Wiobian/Sandbox

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Albionian (та албенщина /ˈtʰə aɫəbɪnɕɪnə/ or тет иезык албенски /ˈtʰɪh 'jiəzɨk 'aɫəbɪnskəɪ/) is the only surviving Slavic language in its timeline. It is the main spoken language in Albion (Албень /aɫəbɪɲ/, genitive Албни, Latin Albio; our Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland) and in our Southern United States, the Caribbean, and Central and northern South America. In Albion itself it is usually called Slowienian slə-WEE-niən (та Словиенщина /tʰə ˈslɔβiənɕɪnə/) to acknowledge non-Slavic languages native to Albion. Compared to our Slavic, Albionian has many grammatical features that resulted from contact with Celtic, such as definite articles, compound tense forms, and head-initial VSO syntax.

Dialectal differences are immense within Albion. In fact there is more phonological and lexical variation than in the whole of our timeline's Slavic; thus a common joke saying goes that foreign languages are simply dialects of Albionian that one does not understand. The standard language is distinguished by a set of sound changes collectively known as the South Albionian Shifts, such as

  • Common Slavic ť/c, ď/dz > th, ð
  • PS tone > vowel length
  • Umlaut of o and long /a:/ to /œ(:)/
  • y merges with i, ý > ej, ú > au (later œj), similar to Common Czech

Albionian is inspired by many different Slavic languages, and especially Czech (both Literary and Common) and Slovak. Non-Slavic inspirations include Welsh, Irish, Old English, Vietnamese, Danish and Portuguese.

Anthem: Ты наша зем(yat) предавна (?)

Names for the language in our Slavlangs:

  • cs: Albenština
  • pl: Język ałbeński
  • ru: о́лобенский язык?

Todo

American Albionian has initial stress; British Albionian has penult stress?

  • soft yer unconditionally causes umlaut (unless analogized away or blocked by /w/) and umlaut caused by i/j is stress dependent (o and lengthened á get umlaut if unstressed)
  • the big Celtic things are: unaspirated-aspirated with some preaspiration, θ ð corresponding pretty much 1-1 to Polish c dz, lack of metathesis and some Irish-inspired things you see like how ċelweac is pronounced /tʃʰɛləβɪhk/; articles
  • sv, zv > scw, zgw
  • Initial stress, vowel reduction of short vowels, some umlaut to get ở, no yer-deletion if syllable is initial
  • Changes found in other Slavic languages like vowel length and relative lack of palatalization from Czech (especially Common Czech), PSlav v > /w/, as well as some /l/ > /w/ as in Ukrainian; some /g/ > /ɣ/, also reminiscent of Czech
  • the b~β~w allophony
  • Made some weird choices in verb forms, like generalizing the PSlav 1st person *-xǔ in imperfect and aorist to all past forms, getting 1sg -ns in present from -m azǔ/-ǫ azǔ
  • Goworins o tỷ milơsti al o tỷ nenởwisti.
  • Ċi charnỉṡ ty to dlamnie?
  • Miluêm my jei, toġ ċtỉm my jeo prỉchod.
  • Sort out -e vs -ia vs -iả
    • a after soft > e or ia?
    • ĭja > ia or iả?

History

Slavic speakers are known to have lived in the British Isles since the 7th century; they were among the peoples who fled the Riphic Invasion of the 6th century that swept continental Europe. The first surviving complete sentence in Albionian is Ze pomoȝom as ti neſt tam to bermiem "Let me help you carry the load there", from the 13th century, which shows the retention of nasal vowels and the lenition of Proto-Slavic /g/ ("pomogom" < pomogǫ) characteristic of Albionian.

One of the most influential texts in the literary language is the Brỷntow Bible (ta Bỉble Brỷntowscả), a 16th century Protestant Bible translation from the original languages, originally titled Ta Bi¿ble ſquynta¿, riêca¿nth tet Testament Starây a tet Nowây (modern spelling Ta Bỉble Scwyntả, riêcảnth tet Testament Starỷ a tet Nowỷ [tɐ ˈpeɪblɪ ˈskwɨntʰɔː, ˈriəkʰɔːnθ tʰɪ ˈzɔ:βɪh ˈstarɪj ɨ tʰɪ ˈnɔβɪj] 'The Holy Bible, that is to say the Old and New Testaments'). Poet Alexandr Galesescỷ was the second major influence of early Modern Albionian. Later writers were also important in establishing the norms of literary Albionian.

Albionian vocabulary is about as purist as German; however, over the years, Albionian has absorbed loans from Latin, Greek, Brythonic, Irish and Judeo-Gaelic, and recently English (which is not a British Isles language in this timeline).

Worldbuilding

The official name of Albion is the Republic of Albion (ta Respublica Albenscả).

Religion

Though Albionian culture is traditionally Protestant, today's Albion is one of the world's least religious societies.

In Albionian-speaking America, religiosity inversely correlates with social class and racial/ethnic hierarchy and religion thus remains a thorny political problem for left-of-center politics.

British phonology

Consonants

Standard Albionian in Albion has a slightly larger-than-average consonant inventory of about 27 consonants.

(Albionian orthography is fairly deep; the orthographic values in the table shouldn't be taken completely at face value.)

→ PoA
↓ Manner
Labial Dental/Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal м /m/ н /n/ нь /ɲ/ нг /ŋ/
Plosive unaspirated б /p/ д /t/ (дж /tʃ/) дь /c/ г /k/
aspirated п /pʰ/ т /tʰ/ ч /tʃʰ/ ть /cʰ/ к /kʰ/
voiced [b] [d] [dʒ] [ɟ]
Spirant unvoiced ф /f/ ѳ /θ/ х /χ/
voiced в /β/ ѕ /ð/ [ɣ]
Non-spirant unvoiced c /s/ ш /ʃ/ щ /ɕː/ etc. /h/
voiced з /z/ ж, зж /ʒ/
Resonant -в, -г etc. /w/ л /l/ р /ɾ/ й, -й, -г etc. /j/ [ɤ̃ˤʶ]
  • Voiced and voiceless stops have shifted to unaspirated and aspirated, as in Icelandic
    • preaspiration of postvocalic aspirated stops in coda or before a consonant; in natural speech, -t weakens all the way to [h] in this environment, as in scweatlo [ˈskwɛːh(t)ɫʊ~ˈskwɛːɬˠːʊ] 'light'. Thus some analyze /h/ as a phonemic consonant appearing in clusters such as /hp hl/ and word-finally. However, the 2nd person plural verb ending -t is always pronounced as [tʰ].
    • Word-final c is never preaspirated.
    • Consonant assimilations:
      • unaspirated stops voice before or after any voiced sound (vowel, resonant or voiced fricative)
  • c h/ch g w ng = /kʰ χ k b~β~w ŋ/
    • w has many allophones:
      • [w] or [ʍ] when it follows a consonant, according as whether the consonant is aspirated or not: scweat [skwɛ:h] 'world', cweat [kʰʍɛ:h] 'flower'.
      • [w] when not before a vowel: e.g. staw [staw] '(flowery) state, condition', o wṡich wảs [ɔwˈʃɪχʍɔ:s] 'about all of you'. However, between words it may still be dropped: o wṡich wảs [ɔˈʃɪχʍɔ:s].
      • [b] word-initially before a vowel and after /n/: weċer [ˈbɛtʃʰɪɾ] 'evening', invenċia [ˈɪmbɨntʃə] 'invention (musical form)'.
      • When not after a vowel but before a consonant, it becomes [χʷ], [ʍ] or silent: wċera /χʷtʃɛrə~ʍtʃɛɾə~tʃɛɾə/ 'yesterday'.
      • w as [v~f] is a feature of some dialects, which may be transcribed as vv, vf, or ff in eye dialects.
    • */nk/ assimilates to /ŋk/ (cf. Czech).
    • Medial g (when it is not ng) lenites and has complex pronunciation rules, similar to rules for writing the hamza in Arabic. These rules are listed in the order of decreasing priority (i.e. attempt to apply a rule if the conditions for the rules above it are not met):
      1. After /j/ or /w/, g is always silent: sảg [saw] 'ledge', tauga [tʰœjə] 'honey' (term of affection for spouse; a doublet of tônga [tʰuəŋə] 'desire').
      2. After /r/ or /l/, g vocalizes to [ʊ] when non-prevocalic, and is pronounced [w] when prevocalic: dảrga /ˈtawɾwə/ 'a road'; dảrg /ˈtawɾʊ/ 'of roads'.
      3. After other consonants, g is pronounced /k/ and devoices a preceding fricative: mozg /mɔsk/ 'brain'.
      4. Unstressed go is pronounced /w/: jagoda 'berry' = [jawdə].
      5. Before the past tense affix -l-, it is silent: beagl [pjɛ:ɤ̃ˤ], beagla ['pjɛ:ɫə], beagli ['pjɛ:lɪ] 'he/she/they ran (ipfv)'.
      6. After back monophthongs, it is [w] and after front monophthongs, it is [j]. For example: rog [ɾɔw] 'horn; corner', beag [pjɛːj] 'running; race course', nogy [nɔwɪ] 'legs'.
      7. After a and diphthongs ê ô:
        • If the g is not prevocalic or precedes /a ə a:/, it is silent and a preceding /a/ is lengthened to /a:/: sarchag /saɾəχə/ 'coffin'. In the case of ga, the following schwa /ə/ is dropped as well: braga [pɾa:] 'yeast'.
        • If the g precedes a front unrounded vowel /ɛ ɪ/, it is pronounced /j/: bragy [pɾajɪ] 'yeast (gen. sg. or nom. pl.)'
        • If the g precedes a front rounded vowel /œ ʏ/, it is pronounced /β/: sarchagum [saɾəχəβʏm] 'coffins (dat. pl.)'
        • If the g precedes a back vowel /ɔ ʊ/, it is pronounced /w/: brago [prawʊ] 'yeast (voc. sg.)'
        • If the g precedes an unreduced /a/, then it is pronounced [ʕ]: prebiêgả ['pʰɾɛbiəʕa] 'it is in progress'.
  • The letter for formerly palatalized /r/ was used inconsistently in Early Modern Albionian and quickly fell out of use. It corresponds to the Czech ř sound, voiceless /r/ or trilled /r/ in dialects.
  • th ð = /θ ð/ in Standard Albionian. Nonstandard accents of Standard Albionian have various realizations for these sounds, such as [f v], [ts dz], slit fricatives or retroflexes: se nơth 'tonight' [sɨ'nœf~sɨ'nœθ̠~sɨ'nœʂ~sɨ'nœts].
  • /l/ is velarized before back vowels. It is vocalized to a nasalized pharyngealized uvular approximant in coda: postel 'bed' [pʰɔstɤ̃ˤʶ].
  • Voiced fricatives are not devoiced at ends of words.

