Dwendish

Pictish (endonym: Ntunalafha) is a language isolate spoken primarily on Pictland (endonym: Ntunahanti), the second largest of the British Isles, by the Picts (endonym: Ntuna), an ethnic group belonging to the European Pygmy or Thurse Phenotype. The language is in a sprachbund with the Celtic languages and shares features such as VSOX word order and initial consonant mutation. This Pictish is not the historical Pictish which was a Brythonic language.

Introduction

The intent of Pictish is to have a non-Celtic language in a sprachbund with the Celtic languages without being Celtic in aesthetics. The main inspiration was Jörg Rhiemeier's article on the British Isles Linguistic Area which can be found in the League of Lost Languages section on Frathwiki. The main part of the phonology was influenced by Valarin Quenya and Láadan. Irish and Breton influenced Pictish initial consonant mutation.

Pictish is an ahistorical, fictional tongue descended from a language spoken alongside Brythonic Pictish by a Thurse people, known in Classical sources as the Picti, before they were largely driven from Caledonia by the invading Scots.

Thurse is the usual term in English for any of the various ethnic groups possessing the European Pygmy phenotype. This phenotype is believed to have originated in the Hercynian forest zone of Central Europe before spreading all over the continent. Their most striking features are short stature and pointed ears. A Scandinavian sub-group of the Thurse also have striped skins. According to genetic testing, it is from this sub-group that the Picts are believed to be descended. Their epidermal stripes were generally attributed by Classical authors to the practice of tattoing hence their Latin sobriquet, Picti, the Painted Ones.

The Thurse speak a variety of languages from a variety of language families, some of which are shared with other Europeans, some of which, such as Pictish, are not. Pictish is a language isolate spoken by some 33 million Picts in Pictland, as well as by a small Pictish minority in Scotland. It has no attested relatives elsewhere in Western Europe or in its purported Scandinavian urheimat although research is still ongoing.

Phonology

Orthography

Pictish is written in a Latin script. The letters "b", "e", "j", "o", "p", "s", "v", "w", "y" and "z" are not used.

Pictish Alphabet

	Central Alveolar	Lateral Alveolar	Palatal	Plain Velar	Labialised Velar	Glottal
Nasal	n		nɡ	nr	m
Surd	t		x	k	q	c
Prenasal	nt		nx	nk	mq
Fricative	dh	lh	ɡh	rh	fh	h
Liquid		l		r
Approximant	d		ɡ		f

Consonants

NASAL: /n, ɲ, ŋ, ŋʷ/

PLOSIVE:

-surd: /t, c, k, kʷ, ʔ/

-prenasal: /ⁿd, ᶮɟ, ᵑɡ, ᵑɡʷ/

FRICATIVE: /θ̠, ɬ, ç, x, xʷ, h/

CONTINUANT:

-liquid: /l, ɣ/

-approximant: /ð̠, j, w/

CENTRAL ALVEOLAR: /n, t, ⁿd, θ̠, ð̠/

LATERAL ALVEOLAR: /ɬ, l/

PALATAL: /ɲ, c, ᶮɟ, ç, j/

PLAIN VELAR: /ŋ, k, ᵑɡ, x, ɣ/

LABIALISED VELAR: /ŋʷ, kʷ, ᵑɡʷ, xʷ, w/

GLOTTAL: /ʔ, h/

NOTE:

/c/ is articulated with a velar attack

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Hiɡh	/i/		/u/
Low		/a/

Allophony

1) /ɲ/ is realised as [dʒ] in word-final position

2) /ŋʷ/ is realised as [m] in word-initial position

3) /ŋʷ/ is realised as [b] in word-final position

4) Surds are aspirated in word-initial position

5) /c/ is realised as [tʃ] in word-final position

6) /kʷ/ is realised as [p] in word-final position

7) /ʔ/ is realised as [q] in word-final position

8) Prenasals are realised as plain voiced plosives in word-initial position

9) /ⁿd, ᵑɡ/ are voiceless in word-final position

10) /ᶮɟ/ and /ᵑɡʷ/ are realised as [ᶮtʃ] and [ᵐp] in word-final position

11) /ɣ/ is realised as [ʃ] in word-final position

12) High vowels are lowered to [ɛ, ɔ] after a palatal or labial onset

13) High vowels are lowered to [ɛ, ɔ] before word-final /ʔ/ or a word-final liquid

Prosody

Stress

Pictish polysyllables bear the primary stress on the second syllable.

