Annerish
| Annerish | |
|---|---|
| ın beàırlet Annrach ᛬ᛂᛓᛆᛁᛧᚳᛁᛐᛅᚱᚭᚷ᛬ | |
| Pronunciation | [əˈmbjɑˑɹʎlˈtʰɑɯ̯nrʊx] |
| 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 beàırlet Annrach / ᛂᛓᛆᛁᛧᚳᛁᛐᛅᚱᚭᚷ) is a medieval, early-split Germanic language spoken by the inhabitants of the Anneries (ın Annray / ᛂᛅᚱᛆᚢ), 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 become integral to the newly national 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 native term for "the Anneries" - ın Annray derives from a compound with Old Norse 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 Roman conquest. Many characteristic features of Brythonic and Goidelic languages are shared with the Annerish language, which has previously been regarded as Celtic. True classification has also been obscured by the crucial lack of Verner's law, along with sweeping sound changes by analogy with the mutation strategies of the dominant languages that reverse some of the effects of Grimm's 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
Verbal morphology is the most complex subject of Annerish grammar; despite the relative paucity of conjugated forms, categorising paradigms has proven difficult. Native scholarship, namely the Bésgnae Béırle, have used a minimal numbering system based on the present stem: in the Ist conjugation it ends with a broad consonant, in the IInd with a slender, in the IIIrd with a nasal (oftentimes part of a cluster) that is dropped in the other stems, and in the IVth there is no closing consonant. Bernthaler (1907) proposes a weak-strong classification similar to German, however, the relationship between all six crucial stems and their formation more closely resembles that of Old Irish. This article largely follows Teagan et al. (2003).
Preverb
The preverb is an essential component of transitive verbs since it "conjugates" for direct object pronouns. While they appear similar to prepositions, preverbs have somewhat different forms and are lexically bound to each verb instead of carrying their individual meaning. Whenever the direct object is a definite noun, marking for its gender and/or number is optional and fairly common in later, colloquial language. Otherwise every preverb has a default form (sometimes referred to as 'deutorotonic') which is mandatory in an absolute construction. Here is an exhaustive list of preverbs and their pronominal forms in Middle Annerish:
| ᴅᴇᴜᴛ.: | u (f-) | um | nu | ar | rı(n)ɴ | s | c | tar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1ᴘ.sɢ. | fumʟ | mumʟ | dumʟ | rumʟ | rıthemʟ | amʟ | gamʟ | - | |
| 1ᴘ.ɪɴᴄʟ. | fuch | much | duch | ruch | rıthech | ach | gach | trach | |
| 2ᴘ.sɢ. | futhʟ | muthʟ | duthʟ | ruthʟ | rıthethʟ | athʟ | gathʟ | - | |
| 2ᴘ.ᴘʟ. | fubʟ | mubʟ | dub | rub | rıtheb | ab | gab | trab | |
| 3ᴘ.ꜰᴇᴍ.sɢ. | fíʟ | muíʟ | dí | rí | í | gí | - | ||
| 3ᴘ.ᴍᴀsᴄ.sɢ. | fu(n)ɴ | mu(n)ɴ | du(n)ɴ | ru(n)ɴ | rıthe(n)ɴ | a(n)ɴ | ga(n)ɴ | (trann) | |
| 1ᴘ.ᴇxᴄʟ./3ᴘ.ᴘʟ. | fusʟ | musʟ | dusʟ | rusʟ | rıthesʟ | asʟ | gasʟ | trasʟ | |
Every verb is lemmatised as a verbal noun which is vital for the periphrastic present. Derivational strategies have varied wildly, though most verbal nouns resemble the conjunct form of the present active or its equivalent in the present stative - the independent form. The preverb of many transitive verbs is apparent in these forms, which may be identical with the augment which is used to derive the preterite and conditional stems. Valency cannot be inferred from the verbal noun, however. It is formally marked by the presence of a preverb in transitive verbs and its absence otherwise, but this nearly rigid system is a relatively recent development. Simplex bivalent verbs still see use in the Middle period, especially in sacred poetry and prose. A group of frequent, semantically transitive but formally stative verbs has evoked the term deponency in academic literature, with the concession that this cannot be considered a proper category in morphological classification. Similarly, the productivity of causative lexical formation must be simply noted, so as to not be overstated.
Aside from the verbal noun, there are four more stems to each verb, along with the imperative which takes after either the present or irrealis, if not suppletive. 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