h q v x ph are used in Latin and Greek loanwords; they're pronounced the same as native ch cw w cs f. For example: humanismus, qualita, variant, existowaṫ, philosophia [ˈχʊmənʲɪsmʏs, ˈkʰwalɪtʰə, ˈbaɾjənt, ˈɛksɪstoʊhtʲ, ˈfɪɫosofɪjə].

Pleophony

CVrC, CVlC is pronounced as CVrəC, CVləC; cf. Irish and Russian. e.g. смырт 'death' = /ˈsmɪɾəh/, галва 'head' = /ˈkaɫəβə/, дерво 'tree' = /ˈtɛɾəβo/, велкы 'big' = /ˈbɛɫəkʰej/.

-w in word-final -rw and -lw is vocalized to [ʏ] and -g in word-final -rg and -lg becomes [ʊ]. For example: поздарв [ˈpʰɔzdərʏ] 'greeting; regards (when signing a letter)'; дарг /ˈtaːɾʊ/ 'of roads'.

Vowels

Counting length and diphthongs but not counting vowels with final glides, Standard Albionian has 17 vowels.

а/я е/є ы/и о у ơ аг а: е: ѣ и: о:/ог ơ:/уе у: ау ые/ие уо ео ио ы. ы:/ей/еу = (unreduced) /a ɛ ɪ ɔ u œ aː aw ɛː jɛː iː ow øː uː yː œj iə uə ɛw~əw ɪw iː ɛj/

  • cy gy are prono
  • In standard Albionian, (yat) is pronounced as palatalizing long /ɛː/ when not reduced: eat wy [ˈjɛːtʰ ʍɪ] 'y'all (familiar) eat'. After alveolar sibilants /θ ð s z ʃ ʒ/ it becomes /ɛː/.
  • /ɛː/ shifts to /iː/ in basilectal southern accents.
  • Initial ji jỉ jê > i ỉ ê in casual speech. For example, jêzyc /'jiəzɪk/ 'tongue; language' is pronounced ['iəzɪk].
  • In noninitial syllables, short vowels are reduced and longs are shortened.
    • /a/ reduces to /ə/
    • /ɛ e/ reduces to non-palatalizing /ɨ/
    • /jɛː ɪ/ reduces to palatalizing /ɪ/
    • /ɔ o/ reduces to /o/
      • slowo [sɫɔβo] 'a word'
    • /œ ʊ/ reduces to /ʏ/
      • steam deatum 'with the children' [scɪm ˈcɛːtʰʏm]
      • mơġnơst 'possibility' [ˈmœʒnʏst]
  • /ɛɪ/ reduces to /ɪj/

Stress and tone

Stress is always initial. Long vowels have two possible registers: stød and no stød. Stød is marked in dictionaries using the underdot.

Intonation

Similar to Danish or Hiberno-English

American phonology

Consonants

→ PoA
↓ Manner
Labial Dental/Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m /m/ n /n/ ṅ, ni /ɲ/ ng /ŋ:/
Plosive voiced b /b/ d /d/ ( /dʐ/) ḋ, di /dʑ/ g /g/
voiceless p /p/ t /t/ ċ /tʂ/ ṫ, ti /tɕ/ c /k/
Spirant unvoiced f, ph /f/ th /θ/ ch, (h) /h/
voiced w, (v) /w/ ð /ð/ [ɣ]
Non-spirant unvoiced s /s/ /ʂ/ /ɕː/
voiced z /z/ ġ, zġ /ʐ/
Resonant -g, -l /w/ l /ɫ~l/ r /ɾ/ j, -i, -g etc. /j/

Homorganic nasals before consonants become nasal vowels.

  • Orthographic voiceless stops are about as aspirated as Japanese voiceless stops.
  • /θ ð/ = [f v], [t d] or [s z] is a characteristic of working-class accents.
  • The /l/ in unstressed /li/ tends to be dropped when after a stressed vowel: byli 'they were' /'pɪ.i~pɪj/.

Vowels

a(S)/ả(L) e(S)/ẻ(L) i(S)/ỉ(L)/y(S)/ỷ(L)/ỵ(L) o(S)/ỏ(L) u(S)/ủ(L) ơ(S)/ở(L) ea(S)/ê(L)/iê(L) ô uê(L) eu/eo/ẻo ỉo = (unreduced) /a ɛ i ɔ u œ e o ø ɛw iw ɛj œj/

Note: S and L = short and long for the purpose of assigning syllable weights for stress

Vowel reduction

Vowels are reduced in unstressed syllables.

  • /a/ reduces to /ə/
  • /ɛ e ɪ/ reduces to /ɪ/ and keep their (non-)palatalizing property
  • /ɔ o/ reduces to /ʊ/
  • /œ ø ʊ/ reduces to /ʏ/
  • /ɛɪ/ reduces to /i/

Pleophony

Pleophony holds exactly as in British Albionian; pleophony is applied after stress is assigned using the weight rule.

Stress

American Albionian stress follows a Dreimorengesetz:

  • last long syllable (CV: or CVC) among the last 3 syllables is stressed; final consonants are ignored.
  • if there's no long syllable in the last 3 syllables then penult stress

Long syllable means long vowel OR closed.

Intonation

Similar to Brazilian Portuguese: rising in stressed syllables

Church Albionian phonology

Church Albionian (thỉrcewnoalbensċina) is the traditional pronunciation standard used in church services and is also the standard for classical singing and theater, but was never natively spoken by anyone. It is a tradition passed down from the Early Modern period.

Dialects

Albion

In Albion, the relationship between Albionian dialects and Standard Albionian is like the relationship between German dialects and Standard German. Traditionally, nonstandard dialects were used in local everyday speech and Standard Albionian is used in writing, formal or religious contexts or in contexts where speakers from different backgrounds need to understand each other. Today, regional dialects are under pressure due to modern societal conditions, such as public education and mass media. Some Albion dialects even have retroflex stops and resonants /ɳ ɭ ʈ ɖ/.

American Albionian is much more uniform and closer to the standard, with comparatively minor regional differences in accent and vocabulary.


