Fén Ghír/Dialects

Fén Ghír has split over the years into several dialects. The most distinct being Highland Fén followed shortly after by Genibh. Everything outside of this Article is written in Midlands Fén, also known as standard Fén. Finally, there is Southern Fén often lumped either with Genibh Fén or Midlands Fén.

Highlands Fén

The only dialect with a distinct alphabet, unlike most of the Fén, they have created and retained a runic alphabet with two letters [representing a consonant-vowel sound]. Their dialect most closely ressembles what Proto-Fén might have looked like. The most prominant change [outside of the alphabet] is that due to the Runic dual sound letters, words end with a vowel and start with a consonant.

Most Fén words that end with a vowel will have an additional "n" added on.

In the case of verbs, this is an "-an" suffix. If the last letter is a vowel, then the original vowel will be dropped and replaced. Exceptions are Té, Bhé and Lé which in their dialect are rendered as Thá, Bhá and Lá, respectively and preserved their lenghtened endings.

Adverbs and Adjectives are given an "o" ending following the "n"

Nouns are given a "u" ending following the "n"

Prepositions may, depending on region, either be an exception, or else have an "e" ending.

"Bh" is the only plural form.

Rather than Copula at the start of a sentance, a subcopula is attached to the end of the first verb in a sentance. In the case where there are more than two main clauses in a sentance, a Copula is added to every verb but the last in the sequence.

When descriping something or making a statement about something, rather than use "Té ... cór ..." as most Fén dialects, Highlands Fén uses "Bhána ... cu ..." This changes the direct translation from "Someone being under Something" to "Someone having something in them". Blessings also wish the Gods to be with the person, rather than over them.

The "me" and "ag" preposition is dropped in Highlands Fén.

Finally, Fén Ghír is refered to as Fén Mhóca in Highlands Fén, where in other dialects, Fén Mhóca refers exclusively to the vocabularly.

Genibh/Southern Fén

Genibh Fén refers exclusively to the slang used within the city of Genibh, which often consists of shortening common and well known phrases into single words, as well as spontaneously combining adjectives and verbs to create compounds.

Examples of this include;

May you be under them [the Gods], a Formal Southern Hello. An té ló có're becomes Téló.

"How are you?" (Ech té at cór re) becomes Ecétóre.

This is essentially an extreme case of the Southern tendancy to merge words. Within the general south, examples are much less extreme;

Prepositions tend to be merged to words if there are no adjectives, typically by dropping the last consonant or vowel from the preposition if the next word begins with one as well, and marking this merge with an apostrophy.

Questions in Southern Fén are more likely to be asked in a negative tone, where this is rare in standard Fén and almost lost in Highland Fén.

Lenition is very common in Southern Fén and tends to occur in the center of words which would not typically be lenitioned in regular Fén.

The object in Southern Fén dialect is lenitioned regardless of the presence of Adjectives.

The tendancy to speak quickly, merge words, propositions and weak sounds, makes them the most intimidating dialect for new speakers and has led to the stereotype of speakers of Genibh Fén as slurring their words, inspiring the [mildly] derogatory of term of "Bhamhaghén" [Wawawayn] amongst other Fén.