Annerish
| Middle Annerish | |
|---|---|
| ın béırlen Annrach ᛬ᛁ᛫ᛕᛁᛁᛧᚳᛁ᛫ᚭᚢᛂᛧᚭᚼ᛬ | |
| Pronunciation | [[əˈmbeɪ̯ɹʎəˈnɑɯ̯nrʊx]] |
| Created by | Aireanna |
| Setting | The Anneries, off the west coast of Ireland |
Early form | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | The Annerish Federation |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | qrz |
created by Aireanna
The Annerish language (ın béırlen Annrach, runic:᛬ᛁ᛫ᛕᛁᛁᛧᚳᛁ᛫ᚭᚢᛂᛧᚭᚼ᛬) is a medieval, early-split Germanic language spoken by the inhabitants of the Anneries (ın Annray, Runic:᛬ᛁ᛫ᚭᚢᛂᛧᛆᚢ᛬), an archipelago emerging from the Porcupine Bank off the west coast of Ireland.
It is attested in two distinct forms, namely: Old Annerish and Middle Annerish. Only a handful of vital pagan religious texts survive in the older language, first put to manuscript in the 7th century, though possibly composed a couple of centuries earlier. Despite having been affected by a series of phonological changes that had radically altered its appearance compared to other old Germanic languages, these ancient verse and prose exhibit abundant vocabulary of Germanic stock, albeit under a heavy Goidelic superstratum.
By the time of the Middle period, after centuries of diglossia, the Celtic influence has made the cognate language unrecognizeable to the Norsemen, who ally with their distant cousins against the Christians of the British Isles and integrate into the culture, lending doublets (mostly nominal) in the process. However, a unique substratum, likely Old European, leaves its mark in the later language and more specifically in the sociolect of men - the Ceccr. The matriarchal social order and polytheistic worldview is reflected extensively throughout the known literature, which unfortunately declines after a brutal period of English colonisation in the 1700's.
In modern times, these rich culture and language are endangered and facing extinction in both the homeland and the diaspora in the New World.
Etymology
The name "Annerish" is derived simply from a combination of the endonym Annr, whose origin is disputed, + -ish in English. Similarly, "the Anneries" derives from the native ın Annray - a compound of Annr + ey, translating to "the Annerish islands".
History
It is hypothesised that the Annerish people are either one and the same with, or a subgroup of the Balgae who migrated from the Gallo-Germanic confederation to south Britain and later fled to Ireland at the wake of the Roman conquest. Many characteristic features of Brythonic and Goidelic languages are shared with the Anrish language, which has previously been regarded as Celtic. True classification has also been obscured by the crucial lack of [law], along with sweeping sound changes by analogy with the mutation strategies of the dominant languages that reverse some of the effects of [law], though notably not in reflexes of *hw- and *þw- initials. A list of the most important changes will be given below (in approximate order):
- wu> *ū. This must have been a feature of the Proto-Germanic dialect of the Annerish people before influences from Brittonic, where *ū> ȳ, and also precedes *kw> p (*kwuruz> *kūrj-> cuír, not **puír)
- ē2> ī (*ē2hiraz> íochr - maple)
Monophthongization of PG diphthongs:
| Diphthong | turns into: | merges with: |
|---|---|---|
| *ai | ǣ~ é/eà/éı | *ē1 |
| *au, eu, ōu | ȱ~ úa/úaı | - |
| *iu, *ōi | ȳ~ y/uí | - |
Nasal vowels merge: internally word-final
- ą, *am, *an> ã ã
- ǭ, *ô, *ǫ̂> -
- aNF, *ōm, *ōn> ā -
- iNF> ē -
- į̄> - ẽ
- uNF> ũ -
- ų, *um, *un> - ũ
Labiovelars become bilabials:
- kw> p-, -b- (*kwrammaz> *pramm~ pram - damp, *nakwô> *nǫba~ napa - ship); *gw> b-, -g- (*gwenþiz> *bũıḋ~ bóıd - fight, *snaigwaz> *nnœ́ġ~ neòg - snow); *ngw> -mb- (*slangwijō> *llaımb~ laım - sling); *hw> f (*hwītaz> *fíd~ fíot - white, *tēhwō> *téŭf~ teòfa)
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |
| Stop | plain | b | d | ɡ |
| aspirated | p | t | k | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s; θ | x~h |
| voiced | β | ð | ɣ | |
| Liquid | r; l | |||
Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i «ı»; y «uı» | u «u» |
| Close-mid | e «e»; ø «oı» | o «o» |
| Open-mid | ɛ «ę»; œ «œ» | ɔ «ǫ» |
| Low | æ «aı» | a «a» |
| Ending | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /-i/ | /-u/ | |||
| Intitial | /i-/; /u-/ | ui̯ «uí» | iu̯ «ıu» | |
| /e-/; /œ-/ | œi̯ «óe/oí» | eu̯ «eu» | ||
| /ɛ-/ | ɛi̯ «ęı» | ɛu̯ «ęu» | ||
| /a-/ | ai̯ «áe/aí» | au̯ «au» | ||
Prosody
Stress
Intonation
Phonotactics
Syllable Structure: (C)(r)V(C)2
Where:
- C = Consonant
- r = /r/
- V = Vowel
- An epenthetic short vowel must occur between /r/ and a following labial in the coda.
Orthography
Latin
The Latin alphabet was introduced by the Irish Christians during the early 7th century. Another major factor in the Romanization of Anrish was the later advent of the printing press, created exclusively for Latin-based writing systems.
Runic
The Runic alphabet was reintroduced by the Viking migrants in the Middle ages.
Morphophonology
Morphology
Nouns
.
Adjectives
Verbs
With conjugation divided according to classes, an arbitraty weak/strong distinction, and a impersonal/semi-transitive distinction, Anrish has a 4th-dimensional conjugation system consisting of an active/passive voice-distinction, a 1/2/3 form-distinction, a non-past/past tense-distinction, and a subjunctive/indicative mood-distinction. Regarding the form-distinction in particular, the 3 forms correspond directly to a person-distinction, but are differentiated because of sound-changes merging archaic forms, as follows:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | in | form 1 | |
| ex | form 1 | form 3 | |
| 2nd person | form 2 | ||
| 3rd person | form 2 | form 3 | |
Aside from normal conjugation, verbs may also be declined as verbal nouns, often restricted to singular number.
Syntax
Constituent order
The constituent order of words in any given sentence is typically verb-subject-object (VSO).
Noun phrase
Verb phrase
Sentence phrase
Dependent clauses
Morphosyntactic aliğnment
It must be noted that the language is conventionally considered to be nominative-accusative in the sense that it's Centum and not ergative-absolutive. This is due to the fact that the language does not decline nouns according to aliğnment, rather thus placing the language more in the category of direct aliğnment; a situation similar to that of English.
Example texts
Swadesh list