Various dialectal isoglosses:

  • /dl/ (Standard) ~ /ɾl/ ~ /ɭ/ ~ /ɻ/ ~ /l/
    • 'soap': mỵdlo (Southern to Midlands) ~ mȳrlo/mȳḷo/mȳzho (Bristol) ~ mýlo (Northern England)
  • Liquid pleophony vs metathesis vs none
    • metathesis (Some Scottish dialects)
    • pleophony (Standard British, Midlands and Northern England, some Scottish dialects)
    • no pleophony or metathesis (Southern dialects)
      • r + coronal > retroflex (Bristol area, now only elderly speakers)
        • 'crow': wāṇa /'bǎ:ɳa/ (standard wảrna /'bawɾənə/)
  • Common Slavic accent
    • Common Slavic stress retained but not tone (northern and most Scottish dialects)
    • 4-tone system (Shetland, Church Alb.)
    • 3-tone systems (Midlands, Bristol area)
    • 2-tone systems (Modern Standard British Alb.)
    • only length (Wales)
    • new stress accent from length (Standard American Alb.)

Writing

Albionian uses the Latin alphabet, and the orthography has been significantly influenced by Latin and Romance languages. Palatalization is indicated with a dot diacritic when the consonant is not followed by a vowel. Example: weac ['bɛk] 'age', weaċnỷ ['bɛtʃnɛɪ] 'eternal'. Certain letters can take a palatalizing i which works much like in Italian and Polish: nia, tia, dia, nie, tie, die, ni, ti, di, etc. are read as ṅ ṫ ḋ + ia, e, ê, i, ỉ.

The orthography is based on the relatively conservative southern dialect of ___ of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the pronunciation of the standard koine has absorbed influences from other dialects, such as liquid pleophony from the Gaelic-influenced northern dialects. The underdot diacritic indicates the stød in dictionaries.

Morphology

Nouns (Substantỉva)

Like our Slavic, Albionian has masculine, feminine and neuter genders, and has the same gender markers as our Slavic. (For forms for enbies, see Albionian/Nonbinary forms).

Modern Standard Albionian nouns and adjectives have retained five of the seven Proto-Slavic cases: nominative (nominatỉv), dative (datỉv), genitive (genitỉv), locative (locởl) and vocative (vocatỉv). (Dialects differ in the number of cases; some conservative dialects retain all 7 Proto-Slavic cases, while some dialects, particularly in the New World, have lost case entirely.) The nominative is used for both subjects and direct objects; the dative fills the role of dative nouns and after some prepositions in our Slavic languages. The instrumental (instrumentởl) is semi-productive in forming adverbs and expressions, e.g. prawdau 'really'; beagem 'during'; wuzglyndem 'owing to, in view of'; pomơthỉ 'with, using'; ynỷmi slowy 'in other words'. Modern Colloquial Albionian (i.e. the uniformized register spoken by young cosmopolitans) is in the process of losing the locative, replacing it with the dative.

The instrumental has been replaced with the dative in the following way:

  • Instruments use the preposition se + dative (just like the comitative).
  • After prepositions where our Slavic languages use the instrumental, such as nad 'above'.
  • Predicate nouns and adjectives that denote becoming or change of state.

Some nouns have different stems for zero and nonzero endings: den 'day (nom.)' > dnea 'days (nom.)'; cuêṅ 'horse (nom.)' > cơnea 'horses (nom.)'.

Some hard stem declensions

wylc (m.) = wolf galwa (f.) = head
ġena (f.) = woman
perdseada (m.) = chairman slowo (n.) = word
singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural
Nominative wylc wylcy* galwa
ġena
galwy
ġeny
perdseada perdseady* slowo slowa
Genitive wylca wylcow galwy
ġeny
galw
ġen
perdseady perdseadow slowa slow
Dative wylcu, wylcui wylcum galwe
ġenie
galwum
ġenum
perdseadu, perdseadui perdseadum slowe slowum
Locative wylcu, wylcui wylcach galwe
ġenie
galwach
ġenach
perdseadu, perdseadui perdseadach slowe slowach
Vocative wylċe! wylcy! galwo!
ġeno!
galwy!
ġeny!
perdseado! perdseady! slowo! slowa!

* Sometimes -owea for humans.

Some wylc nouns drop intervening e or y (from PS hard and soft yer respectively) when adding endings: pes 'dog' > gen. psa; cơthec 'kitten' > gen. cơthca.

In wylc nouns, -u is used for nouns ending in velars and -e for others.

The ending -e in the above declensions causes second palatalization: n ng t c d g ch become ṅ nn ṫ th ḋ ð s, for example:

  • stảrna 'side' > na tỷ stảrnie 'on the side'
  • dảrga 'road' > na tỷ dảrðe 'on the road'
  • tônga 'desire' > se tônne 'with desire'
  • uċitelca 'teacher (f.)' > tỷ uċitelthe 'to/for the teacher'

Some soft-stem declensions

Some nouns like list 'leaf' and cơst 'bone' end in a hard consonant in the nominative.

muġ (m.) = man
list (m.) = 'leaf'
cơst (f.) = bone
nơth (f.) = 'night'
zemea (f.) = earth syrthe (n.) = heart zdởniê (n.) = fact
singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural
Nominative muġ
list
muġowea, muġea
listea
cơst
nơth
cơsti
nơthi
zemea zemi syrthe syrtha zdởniê zdởnia
Genitive muġea
listea
muġỉ
listỉ
cơsti
nơthi
cơstỉ
nơthỉ
zemi zemỉ syrtha syrth zdởnia zdơṅ
Dative muġi
listi
muġim
listim
cơsti
nơthi
cơstum
nơthum
zemi zemim syrthi syrthim zdởnỉ zdởnim
Locative muġi
listi
muġich
listich
cơsti
nơthi
cơstach
nơthach
zemi zemich syrthi syrthich zdởnỉ zdởnich
Vocative muġi!
listi!
muġea!
listea!
cơsti!
nơthi!
cơsti!
nơthi!
zemie! zemi! syrthe! syrtha! zdởniê! zdởnia!

-ê nouns

ymê (n.) = name zgwêrê (n.) = animal
singular plural singular plural
Nominative ymê ymyna zgwêrê zgwêrynta
Genitive ymynia ymyn zgwêryntia zgwêrynt
Dative ymyni ymynum zgwêrynti zgwêryntum
Locative ymyni ymynach zgwêrynti zgwêryntach
Vocative ymê! ymyna! zgwêrê! zgwêrynta!

Nouns with pseudo-duals

oco (n.) = eye ucho (n.) = ear runca (f.) = hand, arm
singular plural singular plural singular plural
Nominative oco ơċi ucho uṡi runca runthe
Genitive oca ơċỉ ucha uṡỉ runcy runthỉ
Dative othe ơċim uṡe uṡim runthe runcum
Locative othe ơċich uṡe uṡich runthe runcach
Vocative oco! ơċi! ucho! uṡi! runco! runthe!

Miscellaneous

ċelweac (m.) = human, person
singular plural
Nominative ċelweac lidea
Genitive ċelweaca lidỉ
Dative ċelweacu lidum
Locative ċelweacu lidach
Vocative ċelweaċe! lidea!
ởteth (m.) = father
singular plural
Nominative ởteth ởthy
Genitive ởtha ởthow
Dative ởthu ởthum
Locative ởthu ởthach
Vocative ởċe! ởthy!
sluġineth (m.) = child
singular plural
Nominative sluġineth deati
Genitive sluġintha deatỉ
Dative sluġinthu deatum
Locative sluġinthu deatach
Vocative sluġinthe! deati!

archaic singular: diềtiê, diềtintia, diềtinti; diêtiê is still used as a vocative like "child" is in English (but is mainly literary).

Jẻsus (m.) = Jesus
singular
Nominative Jẻsus
Genitive Jẻsa (colloquial), Jẻsu (formal)
Dative Jẻsu, Jẻsui
Locative Jẻsu, Jẻsui
Vocative Jẻsu!

Loan declension

Masculine and neuter words from Latin, Greek and Lithuanian remove their original nominative singular endings when declined.

  • Second-declension nouns follow the wylc declension: for example, soċialismus 'socialism', mỷthos 'myth', Mindaugas 'Mindaugas (Lithuanian name)'.
  • There is a tendency to keep nominative and oblique stems separate where the original languages do; this includes nouns such as thema, themata, thematu, thematu.
  • Second-declension words in -um or -on follow the slowo or syrthe declension: for example, practicum 'internship'; critẻrion 'criterion'.
  • Nouns in -ẻ (for example, Athẻnẻ 'Athena') decline as feminine -e nouns; -ia nouns are a declension class of their own.
  • More unusual declensions are normatively treated as having one of the regular native declensions. The plural of ẻthos is ẻthosy; using forms such as ẻthy would be hypercorrect.

