Brithenig

From Linguifex
Revision as of 14:43, 28 January 2021 by Nicomega (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search


Brithenig
Pronunciation[/brɪθənˈig/]
Created byAndrew Smith
Date1996
Indo-European
  • Romance
    • Latin
      • Brithenig
Language codes
ISO 639-3bzt

Brithenig, [brɪθənˈig], was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it.

Brithenig was not developed to be used in the real world, like Esperanto or Interlingua, nor to provide detail to a work of fiction, like Klingon from the Star Trek scenarios. Rather, Brithenig started as a thought experiment to create a Romance language that might have evolved if Latin had displaced the native Celtic language as the spoken language of the people in Great Britain.

The result is an artificial sister language to French, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Occitan and Italian which differs from them by having sound-changes similar to those that affected the Welsh language, and words that are borrowed from the Brittonic languages and from English throughout its pseudo-history. One important distinction between Brithenig and Welsh is that while Welsh is P-Celtic, Latin was a Q-Italic language (as opposed to P-Italic, like Oscan), and this trait was passed onto Brithenig.

Similar efforts to extrapolate Romance languages are Breathanach (influenced by the other branch of Celtic), Judajca (influenced by Hebrew), Þrjótrunn (a non-Ill Bethisad language influenced by Icelandic), Wenedyk (influenced by Polish), and Xliponian (which experienced a Grimm's law-like sound shift). It has also inspired Wessisc, a hypothetical Germanic language influenced by contact with Old Celtic.

Brithenig was granted the code BZT as part of ISO 639-3.

Andrew Smith was one of the conlangers featured in the exhibit "Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond: The World of Constructed Languages" displayed at the Cleveland Public Library from May through August 2008.[1] Smith's creation of Brithenig was cited as the reason for his inclusion in the exhibit (which also included the Babel Text[2] in Smith's language).

Introduction

Brithenig started as a thought-experement to create a Romance language that might have evolved if Latin speakers had been a sufficient number to displace Old Celtic as the spoken language of the people in Great Britain. The result is a sister language to French, Spanish and Italian, albeit a test-tube child, which differs from them by having sound-changes similar to those that affected the Welsh language, and words that are borrowed from Old Celtic, and from English throughout its `pseudo-history'. Although other Romance languages have Celtic influences, none of them are so thoroughly influenced as Brithenig.

Phonology

Consonants
Letter Pronunciation
Bb [b]
Cc [k], [t͡ʃ]
Dd [d]
Ff [v]
Gg [g], [d͡ʒ]
Hh [h]
Kk [k]
Ll [l]
Mm [m]
Nn [n]
Pp [p]
Rr [r]
Ss [z], [s]
Tt [t]
Ww [w]
Vowels
Letter Pronunciation
Aa [a], [ə]
Ee [ɛ], [ə]
Ii [i], [ɪ]
Oo [ɔ]
Uu [ɨ]
Ww [u], [ʊ]
Yy [i]
Diphthongs
Letter Pronunciation
ae [æ], [aː]
ai [aɪ]
au [aʊ]
ei [ɛɪ]
ew [ɛʊ]
TBd

The letters j, q, v, x, and z are used in foreign words that have been borrowed into the language, especially modern words that have not been adapted to the Brithenig orthography. They are not included in the traditional alphabet.

Brithenig has final syllables consonants that are pronounced soft rather than hard. This is shown with special combinations of letters in these cases. Certain phrases are treated as diphthongs also. Sa es, 'she is, there is, there are' is pronounced as 'saes'. A es and O es are treated similarly. In the standard dialect of Brithenig, where 'ae' and 'oe' are pronounced as long vowels, instead of diphthongs, these phrases can be contracted to sa's, a's and o's. When it becomes necessary to prevent two sounds from eliding, to avoid confusion or loss of sound or meaning, the ending -dd is added to a word:

ys a-dd abrob, he has nearly...

The letter 'y' at the beginning of a word is often unstressed and when preceded by a word ending in a vowel it often elides.

Some monosyllablic words end with a consonant cluster with r or l as the last letter. It is the case here that the last letter is pronounced as if the vowel in the word is repeated before it. Llifr, book is pronounced as 'llifir'. Sometimes it is spelled this way. With longer words 'r' in this position is silent.