Intonation

Pictish polysyllables bear secondary stress on every alternate syllable after the one bearing the primary stress. Rhythm type is iambic.

Phonotactics

1) Syllable template is CV(C)

2) Permitted codas are nasals, plosives and liquids

3) Consonant clusters are not permitted

4) A lateral consonant, /ɬ, l/, may not consecutively follow another lateral in the same word

5) A rhotic consonant, /x, ɣ/, may not consecutively follow another rhotic in the same word

6) Morphemes take the following shapes:

a) bases, postpositions and modals: CVCV(C)

b) pronouns and particles: CV(C)

c) prefixes: CV(C)

d) suffixes: (C)VC or CV(C)

Initial Consonant Mutation

1) Initial consonant mutation is of three types:

a) Lenition or Soft Mutation

b) Eclipsis or Nasal Mutation

c) Provection or Hard Mutation

2) Lenition affects nasals and plosives

3) Eclipsis affects surds and continuants

4) Provection affects nasals, prenasals and continuants

5) Mutation is triggered at:

a) the beginning of nouns or verbs by preposed particles or pronouns

b) the beginning of adjectives or postpositions by gender concord

c) morpheme boundaries by sandhi

6) Consonant mutation is indicated in the orthography.

7) The term for the unmutated, base form of a mutatable consonant is the radical.

8) Table of mutations:

Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis	Provection
n	ð̠	-	ⁿd
ɲ	j	-	ᶮɟ
ŋ	ɣ	-	ᵑɡ
ŋʷ	w	-	ᵑɡʷ
t	θ̠	ⁿd	-
c	ç	ᶮɟ	-
k	x	ᵑɡ	-
kʷ	xʷ	ᵑɡʷ	-
ʔ	h	ᵑɡ	-
ⁿd	n	-	ð̠
ᶮɟ	ɲ	-	j
ᵑɡ	ŋ	-	ɣ
ᵑɡʷ	ŋʷ	-	w
ð̠	-	n	θ̠
l	-	n	ɬ
j	-	ɲ	ç
ɣ	-	ŋ	x
w	-	ŋʷ	xʷ

NOTE:

A dash indicates no mutation takes place

9) Lenition commonly occurs as follows:

a) at the beginning of adjectives or postpositions following a masculine noun

b) at the beginning of masculine nouns following the masculine nominative particle na

c) at the beginning of feminine nouns following the feminine absolutive particle la

d) at the beginning of all nouns following the locative particle tu

10) Eclipsis commonly occurs as follows:

a) at the beginning of adjectives and postpositions following a feminine noun

b) at the beginning of feminine nouns following the feminine nominative particle cu

c) at the beginning of all nouns following the dative particle nxi

d) at the beginning of all nouns following a singular possessive pronoun

11) Provection commonly occurs as follows:

a) at the beginning of masculine nouns following the masculine absolutive particle mi

b) at the beginning of all nouns following the ablative particle qa

c) at the beginning of all nouns following a plural possessive pronoun

Sandhi

1) Sandhi occurs at morpheme boundaries, either through affixation or compounding.

2) All morpheme-final consonants are classified into three categories:

a) Soft: liquids

b) Nasal: nasals

c) Hard: plosives

3) At consonant-consonant morpheme boundaries the final consonant of the first morpheme is elided. The first consonant of the second morpheme mutates as follows:

a) following a soft consonant it lenites

b) following a nasal consonant it eclipses

c) following a hard consonant it provects

4) At consonant-vowel or vowel-consonant morpheme boundaries, the consonant lenites

5) At vowel-vowel morpheme boundaries, the first vowel is elided

6) If a lateral consonant should consecutively follow another lateral due to affixation or compounding then it dissimilates to its corresponding rhotic

7) If a rhotic consonant should consecutively follow another rhotic due to affixation or compounding then it dissimilates to its corresponding lateral