Newer foreign -u names decline like slowo and -i names decline like -e nouns (allowed by Albionian vowel reduction). Female names ending in a consonant decline like cơst: Ester becomes Esteri in the non-nominative cases. Names that don't fit into native patterns are indeclinable, and simply add the definite article: the female name Hanako becomes ta Hanako. The definite article declines when the name needs to be declined: ty walsy tỷ Hanako 'Hanako's hair'.

mỷthos (m.) = myth practicum (n.) = internship critẻrion (n.) = criterion geometria (f.) = geometry
singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural
Nominative mỷthos mỷthy practicum practica critẻrion critẻria geometria geometrii
Genitive mỷtha mỷthow practica practic critẻria critẻriỉ geometrii geometriỉ
Dative mỷthu, mỷthui mỷthum practicu, practicui practicum critẻrii/-e critẻriim geometrie geometriim
Locative mỷthu, mỷthui mỷthach practicu, practicui practicach critẻrii/-e critẻriach geometrie geometriach
Vocative mỷthe! mỷthy! practicum! practica! critẻrion! critẻria! geometrio! geometrii

Pluralia tantum

Neuter pluralia tantum in -a, such as ủsta 'mouth', warta 'door', nebesa 'sky', slowesa 'speech, words' (as opposed to slowa which is used for individual words), data, agenda are colloquially often feminine singular. (Propaganda is sometimes treated as neuter plural, which is hypercorrect.)

Articles (Articuly)

Like Irish and Welsh, Albionian has a definite article but no indefinite article; ġảba means 'a frog', and ta ġảba means 'the frog'.

tet 'the; that'
m. sg. f. sg. n. sg. plural
Nominative tet* ta to ty** (m/f), ta (n)
Genitive teo tỷ teo teach
Dative tom tỷ tom team
Locative tom tỷ tom teach

* /tʰɪ/ before z ġ; /tʰɪh/ otherwise

** In British Albionian, the article and demonstrative ty is aspirated /tʰɨ/; the second-person pronoun ty is unaspirated /tɨ/.

Prepositions (Preposiċii)

Prepositions have meanings similar to their cognates in our Slavic languages: na, o(b), od, u (+gen), cu (+dat), do (+gen), wu, po, za, se (+dat), bez (+gen), dla (+gen), perz, pri, nad, pod, perd, ... The prepositions na, nad, o, po, pod, za, pers, perd, pri, wu take the nominative/accusative when they denote motion, and the locative or dative when they denote location (depending on the preposition; the dative is used where our Slavic languages would use the instrumental). Unlike in our Slavic languages, there's no difference between comitative and instrumental; the preposition is used for both.

o is ob before a vowel.

Possession is indicated using the preposition u, as in Russian: Les umne prỉclad. 'I have an example.'

Some things that look like prepositions are not: e.g. the se in fixed time expressions se den, se jitro, se weċer, se nơth 'today, this morning, this evening, tonight' is actually a fossilized demonstrative from Proto-Slavic *sŭ.

Preposition + pronoun combinations

If the prepositional object is a pronoun, the preposition + pronoun is written and pronounced as one word: Bunde weċerca u Catheriny, ċi poidem my cunỉ ċil ne? /pʊndɨ bɛtʃʰɪɾkʰə ʊ ˈkʰaθɨɾɪnɨ, tʃɪ ˈpɔɪdɨm mɨ ˈkʰʊnʲiː tʃɪw nɛ/ 'There's a party at Catherina's, are we going [to her house] or not?'. If a preposition combines with a personal pronoun, -e- may be added between the preposition and the pronoun: for example: nademnau, nadetau, podemnau, podetau, yzemnie, yzetwe, yzese, semnau, stau.

Preposition + article contractions

o, pri, na, cu, wu, po, za, se + tom > om, prim, nam, cum, wum, pom, zam, stom

se + team > steam

Adjectives (Adjectỉva)

Predicative forms of -scỷ adjectives are in -scy. Hard stems:

dobr 'good'
m. sg. f. sg. n. sg. plural
Predicative dobr
Nominative dobrỷ dobrả dobrẻ dobrê (m/f), dobrả (n)
Genitive dobrẻo dobrỷ dobrẻo dobrỷch
Dative dobrẻm dobrỷ dobrẻm dobrỷm
Locative dobrẻm dobrỷ dobrẻm dobrỷch

Soft stems:

ostateṅ 'remaining'
m. sg. f. sg. n. sg. plural
Predicative ostateṅ
Nominative ostatnỉ ostatniả ostatniê ostatniê (m/f), ostatniả (n)
Genitive ostatnỉo ostatnỉ ostatnỉo ostatnỉch
Dative ostatnỉm ostatnỉ ostatnỉm ostatnỉm
Locative ostatnỉm ostatnỉ ostatnỉm ostatnỉch

Possessive adjectives

In colloquial language, only nouns denoting family members have possessive adjective forms.

ởteth 'father' > ởthow, -owa, -owo 'father's'

matca 'mother' > matċin, -ina, -ino

For example: ởthow lewr /œ:θoʊ lɛʊr/ 'father's book'

In formal language, inherited possessive adjectives are used to denote concepts named after people (like German -sche); e.g. zcusitelnơst Bayesowa 'Bayesian probability'; funcċia Wesselowa 'Bessel function'.

Verbs (Verba)

Verbs retain the Proto-Slavic aspectual distinction. There are a number of analytic tenses like in English and modern Celtic languages, but often only one of the two aspects allow the constructions.

The conditional form is a bit unusual from the perspective of our Slavic; it continues the PS 1sg -xŭ and 1pl -xomŭ imperfective and aorist form, analogized to other persons and numbers. It corresponds to the L-participle + by construction in Russian, Polish, etc.. There is no distinction between present and past conditional, unlike in English; the Albionian conditional makes an aspect distinction rather than a tense one.

  • present habitual: imperfective
  • present progressive: imperfective
  • present perfect: perfective
  • past imperfect: imperfective
  • past progressive: imperfective
  • preterite: perfective
  • future imperfective: imperfective (formed with a (fused) auxiliary)
  • future perfective: perfective (formed like present)
  • conditional can be either

3pl forms of verbs are only used with the plural pronoun ṡi (...nt wṡi 'they all...'). Plural nouns and demonstratives take the 3sg form.

Special emphatic forms exist in the first person in formal language: senseṡ 'it's me'.

Negation

Verbs are negated using the circumfix ne VERB als (etym. *ne ... wals 'not a hair of'), or colloquially, often just with VERB als. (als is pronounced /aws/) Als precedes the absolutive argument of a negated verb, as well as any absolutive argument of any lexical verb, UNLESS it is a subject personal pronoun for an intransitive verb (Chơdils ty als tam nicdy? = 'Have you never been there?').

  • For intranstive verbs, especially ones that denote motion or a change of state, als precedes the subject (cf. German verbs that use the auxiliary sein).
  • Otherwise, als precedes the direct object (cf. German verbs that use the auxiliary haben).

A noun preceded by als is required to be in the genitive: Cdoġ sparuê eaðen mynso? Ne sparuêns als eaðenia mynsa. [kʰtoʃ 'spaɾœ 'jɛðɪnʲiə 'mɨnsʊ || nɪ 'spaɾœns əws 'jɛðɪnʲə 'mɨnsə] (also eaðeniê mynsa in more informal contexts) = 'Who condones eating meat? I don't condone eating meat.' In the following tables, grayed-out forms are used in formal or literary language.

