preposition is in the genitive. Formally, these prepositions are actually prepositional phrases.

• Dis droib ad fairelge. “Behind the mountain” (lit. “on the back of the mountain”)

Dative/prepositional

The dative/prepositional is used as the object of most simple prepositions except nag and é uch. The dative is always identical to the nominative.

• Dis at ner. “at the father”

• Is bliú. “in a flower”

• É cabh. “to a cave”

• Na tan. “with magic”

• Ó Nider. “from Nider”

Syntax

Sídhish is verb–subject–object (VSO) language. The language inclines very strongly towards the use of auxiliaries with its verbs. The present tense is constructed with im ('to be') as an auxiliary verb, with the main verb appearing as a verb-noun (used in a way loosely equivalent to an infinitive) after the particle is:

As Galann is meanadh é Rinfae

Galann is going to Rinfey

There, as is a third-person singular present indicative form of im, and meanadh is the verb-noun meaning "to go". The imperfect is constructed in a similar manner, as are the periphrastic forms of the future and conditional tenses. In the preterit, future and conditional mood tenses, there are inflected forms of all verbs, which are used in the written language. Sídhish has no verb to express having; instead, the word na ("with") is used in conjunction with sé, the transient "be":

• Sé darlann na am. “I have a book” (literally, “there is a book with me”)

• Bió darlann na crídh. “You have a book”

• Sé darlann na irga. “she has a book”

• Sé darlann na cragh. “we have a book”

• Bió darlann na críadh. “You (pl) have a book”

• Bió darlann na cróir. “They have a book”

In Sídhish, there are two classes of initial consonant mutations, which express grammatical relationship and meaning in verbs, nouns and adjectives:

After the definite article

• a feminine noun in the nominative singular

Ad bhréan “The maiden”

• a masculine noun in the genitive singular

At dhren “of the man” e.g. ballad at dhren “the man’s fate”

• a noun in the dative singular, when the article follows one of the prepositions ó/óg "from", é "to" or is "in"

é + at = ét: ét dhren "to the man"

óg + ad = ógad: ógad dhre "from the woman"

is + at/ad = is at: is at thir "in the tree"; is ad fhacht "in the farm"

Lenition is blocked when a coronal consonant is preceded by the definite article at/ad, instead triggering lenition of the preceding consonant.

adh déach "the glory", although déach is feminine nominative singular

ath tábhaich "of the message", although tábhaich is masculine genitive singular.

Instead of leniting to /h/, after the definite article, /sˠ, ʃ/ become /t̪ˠ, tʲ/:

Ath tSídhe /ə tʲiː/ "of the Sídhe" (masc. gen. sg.)

After the vocative particle a

• a Ghalann "Galann!"

• a Shorann "Sorann!"

• a chernall "my brothers!"

After possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns that trigger lenition are am "my", crídh "your (sg.)", rígh "his"

• am mhic "my son"

• crídh tháin "your tooth"

• a pher "his building”

After certain prepositions

• gear thir "under a tree"

• éb shimhel "as a person"

• ó Charrachan "from Carrachan"

• cain bhara "before morning"

• don char á charcái "through frost and snow"

• Dis Thasc-Tuathabra "at Tuasc-Tuathabra"

• idir dhren á dhre "both men and women"

• lac mhón "on an island”

After the preterite preverbal particles

• Thíbhigh am "I didn't give"

• Chaoilligh rígh? "Did he listen?"

After certain preverbal particles

• ci chacáidh ragha "if it snows"

• at dren lú thíbhimh ragha é am "the man who will give it to me"

After preposed adjectives

Constructions of adjective + noun are written as compounds.

• Osdhre “old woman”

• Drachshímhel “evil person”

The second part of a compound

• deachgháin "hawk" (lit. "fast bird")

• sraithmhia "dark blue"

• Tarachan “Stone city”

In cases where the same consonant appears across word boundaries.

• Muc chróig "we would"

Environments of Eclipsis

After plural possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns that trigger eclipsis are ár "our", bhur "your (pl.)", a "their"

• cragh gcernall "our brothers"

• crídh bpard "your willow"

• bríadh mbell "their thing"

After the preposition is "in"

• is dtir "in a tree"

Writing and orthography

The Sídhish writing system along with its Latin counterparts.

The orthography of Sídhish is based on that of the Irish language, and thus uses the same 18 characters from the Latin script as its real-life counterpart: ⟨a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u⟩. Unlike Irish, however, Sídhish does not use any of the other Latin letters for loanwords. The letter <h> is only used to indicate lenition and does not appear on its own, reflecting the in-universe writing system, which marks lenition by using a diacritic. The distinction of broad as slender consonants is indicated in the same way as Irish, by only writing pairs of broad or slender vowels before and after a consonant letter. The letters <a, o, u> are considered broad while <e, i> are considered slender.

In-universe, the Sídhish language is written using an alphabetical system known as darlaech (lit. "writing"). The alphabet also possesses 18 characters, all of which stand for a Latin equivalent, except for one: the character known as geibh, transliterated as <ng>, which stands for both the velar nasal and the palatal nasal. Long vowels in darlaech are indicated by writing said vowel twice. Relation between voiced and voiceless stops is also shown by the writing, as the pairs of characters are simply reversals of each other, as do the characters for the coronal and dorsal nasals. The same relationship seems to be indicated in the vowel characters, given the resemblance between the close vowel pairs, as well as the mid vowel pairs, while the open vowel character remains distinct. Darlaech is written from right to left.

In real life, the darlaech system was based primarily on the alphabet of Lugano, used in antiquity to write the Lepontic language, spoken in parts of modern day Switzerland and Northern Italy from 550 to 100 AD.

Example texts

The following is the first verse of the "Epic of MacCaebth", also known as the "Conquest of Maramónnen", an old Sídhish poem.

Ó at der faoimidh at faorall

From ART-M to cry ART-M seagull-PL

Ó ad abadh marachalathan fior carra

From ART-F shore green-beautiful long north

Dis sraith Marachan fairen mhro

Inside shade emerald mountain-PL tall

Aech frúibhidh ad ghaecheall carann

There to crash ART-F wave-PL-MUT cold

Cain abadh maerbhrion

Before shore black-raven

Éalagh clan at Alaurall

To live-PST family ART-M bronze-PL

Phonemic transcription:

/o: atˠ dʲeɾʲ ‘fˠi:mʲij atˠ ‘fˠi:ɾˠəl̪ˠ/

/o: adˠ ‘abˠəi mˠaɾˠə’xəlˠəhənˠ fʲiɾʲ ‘ka:ɾˠə/

/dʲiʃ sˠɾˠə ‘mˠaɾˠəxənˠ ‘fˠαɾʲɛnʲ wɾˠo/

/e:x ‘fˠɾˠuvʲij adˠ ‘ɣe:xəl̪ˠ ‘kaɾˠən̪ˠ/

/kənˠ abˠəi mˠe:ɾʲvʲɾʲinˠ/

/e:lˠə kl̪ˠanˠ atˠ Alˠauɾˠəl̪ˠ/