Cwengâr

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Blackbird's Song Ôsha nGwecwâr Péladí ba Gécir
A Blackbird sings Tengecwârh ôsha, Gécir di ba édhí
To me of my youth, dulh su gwe su n'ashâ, del di me pél adhí
For my loaf of bread. pen legw du nanâr. pon di ba tenira.
It is a song of youth Te ât ashâ ngecwâr. Té ítibh cu éndhí ba gécira,
Of flowing white rivers Negw fêrâr cwâ lanàr, Cór nég bérad lenár,
Of high, dark caverns Pel lelycw cwâ c’hylàr, Cór níl pél nilár.
So long as the harp sings Tengecwâr ôsha o ôrhôdon, In gécir tol ítibh me aradon,
I shant forget these things o afongâm du en c’hon. Tel calím me di ce én chon.


Background

Gwengâr represents a contemporary sibling language to Fén Ghír. As Fén Ghír draws heavily of Irish Gaelic influence for spelling, phonetics and to some degree grammar, Gwengâr serves as a Bythronic equivalent, drawing heavily on Welsh and Breton. Root words are unique and Grammar is fairly simple sharing much still with Fén Ghír. However, words are slight more prone to mutation and grammatical compounding in Gwengâr.

Vocabularly is largely similar, though words have different connotations. For example, Cún [Fén: Law, Promise, Vow] has become Cwŷn and now mostly fills the Bér in Fén as a general Superlative like "Good". Cún in the sense of Promise has become Cwŷn C'hâr[af] or "Just Word[s]". Pâr which is [Cognate to Bér] is basically reduced to meaning "Bright" Gwengâr.

This is my first project for creating a related language and in general, I hope that it surpasses the original to some degree.

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive b/p t/d q/ɢ
Fricative f/v ʃ/ʒ x/ɣ
Affricate
Approximant h
Trill r ʀ
Flap or tap
Lateral fric. l ʎ
Lateral app.
Lateral flap


Vowels

Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close y
Near-close Y
Close-mid e ɤ
Mid ə
Open-mid ɛ ʌ
Near-open
Open a ä ɑ

Phonotactics

Gwengâr avoids vowel and consonant clusters as a general rule. Consonant clusters are resolved by dropping the first consonant while the latter is lenitioned. Vowel clusters are usually separate words.

Orthography

Gwengâr spelling corresponds to IPA with these exceptions;

  • ŋ is spelt ng as in English.
  • q is spelt cw, ɢ is spelt gw. This is convention based off the Breton, if a Gwengâr script is invented, they will not be diaphongs.
  • f is spelt ff, v is spelt f, inspired by Welsh.
  • ʃ is spelt sh, ʒ is spelt s, based off the above relation. It's tempting to use "ss" but "sh" is more conventional.
  • x is spelt c'h, ɣ is spelt g'h, inspired by Breton.
  • ʀ is spelt rh at the beginning of the word, rr elsewhere for aesthetic reasons. Rh at all points is acceptable but looks off to me personally.
  • ʎ is spelt lh, inspired by Breton.
  • y is spelt ŷ
  • Y is spelt y
  • e is spelt â
  • ə is spelt à or a.
  • ɛ is spelt e
  • a is spelt a
  • ɤ is spelt ê
  • ʌ is spelt u
  • ä is spelt ô
  • ɑ is spelt o


Grammar

Pronouns

  • 1S: Du, Ty
  • 2S: Rhà, Ra
  • 3S: Lho, Le
  • 1P: Ês, Ŷsh
  • 2P: Ôrhaf, Yraf
  • 3P: Ulhaf, Âlaf

Morphology

!!Feminine/Masculine Distinction

Gwengâr bases masculine/feminine distinctions on the first vowel in a word, which modifies the preceding consonant of the word [if any] and the final consonant of the word preceding it.

ê, u, o, ô are masculine.

ŷ, â, e, y are feminine.

a is usually feminine, but is prone to exceptions, particularly when it is representing the ə/à sound.

If the vowel is masculine, the preceding consonant is unvoiced. If Feminine, the consonant is voiced. r and l also agree with feminine vowels, while rh and lh agree with masculine ones.

!! Mutations.

A "Hard" Mutation occurs in either verbs which are modifed by auxilaries or else a possessed object which are possessed.

A "Soft" Mutation occurs in a noun that is either described or quantified.

Unmutated Soft Hard
m f/ff
p ff m
b f m
ff ' b
f ' p
n sh/s
t sh n
d s n
sh h t
s h d
ng c'h/g'h
cw c'h ng
gw g'h ng
c'h h cw
g'h h gw

Verbs

  • Te*-Present Progressive/Past
  • Lô-Will
  • Cwyy- Should
  • Ma- Want
  • A-Negative
  • Te on its own usually implies an action that has taken place consistantly over time. If it is a thing that happened but is not happening currently, a time is specificed after, or else "gwô 'ogw" [at another time] is used.

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Relative Clauses

In Gwengâr relative clauses are rather common and often mark another action within the sentance. These begin with a relative determiner, however there are no strict rules on there ending.

I shouted at the woman who took my bread.

Terhôlhôt du tyl alyn et tengŷcw dy nânar cwê 'ocwâ. .

These relative clauses can sometimes be worked into the shorter form of dependant clauses to express cause which is something rare in English, the result is something like this;

We went to the store to get fishing supplies.

Would said in Gwengâr as;

Telô dy lhotenan pen ed lhôtan ŷs gwânan c'honaf.

Although, it could also be expressed with depedant coupla dividing it into two sentances;

Tengâb du gwânan c'honaf o telô dy lhotenan.

This would translate as something closer to:

We needed fishing supplies so we went to the store.

It is also important to note that these relatively clauses may build on top of eachother, perhaps more often than in English;

I went to the man who sold the boat to the guy who talked to me yesterday.

Telô dy ôlon et telhotan ât cwerêl ta ed tengâr lho ta ny cwê fon gâl..

Prepositional Relations in Gwengâr

Masc

width="20%"|Fem

English Case
Nomative
[Lenitioned] [Lenitioned] Accusative
Ngo Nge Against Accusative/Dative
Dul Tyl From Accusative/Dative
Ta To Accusative/Dative
Dôf Taff Towards Accusative/Dative
Rhôlh Ral Than Accusative/Dative
Êrô Âra Like Accusative/Dative
Rhàlh By Instrumental
Gwu Cwy Under Accusative/Dative/Locative
Gwê Cwe Over Accusative/Dative/Locative
Gwô Cwâ In[to] Accusative/Dative/Locative
Lhurod Lârot Around Accusative/Dative/Locative
Nŷrh Nŷr Near Accusative/Dative/Locative/Temporal
Erac'hôn Erac'hôn Opposite Locative
Gwuf Cwâff Before Locative/Temporal
Gwof Gwoff Locative/Temporal
Gwôf Cwaff Until Locative/Temporal
Gwêrh Cwŷr At/During Locative/Temporal
Bon Pen For/Because of Causal
Gwulh Cwâl According Subjective
Possessive

Possessive causes a hard mutation in the possessed word;

He walked to your house.

Tenôlh lho dô rhà melem.