-aṫ

dealaṫ, zdealaṫ 'to do'
tense 1sg 2sg fam. 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl impersonal
present dealảns dealảṡ ty dealả dealảm my dealảt wy dealản ṡi dealả-sê
present prog. sens dealảnth sty dealảnth les ton dealảnth smy dealảnth swy dealảnth len ṡi dealảnth dealảmo
past dealalns, dealalans dealal(a) sty dealal on, ona; dealal(a/o) NOUN dealali smy dealali swy dealali ṡi dealalo-sê
conditional dealachas dealach ty dealach dealachum my dealach wy, dealachet wy, dealast wy dealach ṡi, dealaṡin ṡi dealach-sê
imperative - dealei! - dealeim! dealeite! - -
present participle dealảnthỷ
past participle dealanỷ
verbnoun dealơniê

-eaṫ, -iêṫ

wideaṫ, uwideaṫ 'to see'
tense 1sg 2sg fam. 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl impersonal
present wiðuns widiêṡ ty widiê widiêm my widiêt wy wiðôn ṡi widiê-sê
present prog. sens wiðônth sty wiðônth les ton wiðônth smy wiðônth swy wiðônth len ṡi wiðônth wiðemo
past widealns, widealans wideal(a) sty wideal on(a/o); wideal(a/o) NOUN wideali smy wideali swy wideali ṡi widealo-sê
conditional wideachas wideach ty wideach wideachum my wideach wy, wideachet wy, wideast wy wideach ṡi, wideaṡin ṡi wideach-sê
imperative - wið! - wiðem! wiðete! -
present participle wiðônthỷ
past participle wiðenỷ
verbnoun wiðeniê

-iṫ

nosiṫ 'to carry by foot (multidirectional); to wear; counterpart of nesṫ'
tense 1sg 2sg fam. 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl impersonal
present noṡins nosỉṡ ty nosỉ nosỉm my nosỉt wy noṡên ṡi nosỉ-sê
present prog. sens noṡênth sty noṡênth les ton noṡênth smy noṡênth swy noṡênth len ṡi noṡênth noṡimo
past nosilns, nosilans nosil(a) sty nosil on(a/o); nosil(a/o) NOUN nosili smy nosili swy nosili ṡi nosilo-sê
conditional nosichas nosich ty nosich nosichum my nosich wy, nosichet wy, nosist wy nosi ṡi, nosiṡin ṡi nosich-sê
imperative - nos! - nosem! noste! - -
present participle noṡênthỷ
past participle noṡenỷ
verbnoun noṡeniê

Changes in 1sg and 3pl present-system, participle and verbnoun forms: m p b n d t z s st > mj pj bj ṅ ð th ġ ṡ sċ

  • lơmiṫ "to break, to split (impf)" > lơmins, lơmieniê
  • tơpiṫ "to heat (impf)" > tơpins, tơpieniê
  • slabiṫ "to weaken (impf)" > slabins, slabieniê
  • platiṫ "to pay (impf)" > plathins, platheniê
  • rơdiṫ-sê "to be born (pf)" > rơðins-sê, rơðeniê
  • zmeaniṫ "to change (pf)" > zmeanins, zmeanieniê
  • rozcaziṫ "to decompose (pf)" > rozcaġins, rozcaġeniê
  • zcusiṫ "to try (pf)" > zcuṡins, zcuṡeniê
  • odpustiṫ "to forgive (pf)" > odpusċins, odpusċeniê

-owaṫ, -nơnṫ

The -owaṫ (the ending -owaṫ is pronounced /-oʊc/) verbs are from PSlav -ovati verbs, the perfective counterpart is -nơnṫ from -nǫti.

beseadowaṫ 'gather (imperfective)'
tense 1sg 2sg fam. 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl impersonal
present beseaduêns beseaduêṡ ty beseaduê beseaduêm my beseaduêt wy beseaduên ṡi beseaduê-sê
present prog. sens beseaduênth sty beseaduênth les ton beseaduênth smy beseaduênth swy beseaduênth len ṡi beseaduênth beseaduêmo
past beseadowalns, beseadowalans beseadowal(a) sty beseadowal on(a/o); beseadowal(a/o) NOUN beseadowali smy beseadowali swy beseadowali ṡi beseadowalo-sê
conditional beseadochas beseadoch ty beseadoch beseadochum my beseadoch wy, beseadochet wy, beseadost wy beseadoch ṡi, beseadoṡin ṡi beseadoch-sê
imperative - beseadui! - beseaduim! beseaduite! - -
present participle beseaduênthỷ
past participle beseadowanỷ
verbnoun beseadowaniê


beseadnơnṫ 'gather (perfective)'
tense 1sg 2sg fam. 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl impersonal
future perfective beseadnuns beseadneṡ ty beseadne beseadnem my beseadnet wy beseadnôn ṡi beseadne-sê
present perf. sens beseadnunṡi sty beseadnunṡi les ton beseadnunṡi smy beseadnunṡi swy beseadnunṡi len ṡi beseadnunṡi beseadnunto
preterite beseadnôlns, beseadnôlans beseadnôl(a) sty beseadnôl on(a/o), beseadnôl(a/o) NOUN beseadnôli smy beseadnôli swy beseadnôli ṡi beseadnôlo-sê
preterite beseadnuchas beseadnuch ty beseadnuch beseadnuchum my beseadnuch wy, beseadnuchet wy, beseadnust wy beseadnuch ṡi, beseadnôṡin ṡi beseadnuch-sê
imperative - beseadni! - beseadnim! beseadnite! - -
past participle beseadnuntỷ
verbnoun beseadnuntiê

Irregular verbs

prỉnṫ 'to get, to obtain (perf. of prỉmaṫ)'
tense 1sg 2sg fam. 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl impersonal
present prỉmuns prỉmeṡ ty prỉme prỉmem my prỉmet wy prỉmôn prỉme-sê
present perf. sens prỉnṡi sty prỉnṡi les ton prỉnṡi smy prỉnṡi swy prỉnṡi len ṡi prỉnṡi prỉnto
past prijal sens, prijalans (pronounced prỉl sens) prijal(a) sty prijal on(a/o); prijal(a/o) NOUN prijali smy prijali swy prijali ṡi prijalo-sê
conditional prijachas prijach ty prijach prijachum my prijach wy, prijachet wy, prijast wy prijach ṡi, prijaṡin ṡi prijach-sê
imperative - prỉmi! - prỉmeam! prỉmeate! - -
past active participle prỉnṡi
past passive participle prỉnt
verbnoun prỉntiê

-ṫ

dẻrt 'to tear'

present: druns, dreṡ ty, dre, drem my, dret wy, drôn

past: derl

conditional analytic: deroch

past participle: derto

verbnoun: dertiê

d/t-stems go like this:

ċỉst, preċỉst 'to read' (from a combination of *ċisti and *ċitati):

present: ċituns, ċiteṡ ty, ċite ton, ċitem my, ċitet wy, ċitôn

past: ċitl

conditional analytic: ċitoch

past participle: ċiteno

verbnoun: ċiteniê

nẻst 'to carry (unidirectional)':

present: nesuns, neseṡ ty, nese ton, nesem my, neset wy, nesôn ṡi

past: nesl(a/o/i)

conditional analytic: nesoch

past participle: neseno

verbnoun: neseniê

imperative: nes! nesem! nesete!

iêsṫ, sêsṫ 'to eat' is irregular:

present: iêns, eaṡ ty, ea ton, eam my, eat wy, eaðôn

past: eadl(a/o/i)

conditional analytic: eadeach

past participle: eaðeno

verbnoun: eaðeniê

-th

bẻrth, lẻth, mởth, biêth, riêth, liênth, pẻth, pônth, tẻth, tiênth, stẻrth, stỉth, strỉth, tẻlth, wẻlth, wẻrth, wyrth, ġẻth

From PS *-ťi verbs. Two subtypes: the *gti verbs and the *kti verbs.

bẻrth 'to care for (imperfect)'
tense 1sg 2sg fam. 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl impersonal
present berguns berġeṡ ty berġe berġem my berġet wy bergôn ṡi berġe-sê
present prog. sens bergônth sty bergônth les ton bergônth smy bergônth swy bergônth len ṡi bergônth berġemo
past bergl sens, berglans bergl(a) sty bergl on(a/o), bergl(a/o) NOUN bergli smy bergli swy bergli ṡi berglo-sê
conditional bergochas bergoch ty bergoch on(a/o) bergochum my bergoch wy, bergochet wy, bergost wy bergoch ṡi, bergoṡin ṡi bergoch-sê
imperative - berð! - berðem! berðete! - -
present participle bergônthỷ
past participle berġenỷ
verbnoun berġeniê


riêth 'say (perfective)'
tense 1sg 2sg fam. 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl impersonal
future perfective reacuns reaċeṡ ty reaċe reaċem my reaċet wy reacôn ṡi reaċe-sê
present perf. sens reacṡi sty reacṡi les ton reacṡi smy reacṡi swy reacṡi len ṡi reacṡi reaċeno
past reacl sens, reaclans reacl(a) sty reacl on(a/o), reacl(a/o) NOUN reacli smy reacli swy reacli ṡi reaclo-sê
conditional reacochas reacoch ty reacoch reacochum my reacoch wy, reacochet wy, reacost wy reacoch ṡi, reacoṡin ṡi reacoch-sê
imperative - reath! - reathem! reathete! - -
past participle reaċenỷ
verbnoun reaċeniê

bỷṫ 'to be'

bỷṫ 'to be'
tense 1sg 2sg fam. 3sg 1pl 2pl 3pl impersonal
present sens sty les on, os on, los on (colloq.) ġes on (relative), ċis on (interrogative) smy swy len ṡi, ỏn ṡi, lỏn ṡi (colloq.) ġen ṡi (relative), ċin ṡi (interrogative), lesun ṡi, osun ṡi, ġesun ṡi, ċisun ṡi les-sê
habitual bỷwảns bỷwảṡ ty bỷwả bỷwảm my bỷwảt wy bỷwản ṡi bỷwả-sê
past byl sens, bylans byl(a) sty byl on(a/o); byl(a/o) NOUN byli smy byli swy byli ṡi bylo-sê
conditional bychas bych ty, byṡ ty bych, by bychum my bych wy, bychet wy, byst wy bych ṡi, by ṡi, byṡin ṡi bych-sê
future bunduns bundeṡ ty bunde bundem my bundet wy bundôn ṡi bunde-sê
imperative - bônḋ! - bôndiem! bônḋte! - -
present participle sônthỷ
verbnoun bytiê

