User:IlL/Spare pages 1/66

A-Arabic (called Arabic in-universe) is a Semitic language inspired by Welsh. A-Arabic has a lexicon similar to Arabic and is the source of "Arabic" loans in English, but it uses Welsh-inspired mutations and syntax.

• Def. article is al- like in our Arabic
• Unconditional shifts: PSem p s z ts' tθ' ł tł' > ff ts s z tŝ ŝ tŝ
  • θ δ gh > t d g?
• initial or geminated l r > ll rh
• Emphatics and geminates spirantize: t'/tt, k'/kk > th ch
• soft mutation:
  • m, b > v
  • t > d, d > dd
  • c > g, g > 0
  • ts > z, tŝ > ẑ
  • ll > l, rh > r

Morphology

Nouns

The definite article al is invariable, as in Old Hijazi Arabic.

• chaffy = coffee
• al-chaffy = the coffee

Animate plural nouns usually end in -i. There are many broken plurals

Verbs and auxiliaries

A-Arabic lost productive triconsonantal morphology and thus inflected verbs. The combination of auxiliaries and prepositions are used to mark tense, as in Colloquial Welsh.