Aethêllan
Gwythyr is one of my main conlangs and was created out of joy, as linguistic experiment, and also to be the main classical language for my series of Fantasy novels. Gwythyr is spoken by the dominant species of Anmarla and has approximately 15 million speakers. At the time of my main novel series, the language and its native speakers are extinct, however Gwythyr is used as the language of academics, state and religious ceremonies, and record/document keeping. However only the upper class can read and speak it and even then only a minority of the upper classes. The seven languages of the nine different Kingdoms during this time are all descended from Gwythyr. Gwythyr is in turn descended from Vamynouynem.
This is a work of love and I ask any readers that, outside of any accidental grammatical mistakes, that they do not make any edits, however minor, without my permission and that this work is protected by copyright. Your understanding is greatly appreciated.
Background
Gwyhtyr is an SVO synthetic-agglutinative language. The majority of information is placed on the nouns and verbs, and though it is an SVO language technically speaking it does allow for free word order.
Phonology
Romanisation
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveol. | Postalve. | Retrofl. | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | p (p) pw (pw) |
b (b) bw (bw) |
t (t) tw (tw) |
d (d) dw (dw) |
k (k) kw (kw) |
g (g) gw (gw) | |||||||||||
| Fricatives | f (f) fw (fw) |
v (v) vw (vw) |
θ (th) | ð (dh) | s (s) sw (sw) |
x (h) | h (h) | ||||||||||
| Nasals | m (m) | n (n) nw (nw) |
|||||||||||||||
| Trill | r (r) | ||||||||||||||||
| Glides | Approxim. | ʍ (hw) | w (w) | ɹ (r) | j (y) | ||||||||||||
| Lateral Appr. | l (l) | ɭ (l) | |||||||||||||||
Mutations
- Both Approximants and Lateral Approximants are de-voiced before nasals.
- /l/ becomes /ɭ/ after vowels.
- /ɹ/ becomes /r/ before plosives.
- /h/ becomes /x/ at the end of a word.
Diphthongs
| Diphthong | IPA |
|---|---|
| ao | ɐʊ |
| ey | eɪ |
| ôe | ɔː |
| ŷe | ɪəː |
| ae | aɪ |
Vowels
| Vowels | IPA Symbols | Vowel | IPA Symbols |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | ɑ | o | ɒ |
| â | aː | ô | ɵː |
| á | æ | ó | əʊː |
| e | e | i | ɪ |
| ê | eːə | î | iː |
| u | u | ÿ | ɐɪː |
Grammar and syntax
Syntax
Independent Clauses are SVO, whilst Dependent and Relative Clauses are SOV.
Stress
Gwythyr differs from languages such as English in that every vowel is pronounced fully and with clear distinction. The language does however place stress on the last syllable of a word, however this is not important as stress is considered to be in English and other such similar languages. Any long vowels; those with diacritics or diphthongs, are stressed as well as the last syllable.
- E.g donsênanwê where the stress is on both sên and wê.
Structure
All derivational affixes are prefixes, and all other affixes are suffixes excluding the adverbial marker which is an infix for historical linguistic reasons. In regards to the order of the attaching of suffixes, case takes highest priority, followed by voice, aspect, then agreement, finally followed by any remaining suffixes.
- NB: Adjectives cannot be inflected with comparative and the Gradable sufffix at the same time.
Verbs
Aspect & Tense
Paradigm 1 Example Word - Aedar to Rule, to Lead
|
Aspect
|
Aorist | Imperfective | Conative | Habitual | Perfect | Inceptive | Continuative | Terminative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Past | Aedarh | Aedarnd | Aedarâl | Aedaró | Aedarnen | Aedartey | Aedarelon | Aedarmen |
| Present | Aedar | Aedarn | Aedarâl | Aedaró | Aedarlen | Aedark | Aedarion | Aedarmen |
| Future | Aedardh | Aedaryn | Aedarymâl | Aedarv | Aedarwolen | Aedarketh | Aedarsan | Aedarwymen |
Nouns
Case and Class
In Gwythyr over time Case and Class/Gender have merged into one suffix. When Nouns take their Case and Class marker they now have a far more fusional method unlike its ancestor language Vamynouynem.
Paradigm 1 The Human Noun Class
| Man | Women | |
|---|---|---|
| Erg. | Gâla | Theyn |
| Abs. | Gâlam | Thêam |
| Dat. | Gâlal | Thêas |
| Gen. | Gâlÿ | Thênîs |
| Poss. | Gâlâ | Thênâ |
| Part. | Gâláth | Thênas |
| Abes. | Gâlthârum | Thênârum |
| Ins. | Gâlfen | Thênen |
| Equ. | Gâlanwen | Thênetwem |
| Voc. | Gâlô | Theyô |
- NB Theyn is a weak verb due it to have a short diphthong, thus the first vowel of the diphthong is lengthened. This happens for all nouns with short diphthongs.
- NB The very slight difference here between the Dat. and Part. forms of Theyn are due to Theyn itself, and with other Female Class=Based Nouns this would not occur. (I.E Theyn dropping its n in the Dat. form - this is irregular and only happens in this case with Female Nouns ending in n)
Personal Pronouns
| First Person | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exclusive | Inclusive | |||
| Erg. | Wá (I) | Em (We) | Má (We) | |
| Abs. | Dwa (Me) | Nâs (Us) | Hwa (Us) | |
| Poss. | Edh (My/Mine) | Dyn (Ours) | Es (Ours) | |
| Dat. | Myn (to Me) | Rys (to Us) | Thâ (to Us) | |
| Inst | Sâ (by Me) | Bâ (by Us) | Eâ (by Us) | |
| Second Person | ||||
| Living | Non-Living | |||
| Singular (Exclusive) | Plural (Inclusive) | Singular | ||
| Erg. | Dâ (Thou) | Nen (Thou) | Se (It) | |
| Abs. | Lŷn (Thee) | ŷe (Thee) | Só (It) | |
| Poss. | Blan (Thy) | Yn (Thine) | Som (Its) | |
| Dat. | Of (to Thee) | Dŷm (to Thee) | Mys (to It) | |
| Inst. | Ren (by Thou) | Tar (by Thou) | Sten (by It) | |
| Third Person Singular | ||||
| Living & Non-Gendered | Non-Living & Neutral | |||
| Erg. | Des (He/She) | Dha (It) | ||
| Abs. | Sen (Him/Her) | Dhen (It) | ||
| Poss. | Bessen (His/Hers) | Thyr (Its) | ||
| Dat. | Gal (to Him/Her) | Elth (to It) | ||
| Inst. | Hel (by Him/Her) | Sân (by It) | ||
| Third Person Plural | ||||
| Living & Non-Gendered | Non-Living & Neutral | |||
| Erg. | Mer (They) | Thâl (Its) | ||
| Abs. | Mron (Them) | Thyn (Its) | ||
| Poss. | Nyr (Theirs) | Thren (Its) | ||
| Dat. | Nren (to Them) | Fel (To Its) | ||
| Inst. | Neth (by Them) | Falth (by Its) | ||