Stress in Brithenig is placed on the ultimate, or last syllable, for example, afur, love, is pronounced as 'a-FUR', not 'A-fur'. In diphthongs, the first vowel is pronounced as a stressed or unstressed vowel depending on whether it occured in the stressed syllable or not

Brithenig sometimes accents words with a circumflex, called a teithith, or little roof. Although the accent is always pronounced as 'long', more often than not it appears to be purely grammatical, for example, la and .

Grammar

Noun

There are two genders in Brithenig: masculine and feminine. Unlike English where objects can be neuter, all nouns in Brithenig are recognised as being of one gender or the other. The gender of a noun is indicated by the form of the definite article which precedes it: ill (masculine); lla (feminine).

In some dialects the articles, including the plural form, llo are pronounced as if they were written as L instead of LL. While this is not discouraged, it is regarded by native speakers as a foreign or colonial feature and not an indigenous feature. Some dialects, notably the Kernow dialect found in the southern provinces of Cambria, do not have this sound at all.

The masculine article elides with prepositions that end with a consonant:

a to, at + illa'll
di of, from + illdi'll
gwo under, below, beneath + illgwo'll

Four features distinguish feminine nouns from masculine nouns:

1. The initial consonant of the noun undergoes mutation after the feminine article, or after a possessive pronoun. The following prepositions are known to cause softening:

di, of, from
gwo, under, below, beneath
  • The conjunctions e, and, and o, or both cause softening to following nouns
  • Before these parts of speech, ll and rh do not do so before the article.
  • The definate articles are exceptional and do not mutate.
  • The prepositions tra, through and a, to, at cause spirant mutation rather than softening.
  • Prepositions are pronounced in spoken Brithenig as though they were softened, although the written language does not reflect this:
di is pronounced as ddi
gwo is pronounced as wo
tra is pronounced as dra

2. Adjectives following a feminine noun always undergo soft mutation.

3. The demonstrative pronoun 'that' is o masculine nouns and a for feminine nouns. The demonstrative pronoun yst, 'this', is the same for nouns of both genders. The plural forms are ogyn and agyn for 'those' and ystyn for 'these'

O and a are not used as articles before nouns in modern Brithenig. For that the adverbs ci, 'here', and llâ, 'there', are added to the definate noun phrase. For example, 'this man' and 'that man' become ill of ci and ill hof llâ.

4. Feminine nouns are referred to as sa, 'she', masculine nouns as ys, 'he'.

Number

In Brithenig the plural ending has become silent and is no longer written. To indicate when a noun is plural the article changes from ill and lla to the plural form, llo. The plural article also causes spirant mutation:

ill of 'the man' -> llo h-ôn 'the men'

ill of and llo h-ôn is one of the few cases in Brithenig where the singular and plural forms of the same noun are different.

lla gas 'the house' -> llo chas 'the houses'

Among some speakers it seems that llo is loosing is definite quality and it is interpreted only as a plural marker. How, or if, they mark the definite plural noun has not been recorded.

Plural nouns after possessive pronouns also take the spirant mutation.

gwstr gas, your house
gwstr chas, your houses
llo wstr chas, your houses, is also common and grammatically acceptable.

Some words have special plurals created by changing from masculine to feminine gender:

ill bordd, hut, lla fordd, huts
ill busc, wood, lla fusc, woods
ill breich, arm, lla freich, arms
ill cil, eyebrow, lla gil, eyebrows
ill corn, horn, lla gorn, horns
ill ew, egg, lla ew, eggs
ill genygl, knee, lla enygl, knees
ill llafr, lip, lla llafr, lips
ill os, bone, lla os, bones
ill rham, branch, lla rham, branches

Vocabulary

Most of Brithenig's vocabulary is distinctively Romance, even though it is disguised as Welsh. The following list of 30 words gives an impression of what Brithenig looks like in comparison to nine other Romance languages including Wenedyk, and to Welsh. The similarity of about one-quarter of the Welsh words to Brithenig words (indicated by not being bracketed) is due to their common Indo-European background, although a few others, such as ysgol, were borrowings from Latin into Welsh.