Verbs of motion

  • to go by foot: ỉsṫ (uni); chơdiṫ (multi)
  • to go by vehicle: eachaṫ (uni); eazdiṫ (multi)
  • to carry (by foot): nẻsṫ (uni); nơsiṫ (multi)
  • to carry (by vehicle): wẻzṫ (uni); wơziṫ (multi)
  • to run: biêth (uni); biêgaṫ (multi)
  • to swim: plauṫ (uni); plewaṫ (multi)
  • to fly: leateaṫ (uni); liêtaṫ (multi)
  • to lead: wẻsṫ (uni); wơdiṫ (multi)
  • to climb: liêzṫ (uni); laziṫ (multi)
  • to chase: gnaṫ (uni); ganiaṫ (multi)

Pronouns (Pronỏmina)

case 1sg. 2sg. (Albion; familiar) 3sg. 1pl. 2pl. (familiar; also sg. in America) 3pl. refl.
m. f. n.
nom. (emphatic) aseṡ, -seṡ tyṡ (t)onṡ (t)onaṡ (t)onoṡ (an.), toṡ (inan.) myṡ wyṡ ṡiṡ -
acc. miê, mnie, -mnie (prep) tiê, tebe, -twe (prep) jei, -niei (prep.) ji, -ni (prep.) to nảs wảs je, -nie (prep.) sê, -sê (prep)
gen. men, -mnie (prep) teb, -twe (prep) jeo, -nieo (prep.) jỉ, -nỉ (prep.) teo nảs wảs jich, -nich (prep.) seb, -sê (prep)
dat. mi, mnau, -mnau (prep) ti, tau, -tau (prep) jem, mu, -niem (prep.) jỉ, -nỉ (prep.) tom nảm wảm jim, -nim (prep.) si, sau, -sau (prep)
loc. -mnie -twe -niem -nỉ -tom -nảs -wảs -nich (prep.) -sê
poss. môi tôi jeo jỉ teo nảṡ wảṡ jich sôi; walsnỷ

The nominative forms ton etc. are used after verb forms ending in a vowel. Otherwise on etc. are used.

The form ṡi is from *vьśi 'all'.

The form waṡca (pl. waṡcy; treated as a feminine noun, because it comes from waṡa lảsca 'your grace') are the standard polite forms in Albion. American Albionian uses wy for singular and plural familiar, wảsca for both singular and plural of neutral familiarity in the Americas, and tet pan, ta pani (pl. ty panowea, ty pani) are very polite.

Possessive pronouns

môi 'my'
m. sg. f. sg. n. sg. plural
Nominative môi mả mẻ (m/f), mả (n)
Genitive mẻo mỷ mẻo mỷch
Dative mẻm mỷ mẻm mỷm
Locative mẻm mỷ mẻm mỷch
tôi 'thy'
m. sg. f. sg. n. sg. plural
Nominative tôi twả twẻ twê (m/f), twả (n)
Genitive twẻo twỷ twẻo twỷch
Dative twẻm twỷ twẻm twỷm
Locative twẻm twỷ twẻm twỷch

sôi is similar to tôi but with s- where tw- is used.

nảṡ 'our'
m. sg. f. sg. n. sg. plural
Nominative nảṡ naṡa naṡe naṡi (m/f), naṡe (n)
Genitive naṡeo naṡỉ naṡeo naṡich
Dative naṡem naṡỉ naṡem naṡim
Locative naṡem naṡỉ naṡem naṡich

wảṡ is similar.

Uses of sảm

Declension of sảm
m. sg. f. sg. n. sg. plural
Nominative sảm sama samo samy (m/f); sama (n)
Genitive samẻo samỷ samẻo samỷch
Dative samẻm samỷ samẻm samỷm
Locative samẻm samỷ samẻm samỷch

tet sảm is a 3rd person pronoun in formal or literary language. They work like the German anaphoric use of dieser and are usually used to refer to the latest noun that has been used.

When sảm is used in X sảm (where sảm agrees with the gender and number of X), it is an intensifier, meaniing "X himself/herself" or "the very X". Similarly, sê sảm (where sảm agrees with the subject) is an emphasized reflexive pronoun.

Demonstratives

Modern Albionian has no words for 'this' or 'that', instead the words tu 'here' and tam 'there' are used for deictic purposes: to tu is used for 'this (thing)' and to NOUN tu is used for 'this NOUN'. The formal language has the anaphoric demonstrative tezde, tazde, tozde.

  • person: cto, tet/ta (NOUN) tu, tet/ta (NOUN) tam, nict, neacto, wṡect/caġdỷ
  • thing: tho, to (NOUN) tu, to (NOUN) tam, nith, nietho, wṡeth
  • modifier: acỷ/cterỷ, tacỷ ... tu, tacỷ ... tam, ġảden (with negative; aden with negative in flowery language), neajacỷ, wṡes(e)c/caġdỷ
  • when: cdy, nyn, tom, nicdy, neacdy, wṡewynth
  • where: cde, tu/tundy/tunde, tam, nicde, neacde, wṡecde
  • whither: cam, seam, tam, nicam, neacam, wṡecam
  • whence: od + "where"-words
wṡestec 'all'
m. sg. f. sg. n. sg. plural
Nominative wṡestec wṡesca wṡesco wṡescy (m/f), wṡesca (n)
Genitive wṡeo wṡỉ wṡeo wṡech
Dative wṡem wṡỉ wṡem wṡem
Locative wṡem wṡỉ wṡem wṡech

acỷ 'what kind of, what (used to ask what X, given that it's an X)' tacỷ 'such, like that', cterỷ 'which (which item in a predetermined set of options)' decline as ordinary adjectives. The relativizer tacỷġ declines as tacỷ + ġ. Wehn the relative clause has a copula, the relativizer combines with the copula to form tacỷġes etc.

Numerals (Numerảlia)

(colloquially those are just called ċỉsla 'numbers')

0. nula; nultỷ

1. aden /'adɪn/; pyrwỷ '1st'

2. dwa /twa/; drugỷ '2nd'

3. tri /tʰrɪ/; tretỉ '3rd'

4. ċiri /'tʃʰɪrɪ/; ċcwyrtỷ

5. piênt /pʰiənt/; piêntỷ

6. ṡest /ʃɛst/; ṡestỷ

7. sedum /'sɛdʏm/; sedmỷ

8. ơsum /'œsʏm/; ơsmỷ

9. dewynt /'tɛβɨnt/; dewyntỷ

10. desynt /'tɛsɨnt/; desyntỷ

11.. 19: adnảst, dwanảst, trinảst, ċirnảst, piêntnảst, ṡestnảst, sednảst, ơsnảst, dewyntnảst /'adnɔ:st, 'twanɔ:st, .../; adnảstỷ, dwanảstỷ, ...

20: dwadesti /'twadɨstɪ/; dwadestỷ

21... 29: dwadesti aden, ..., dwadesti dewynt

30, 40, ... 90: tridesta, ċirdesta, piêndesynt, ṡesdesynt, sedumdesynt, ơsumdesynt, dewyndesynt /'tʰrɪdɨstə, .../; tridestỷ, ..., piêndesyntỷ, ...

100: sto /'stɔ/; stotỷ

200: dwestie

300, ..., 900: trista, ċirista, piêntset, ṡestset, sedumset, ơsumset, dewyntset

1000: tysênth /tʰɨsiənθ/

Small numerals decline as follows:

aden '1'
m. f. n.
Nominative aden adna adno
Genitive adnẻo adnỷ adnẻo
Dative adnẻm adnỷ adnẻm
Locative adnẻm adnỷ adnẻm

dwa '2'
m. f. n.
Nominative dwa dwe dwe
Genitive dwei dwei dwei
Dative dweam dweam dweam
Locative dwei dwei dwei

oba 'both' declines the same way:

oba 'both'
m. f. n.
Nominative oba obie obie
Genitive obei obei obei
Dative obeam obeam obeam
Locative obei obei obei

tri '3' and ċiri '4'
tri '3' ċeiri '4'
Nominative tri ċiri
Genitive trỉ ċirỉ
Dative trim ċirum
Locative trich ċirach


Nouns following numbers five and above require the genitive case, in contexts that require the nominative case.