Brithenig compared with Romance and Welsh
English Brithenig Latin Portuguese Galician Spanish Catalan Occitan French Italian Rhaeto-​Romance Friulian Romanian Wenedyk Welsh
arm breich brachium braço brazo brazo braç braç bras braccio bratsch braç braţ brocz braich
black nîr nĭger, nĭgrum negro negro negro negre negre noir nero nair neri negru niegry (du)
city, town ciwdad cīvĭtās, cīvĭtātem cidade cidade ciudad ciutat ciutat cité città citad citât oraş, cetate czytać (dinas)
death morth mŏrs, mŏrtem morte morte muerte mort mòrt mort morte mort muart moarte mroć (marwolaeth)
dog can canis cão, cachorro can perro, can gos, ca gos, can chien cane chaun cjan câine kań (ci)
ear origl auris, aurĭcŭla orelha orella oreja orella aurelha oreille orecchio ureglia orele ureche urzykła (clust)
egg ew ovum ovo ovo huevo ou uòu œuf uovo ov ûf ou ów wy
eye ogl ŏcŭlus olho ollo ojo ull uèlh œil occhio egl voli ochi okieł (llygad)
father padr pater, patrem pai pai padre pare paire père padre bab pari tată poterz (tad)
fire ffog ignis, fŏcus fogo lume, fogo fuego foc fuòc feu fuoco fieu fûc foc fok (tân)
fish pisc pĭscis peixe peixe pez, pescado peix peis poisson pesce pesch pes peşte pieszcz pysgodyn
foot pedd pĕs, pĕdem pie peu pied piede pe pît picior piedź (troed)
friend efig amīcus amigo amigo amigo amic amic ami amico ami amì amic omik (cyfaill)
green gwirdd vĭrĭdis verde verde verde verd verd vert verde verd vert verde wierdzi gwyrdd
horse cafall ĕquus, cabăllus cavalo cabalo caballo cavall caval cheval cavallo chaval cjaval cal kawał ceffyl
I eo ĕgo eu eu yo jo ieu je io jau jo eu jo (mi)
island ysl īnsŭla ilha illa isla illa iscla île isola insla isule insulă izła (ynys)
language, tongue llinghedig, llingw lĭngua língua lingua lengua llengua lenga langue lingua linguatg, lieunga lenghe limbă lęgwa (iaith)
life gwid vīta vida vida vida vida vida vie vita vita vite viaţă wita (bywyd)
milk llaeth lac, lactis leite leite leche llet lach lait latte latg lat lapte łoc llaeth
name nôn nōmen nome nome nombre nom nom nom nome num non nume numię (enw)
night noeth nŏx, nŏctem noite noite noche nit nuèch nuit notte notg gnot noapte noc (nos)
old gwegl vĕtus, vĕtŭlus velho vello viejo vell vièlh vieux vecchio vegl vieli vechi wiekły (hen)
school yscol schŏla escola escola escuela escola escòla école scuola scola scuele şcoală szkoła ysgol
sky cel caelum céu ceo cielo cel cèl ciel cielo tschiel cîl cer czał (awyr)
star ystuil stēlla estrela estrela estrella estel estela étoile stella staila stele stea ścioła (seren)
tooth dent dēns, dĕntem dente dente diente dent dent dent dente dent dint dinte dzięć dant
voice gwg vōx, vōcem voz voz voz veu votz voix voce vusch vôs voce wucz (llais)
water ag aqua água auga agua aigua aiga eau acqua aua aghe apă jekwa (dŵr)
wind gwent vĕntus vento vento viento vent vent vent vento vent vint vânt więt gwynt

Example

The Lord's Prayer:

Nustr Padr, ke sia i llo gel:
sia senghid tew nôn:
gwein tew rheon:
sia ffaeth tew wolont,
syrs lla der sig i llo gel.
Dun nustr pan diwrnal a nu h-eidd;
e pharddun llo nustr phechad a nu,
si nu pharddunan llo nustr phechadur.
E ngheidd rhen di nu in ill temp di drial,
mai llifr nu di'll mal.
Per ill rheon, ill cofaeth e lla leir es ill tew,
per segl e segl. Amen.

Notes

  1. ^ Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond Flickr. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  2. ^ "Babel Text Introduction". Langmarker. Archived from the original on 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2009-09-07.

References

  • "URUK: The construction of multilingualism in an electronic knowledge management tool". Geolinguistics. American Society of Geolinguistics. 25–26: 255. 1999. ISSN 0190-4671.
  • Havliš, Jan (March 2008). "Výlet do Conlangey" (PDF). Interkom (in Czech). 243: 17–21.
  • Frawley, William J., ed. (2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. p. 154.
  • Parkvall, Mikael (2008). Limits of Language: Almost Everything You Didn't Know You Didn't Know about Language and Languages. Wilsonville: Battlebridge Publications. pp. 91–93, 131. OCLC 70894631.

External links