Conjunctions (Conjuncċii)

  • y(l), a(l) = 'and'
    • Though y and a had different meanings up to EMAlb, the choice between y and a is purely phonetically determined in the modern language. a(l) is used after /i: ɪ ɨ/, y(l) otherwise. The -l (from *li) is used iff a vowel follows.
  • ċi, libo, alibo = 'or'
    • alib = (literary) 'or'
  • ale = 'but'
  • aċcoi tac = 'however'
  • estli = 'because'
  • zaċ 'why?'
  • nebo(ṡ) = 'because'; can't be used at the beginning of the sentence
  • reaċỉ ġe = (formal) 'because'
  • dôwodem, ġe = (formal) 'because'
  • zato(ġ) 'that's why'
  • abo(wiêṡ), bowiêṡ, nebowiêṡ = (literary) 'for'
  • 'so that'
  • achġ (literary) 'in order that'
  • cdyġ 'when'
  • bônḋ... ċi... = 'either... or'
  • ne telco... ale pac... = 'not only... but also...'
  • neġ = 'than'
  • choṫ, chotiaġ = 'although'
    • aċcoi is more formal.
  • ċil, ċili = question particle

Derivation

  • -scy deletes a preceding *k (from a *θs~*ts > *s rule)
    • mỏd locriscy = Locrian mode
  • -en umlauts preceding o ả to ơ ở (in native words)

Syntax

Strict VSO; other aspects of syntax more SAE

Left-conjunct agreement

"There is" and "to have"

In the past tense, the verb bylo agrees with the gender of the (first) subject in affirmatives but defaults to masculine singular when negated:

  • Byla ġena y piênt deatỉ unie. = He had a wife and five children.
  • Ne byl als teo lewra semnau. = I didn't have the book with me.

To like

Lib X.DAT Y = X likes Y

e.g. Lib mi led vanillowỷ. I like vanilla ice cream.

Nêst lib mi... = I don't like...

'To hate' simply uses the regular verb nenởwideaṫ in formal language. In informal language the gnus mi construction is used.

Relative clauses

To form a relative clause, usually the relativizer cde (indeclinable) is used after the noun phrase. Formal or literary writing may use the relativizer tacỷġ, which declines but is not a true relative pronoun; it agrees with the case of the head in the matrix clause (cf. Arabic allaðī). Jeġ is only used archaically. In both cases, a resumptive pronoun is used when the head is not a subject or a direct object in the relative clause:

Byla ơwtha tacảġ ne byl unỉ als wolny
be.PST-3SG.F sheep-NOM.SG, REL.NOM.SG.F NEG be.PST.3SG.M by-(RES)3SG.F.GEN NEG wool-GEN.SG
There was a sheep which had no wool

Vocabulary

Celtic loans

For Germanic words in our Slavic, Albionian uses Celtic or Latin words instead:

  • tet briêntin (PCeltic *brigant-) = king
  • tet tơwsảc, ta tơwsảċca (*tovĭsakŭ, from PCeltic *towissākos) = prince (all senses)
  • tet dryw = wren

Latin loans

(mainly religious and official words)

  • tet lewr (from Latin liber) = book
  • wendỉthiṫ, po- (from Latin benedico, via Brythonic) = to bless
    • has doublet mnithowaṫ, po- = to thank
  • zamechtỉthen (from maledico via Welsh melltithio) = (attributive only) goddamn, bloody
    • zachtỉthen is more vulgar.

Proto-English loans

  • to melco = Borrowing from Proto-English?

Internationalisms

In Latin loans, vowel lengths are determined by the position of stress; long vowels are used where the Latin has a long vowel in the antepenultimate or the penultimate. In Greek loans, the original Greek length is used to determine the length of every vowel. e.g. misogynen (BrAlb. /ˈmɪsʊwɪnɪn/ AmAlb /mɪˈsɔwɪnɪn/) 'misogynistic' from μισογύνης.

  • -iscy '-ic, -ical' (BrAlb sẻmantiscy/AmAlb semantiscy 'semantic')
  • -ởlen '-al' (mủsicởlen 'musical', mentởlen 'awesome, amazing')
  • -ởren '-ar, -ary' (militởren 'military')
  • -en '(when the source word does not have a suffix)' (homogenen 'homogeneous', intimen 'intimate')
  • -ởsen '-ous' (nervởsen 'nervous')
  • -ỉven '-ive' (alternatỉven 'alternative')
  • -ċia '-tion'
  • -ċijen '-tional, -tionary' (authorita BrAlb /ˈœjθɔɾɪtʰə/ AmAlb /œʏˈθɔɾɪtə/ 'authority', authoritởren BrAlb /ˈœjθɔɾɪtœɾən/ AmAlb /œʏθɔɾɪˈtœɾən/ 'authoritarian')
  • -ita '-ity', -itảren '-itarian'
  • -se '-sis' (synthese 'synthesis')
  • -tủra (literatủra 'literature')

Phrasebook

  • Zdarw (informal), Zdarwte (formal) = Hello
  • Tho ġes ta weath? = What's up? (lit. What's the thing?)
  • Mnithi = Thank you
    • Mnithi stocảrt = Thank you so much (lit. thank you a hundred times)

Sample texts

Schleicher

Ta ơwtha y ty cơnia

Byla ơwtha tacảġ ne byl unỉ als wolny, yl uwideal ona tri cơnia: aden tyngảnth wôz tiêġcỷ, aden nesônth noṡe welcả, yl aden nesônth ċelweac borzo. Reacla ta ơwtha team cơnim: "Bolỉ mẻ syrthe cdyġ wiðuns ċelweac na eazdienỉ na cơnia." Odpoweadeali ty cơnia: "Sluchei, ơwtho! Bolỉ naṡe syrthe cdyġ widiêm my to: bere ċelweac, tet gospodin, ta wolna tỷ ơwthy a dealả ton oðeda teplả yznỉ. Y nêst als wolny u tỷ ơwthy." Uslyṡṡi to, nabeagla ta ơwtha do teo pola.

UDHR

Rơdỉ-sê wṡescy lidea wơlnê y sobie arwnê wu sỷ dôstơinơsti a sỷch prảwach. Lesun ṡi nadảrenê se arzumu y prawoznởnỉ, tedy les dolg nanim ċiniṫ aden wuzglyndem teo drugẻo wu duchu teo bratrstwa.

Heart Sutra

Sủtra syrtha

Le toto-ġ slyṡel sens. Byl raz tet Wuzneslỷ, na raze se mnogỷm neiwyġṡỉm bòŧisaddwum y mnichum, na wyrchu tỷ gory Ǥrŧragùda, wu blỉġe measta Ràđġraǥrha. Sedeal tet Wuzneslỷ stảrnô, podniren wu samàŧi; y tet Awalògidèṡwara ċtigơdnỷ rosyrthowal on nad tỷ Brađġṅàbàramidà glumbocỷ.

[...]

ÒM ǤADÈ ǤADÈ BARAǤADÈ BARASAṂǤADÈ ɃÒŦI SWÀHÀ

Modern British Albionian: [tʰɔtʰʊʃ 'slɪʃɪɤ̃ˤʶsɪns | pɪɤ̃ʶ rəs tʰɪ 'ʍʊznɪsli: | 'nærəzɪ sɪ 'mnɔwi:m 'nɛjβɪʃʃi:m 'pɔwtʰisadwʏm ɪ 'mɲɪχʏm | nə 'bɪrəχʏ ti: 'kɔrɪ 'kɪɾɪdrəgu:də | bu 'pli:ʒɪ 'mjɛ:stə 'rɑ:dʒrəgɪrɪχə | 'sɛdʲɪɤ̃ʶ tʰɪh 'ʍʊznɪsli: 'stɑ:rənu: 'pʰɔdnʏrɪm bʊ 'sæmɑ:tʰɪ | ɪ tʰɪh 'æβəɫowgɪdɛ:ʃʍəɾə 'tʃtɪjʊdni: 'rɔsɪɾɪθʊwɤ̃lˤʶ ʊn bʊ ti: 'pɾædʒɲɑ:bɑ:ɾəmɪdɑ: 'kɫʊmbʊki:]

From Máj (K. H. Mácha)

Mai (literal translation)
Byl weċer pơðnỷ -- pyrwỷ maie -
Weċer maie -- byl ċas tỷ milơsti.
Zwala ta corċinca cu tỷ milơsti,
Cde zwảneal tet gai borowỷ.
Ṡeptal tet mech tichỷ o tỷ milơsti;
Logal tet strom cweatônthỷ tet ġeal milơsti,
Zpiêwal tet solwei sả milơst tỷ ruêġi,
Eawil wuzdech wơnnỷ tả tỷ ruêġi.

Máj
Byl pozdní veċer – první máj –
večerní máj – byl lásky čas.
Hrdliččin zval ku lásce hlas,
kde borový zaváněl háj.
O lásce šeptal tichý mech;
květoucí strom lhal lásky žel,
svou lásku slavík růži pěl,
růžinu jevil vonný vzdech.
Jezero hladké v křovích stinných
zvučelo temně tajný bol,
břeh je objímal kol a kol;
a slunce jasná světů jiných
bloudila blankytnými pásky,
planoucí tam co slzy lásky.

May (tr. James Naughton)
It was late eve - the first in May -
Eve in May - it was love’s hour.
The turtle-dove’s voice called to love,
Where the pine grove wafting lay.
Love whispered soft the quiet moss;
The blossoming tree lied love’s woe,
The nightingale sang love to the rose,
The rose’s shown by an odorous sigh.
Smooth the lake in shadow’d bushes
Darkly sounded secret pain,
The shore embraced it round and again;
And the bright suns of other worlds
Wandered through the azure zones,
Burning there like tears of love.


Early Modern Albionian

Early Modern Albionian is the language used in the Brỷntow Bible, the 1614 metrical psalter ty Psalmy Zpeawny Uċinienể ('the Psalms, Made Singable') and the poetry of poet Alexandr Galesescỷ (mainly known for his love poetry, which was often quite lewd). Today some syntactic constructions and endings from Early Modern Albionian still survive in poetic or flowery Albionian, but the register as a whole sounds markedly religious and is thus not used even in modern fantasy or historical fiction.

Accent

  • Old acute (modern stød): ạ
  • Neoacute: á
  • Dipping-rising: ả (resulting from contraction of VjV)
  • Grave or circumflex: à (long but not acute)
  • Unaccented: a (resulting from stress shift to initial)

The first four were realized like the Vietnamese nạng, sắc, hỏi and huyền tones.

All of those diacritics (except the flat one for length) are obsolete today, except the old acute in dictionaries; neoacute, old acute dipping rising and grave all merged into length marked with the question-mark diacritic. Only old editions of religious and liturgical texts consistently use tone diacritics.

Morphology

  • Instrumental case (instrumentởl)
  • Pseudo-dual dative and instrumental endings in -ma: walsnỷma dweama ơċima 'with one's own two eyes'
  • Possessive adjectives in -ow or -in more widespread (ty marchogowea Arthyrowy 'Arthur's knights', modern ty marchogowea Arthyra)
  • Infinitives in -ti or -thi (e.g. dealati, riềthi)
  • Pro-drop when the subject is not 3rd person
  • 3sg, 2pl and 3pl present and future perfective forms in -t, -te and -nt (e.g. dealảt, dealảte, dealảnt, sometimes for more archaic effect dealaït, dealaïte, dealaïnt); the 3pl form is always used with a plural subject. The -t and -nt affixes were artificially preserved in early liturgical use of the language, possibly out of conscious imitation of Latin; even as early as Bỉble Brỷntowscả they were out of use in daily speech.
  • ne used without als.
  • est and sunt are used for 3sg and 3pl present of bỵṫ (The modern forms les/os and len/lesun/ỏn/osun are from gleḋ/ot est 'here is' and gleḋ/ot sunt.)
  • definite articles in genitive phrases: a genitive phrase of the form X DEF.GEN Y.GEN is implied to be definite (cf. Hebrew and Irish). On the other hand, Modern Albionian usually requires X to take the definite article as well.
  • The use of -li on verbs for interrogatives: znạṡ-li? 'dost thou know? kennst du?' This still survives as a way to mark conditional clauses in modern formal language.
  • -mu is sometimes used instead of -m for dative singular masculine and neuter adjectives and pronouns: spiêweite jemu piêseṅ nowả 'sing unto him a new song'.
  • Adjectives may come before nouns.
  • Early Modern Albionian disallowed morphological "double negatives":
    • ne... aden X instead of ne... wals ġảdnẻo X
    • ne... weath instead of ne... wals niċeo
    • ne... ċelweac 'not a human' instead of ne... wals niceo

Syntax

Since Literary Albionian developed after the VSO word order was stabilized, EMAlb had a vast array of syntactic particles for changing the word order from the default VSO one. To change the word order like Greek, Latin and Hebrew could, one had to rely on particles to front parts of sentences to make them the topic or the focus; such particles and constructions are very common in the Brỷntow Bible, for example. In contrast, Modern Albionian tends to use a fixed VSO order and use intonation or the clitic -ṡ from wiêṡ 'you know'.

Early Modern Albionian had particles like "est ... -ġ" or -stiġ from the cleft construction for focus or -ti from the ethical dative usage of ti cribbed from Greek and Latin, "tycum + GEN" or "sam + NOUN" for topicalization. There were complicated combinations of those particles with other components of the sentence, creating new function words in the modern literary language. Emphasizing adjuncts and for objects/subjects might have demanded a different particle or construction.

Sample texts (Brỷntow Bible)

Modern Albionian translations are given for comparison.

TODO: Double-check accent

Genesis 1:1-5

Brýntov Bible

1. Vum náčindle-š stvöril Bôg ta nebesa i ta zemé.

2. A ta zemé-š byla bezvidna i pusta, i tma nad tvőrí tý prepasti; i [bỵl] duch Boga vuznášênþ nad tvőrí téch vod.

3. I rékl Bôg, Bônď skvétlo, i bylo skvétlo.

4. I vidél Bôg to skvétlo, [i] že dobro [to]; i rozdélil Bôg meði to skvétlo y ta tma.

5. I nazval Bôg to skvétlo dnem, a ta tma-š nazval [ji] nöþí. I bỵl večer i bylo jitro, den pỵrvý.

Modern Albionian

1. Wum nảċindle, stwơril Bôg ta nebesa y ta zemea:

2. Byla ta zemea bezwidna y pảrðna, y cryla tmả ta prepast; byl tet duch Boga ruṡênth nad team wodum.

3. Y reacl Bôg, "Aġ by scweatlo!" Y bylo scweatlo.

4. Y wideal Bôg ġes to scweatlo dobro; yl oddealil Bôg to scweatlo y ta tmả.

5. Y nazwal Bôg to scweatlo "den", y ta tmảṡ nazwal on ji "nơth". Y byl weċer y bylo jitro — tet den pyrwỷ.


John 1:1-5

Brỷntow Bible

1. Wum nàċindle-ṡ bylo to Slowo, y to Slowo-ṡ bylo pri Bogu, y to Slowo-ṡ bylo Bộg.

2. To samo-ṡ bylo wum nàċindle pri Bogu.

3. Perzenie-ġ uċinieny sunt wṡescy weathi; y beznieo-ṡ ne uċiniena est adna weath jaġ uċiniena est.

4. Wuniem-ṡ bỵl ġiwot; a tet ġiwot-ṡ bỵl scweatlo teach lidỉ.

5. Y to scweatlo-ṡ scwiềtìt wu teach temnơstach, ale ta tmạ-ṡ ne poiala teo.

Modern Albionian

1. Wum nảċindle, byl tet Logos, y byl tet Logos pri Bogu, y byl tet Logos Bôg.

2. Byl on pri Bogu wum nảċindle.

3. Wuznicli wṡescy weathi perzeniei, y ne wuznicl als niċeo wu existenċii beznieo.

4. Byl ġiwot wuniem, a byl tet ġiwotṡ to scweatlo teach lidỉ.

5. Yl oscweatlỉ to scweatlo wu tei temnơsti, ale ne rozumeala ta temnơstṡ als teo.


John 3:16

Brýntov Bible

Nebovêš tak-ž miloval Bôg tet skvét, yž dal on sôj Syn adnoroðený, achž ktoškoj jež vérít vuň-š ne zagynuch, ale najdéch život véčný.

Modern Albionian

Miloval Bôg tet skvét tauþéstau: dal on sôj Syn adiný, až ne zagynuch als žádnéo kde vérí vuňej, ale dostach on život véčný.